The Planning Commission Is the Real Interconnection Queue
Here is the lever nobody prices: a data center dies at the local dais far more often than at the utility. Developers obsess over megawatts and fiber, then lose an eight-hour zoning hearing to a retiree with a comment card and a water bill. My read is that legitimacy is a schedule input, not a soft skill. The projects that survive treat the entitlement path as a critical-path activity with its own float, its own risk reserve, and its own owner. Treat community risk as portfolio variance and you will stop being surprised by the same three objections in every county.
Knowledge check
Why should a developer treat the local entitlement path as a critical-path schedule activity rather than a formality handled in parallel?
Show the answer
Because discretionary local approvals (rezoning, special-use permits, conditional-use permits) can be delayed or denied by elected or appointed bodies responding to organized opposition, and that delay or denial routinely determines project viability more than utility interconnection does; treating it as critical path assigns it float, a risk reserve, and an accountable owner.