BESSEMER, Ala. (WBRC) - The director of the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT), John Cooper, is warning developers of a proposed data center in Bessemer that their current plans conflict with ALDOT’s longstanding designs for the Northern Beltline project meant to connect I-459 around the Birmingham metro area.
WBRC obtained the letter Cooper sent to data center developer TPA group, in which Cooper says the two projects can coexist, if the developers alter their current plans.
“We recognize the importance of this project to the City of Bessemer, Jefferson County, and the State of Alabama,” Cooper says. “The potential for new jobs and substantial tax revenues represents a major opportunity, and we respect the significant efforts by local and state officials to recruit this investment.
However, the current site configuration presents a direct conflict with ALDOT’s longstanding plans for the Beltline, a project that remains an essential part of the region’s future transportation network. We have provided your engineers, a firm with substantial transportation planning expertise, layouts, maps, and other documents that show the proposed location of the BNB (Birmingham Northern Beltline) development. While proceeding with development on this site as proposed would create serious challenges for the eventual construction of the Beltline interchange, we believe your development can be planned in such a way as not to conflict with the Beltline.
We respectfully request that the developer and those involved in bringing this project to Bessemer take all necessary steps in their site planning and design to avoid this conflict and to preserve the ability to construct the Beltline according to the established and well-known plans."
The letter is CC’d to, among others, Governor Ivey, U.S. Representative Gary Palmer, Bessemer Mayor Kenneth Gulley, the Bessemer City Council, Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens, and State Rep. Leigh Hulsey.
The proposed $14 billion data center, known as Project Marvel, would sit on around 700 acres of land off Rock Mountain Lake Road. In September, the . The city council voted October 7th to amend city zoning ordinances to allow data centers to develop on land zoned for industrial use.
The center could create more than 300 high paying jobs and would likely be filled with computer systems, including artificial intelligence, similar to other data centers around the country.
Neighbors have expressed strong concerns, warning it would disrupt their way of life, raise utility bills for customers across the region, and potentially hurt the environment.
The proposed data center site is in City Councilor Carla Jackson’s district, but she says neighbors have nothing to be concerned about.
“The power bills will not go up as far as Bessemer Utilities nor will their water bill. It will not come from the city of Bessemer. The city has their own water. We sell water, but we will not supply the data center with water. The Black Warrior River who services that area will supply the water supply,” Jackson said.
“I’ve attended the Bessemer Council meetings on the data center project and have expressed my opposition,” said Commissioner Jimmie Stephens. “I continue to stand with the citizens of Jefferson County, and will always stand with the citizens of this County.”
The Alabama Public Service Commission (APSC) this week discussed the potential impact of data centers on utility bills.
“The challenge is to ensure the benefits of data centers for the economy and our state are realized, especially for the communities hosting these projects and for customers who can be affected by them,” APSC President Cynthia Lee Almond said.
“Our standard should be simple - no free rides for Big Tech,” Almond said. “We can and will continue to base every incentive on real and measurable public benefit. This is a defining moment for Alabama’s energy future. While data centers bring opportunity, they also bring unprecedented demand. We are setting the standard nationwide for how to welcome investment responsibly, not by saying ‘no,’ but by saying ‘yes’ the right way.”
The public hearing to rezone the land for the data center location is scheduled for November 18 at 9 a.m.
WBRC has reached out to developer TPA group, to whom the letter is addressed, as well as several others CC’d on the letter for reaction and will update this story with those reactions as we receive them.
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