Residents express opposition to data centers at Reno community forum

The Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Agency (TMRPA) held a community forum on Wednesday to discuss new data, research and draft recommendations on how to address growing concerns about data centers in the region. Around 100 people attended the forum at the Reno Public Market.  TMRPA Director Jeremy Smith, along with Natasha Majewski of the consulting company Right Brain Left Brain Communications and TMRPA’s Nate Kusha presented findings from a survey and encouraged more people to participate. Many voiced concerns about the study's design, saying that it gave more weight to stakeholders’ input than to public sentiment, with one audience member calling the recommendations industry propaganda. Some audience members called on Smith directly to enact a ban on data centers.  “Why would you entertain something so widely unpopular again amongst the general public when you're a representative of the city? Is there a gun to your head?” one person said. “Is it just the money talking? I feel like we saw those charts and (in) every single one of them, the general public was against it. So I'm just a little confused here.” Smith responded that he was just doing his job, and he does not have the power to enact the policies. ‘‘I was charged by my bosses, the 10 bosses on the regional planning governing board, for us to do this work,” he said. ”Did we do it perfectly? No. We are at a point where we’ve been transparent about where we got, and I think we’re going to take this feedback and we can improve it.”  Get the full story by Michelle Baker on thisisreno.com.