To the St. Tammany Parish Council, Parish President, Planning & Zoning Commission, and all elected officials of St. Tammany Parish:

We, the undersigned residents, property owners, workers, and supporters of St. Tammany Parish, respectfully call on our local elected officials to take immediate action to prohibit the development of hyperscale data centers within St. Tammany Parish.

Hyperscale data centers are not ordinary commercial developments. These massive industrial facilities consume extraordinary amounts of electricity and water while providing relatively few permanent local jobs. Across the country, communities are raising concerns about their impacts on utility costs, drinking water supplies, electrical infrastructure, noise pollution, light pollution, land use, and public accountability.

Our parish deserves thoughtful planning not rushed industrialization driven by outside corporate interests.

We are calling on the St. Tammany Parish Council to:

• Adopt ordinances prohibiting the construction and operation of hyper-scale data centers within St. Tammany Parish.
• Reject any rezoning, conditional use permits, or development agreements that would enable hyper-scale data center development.
• Protect our drinking water, aquifers, wetlands, forests, farmland, and wildlife from excessive industrial water and energy consumption.
• Ensure local taxpayers are not left paying for costly utility, road, or infrastructure upgrades that primarily benefit multinational technology companies.
• Require complete transparency regarding all proposed data center developments, including public disclosure of developers, investors, water usage, projected electrical demand, environmental studies, tax incentives, and infrastructure agreements.
• Guarantee meaningful public participation before any industrial-scale technology project is considered within the parish.
  
  Why We Support This Petition?
  
  We believe St. Tammany Parish should prioritize:
  
  
• Safe and reliable drinking water
• Affordable electricity for residents and small businesses
• Responsible land use planning
• Fiscal responsibility
• Environmental stewardship
• Protection of neighborhoods and rural communities
• Sustainable economic development that benefits local residents
• Louisiana taxpayers have already committed billions of dollars in tax incentives to attract large industrial projects. While, state leaders continue promoting rapid expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure without sufficient oversight of long-term impacts on communities, water resources, and electric reliability.

Recent announcements regarding electrical infrastructure expansion and growing interest from developers demonstrate that St. Tammany Parish could become a target for future hyperscale data center projects.

We believe our parish should act now before irreversible decisions are made.

Our community should not become an industrial corridor for the AI industry's enormous demand for electricity and water.

Therefore:
We respectfully urge the St. Tammany Parish Council to enact local protections that prohibit hyperscale data centers and preserve the health, safety, natural resources, and quality of life of current and future generations

Louisiana for Collective Liberation (L4CL)

This petition will be presented to the St. Tammany Parish Council and other appropriate public officials in support of local action to prohibit hyperscale data centers within St. Tammany Parish.