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Mark Cuban is urging local governments to negotiate harder before approving data centers, saying towns should secure enforceable protections while they still have leverage.

His basic rule: Every major promise from a developer should have a measurable limit, independent oversight, financial backing, and a practical remedy if it is broken.

# A town's first data center: what to require before saying yesA data center can bring construction employment, tax base, and infrastructure investment. It can also impose demands on electricity, water, public services, and nearby neighborhoods that last for decades and outlive…

Cuban said towns should hire their own lawyers and technical advisors, assess the project's entire planned build-out, and impose clear limits on water consumption, noise, backup generation, and infrastructure costs.

Cuban paid particular attention to water use and noise, warning that "closed-loop" cooling systems can still consume water during hot weather and arguing that conventional noise limits may fail to capture the low-frequency hum produced by cooling equipment, which has become emblematic of many complaints about data centers.

## 5. Protect neighbors from noise before the equipment is orderedNoise is now the most common post-approval complaint and the most active area of litigation, including proposed class actions in Wisconsin and Mississippi alleging sound carrying more than a mile past the…

Cuban also called for protection against stranded infrastructure costs if a project is delayed or abandoned. His proposals included upfront decommissioning funds, parent-company guarantees, and cash escrow or letters of credit before construction begins.

It's not Cuban's first warning about the data-center boom. In July, Cuban said communities should aggressively pursue operators who break the law or cause documented damage.