Residents of Bnei Zion file court petition against Google’s data center

A group of Bnei Zion residents petitioned the Lod District Court to revoke the approval granted by the Hof Hasharon Regional Council (North Tel Aviv) to Google to start building a data center in the village (a moshav). The petition asks the court to direct the local regional council to reopen discussions on the subject, based on environmental considerations such as noise and radiation. In mid-July, the first phase of construction of the server farm began with excavation and earthworks for the foundations. Construction is scheduled to take 18 months. Residents whose homes are located adjacent to the site fear the environmental and health impacts of the data center next to their homes. The main concern is noise from the “coolers” that cool the massive computers in the data center as well as non-ionizing radiation from the site’s electrical, cellular, and radio frequency operations. The Hof Hasharon Regional Council claims that the final permit has not yet been granted and that the permit is only for the foundations of the building. Google is in a race against time to build data centers in Israel by 2023 as part of its commitments to provide cloud services to government ministries and the Israel Defense Forces in the massive Nimbus tender, which it won with Amazon Web Services (AWS). To meet the terms of the bid, Google and AWS must build a network of large server clusters across the country. But while AWS is in the advanced stages of construction in many industrial parks in the Hasharon region, Google hasn’t seriously started building its data centers. It will be the last of the American tech giants to build data centers in Israel, and after last week’s administrative petition to the Lod Court, Google is further away than ever from completing its building task. The planned data center in Bnei Zion is being built by Avner Papouchado’s ServerFarm in partnership with the Israel Infrastructure Fund (IIF). ServerFarm has an agreement with a company called Orachat, which will lease the data center to Google. The petitioners allege that the local council took an illegal and flawed procedure in granting far-reaching layoffs to developers and did not take into account economic considerations. Among other things, residents claim that the procedure for informing the public about the plans was flawed, so that many residents of Bnei Zion did not know the planning process or when to file objections to the local council. Additionally, the petitioners claim that no environmental survey was provided to examine the impact of the data center on residents living near the site and that residents did not have a reasonable opportunity to learn about the plans. It is also claimed that the plans received a great relaxation from the urban plan in terms of size and height. Related Articles Amazon and Google Win in Israel’s Cloud Bidding Nimbus Adv. Amy Hollander wrote in the petition: “The petitioners are residents of the Bnei Zion moshav, who have developed a serene green moshav, which is predominantly rustic with low buildings and retains open spaces. They were astonished when they discovered in July through a WhatsApp group in the middle of the moshav, On land adjacent to their homes, infrastructure works began, foundations and development for the construction of a server farm. The petitioners had neither knowledge nor reasonable possibility of knowing the planning procedures that led to the commencement of the above infrastructure works.” Not all residents of Bnei Zion are against building on village lands. One of the partners in the construction is the Bnei Zion Farmers Association, which represents 80 families in the area, and the agreement has been signed with the Israel Land Authority to lease the land for ServerFarm. Judge Zahava Bustan has set a November date for a preliminary hearing on the matter. Google declined to comment on the matter, but sources close to the matter say that the company is not aware of any kind of problems that would delay or disrupt its cloud activities in Israel. No response was received from ServerFarm. The Regional Council of Hof Hasharon confirmed that the division of the land in question allows the construction of a data center. The regional council stressed that “the Hof Hasharon Local Planning and Building Council is examining the health and environmental impacts of the project and has not yet issued a building permit. The health of the population and environmental protection are always at the top of the agenda and the council’s considerations.” Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on September 14, 2021 Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2021