DeKalb County commissioners are pushing for more revisions to a draft amendment to the county code to regulate data centers, including doubling the distance the facilities must be from homes, county parks and trails.
The requests came after several residents voiced deep-seated concerns about the energy-intensive computing warehouses during a heavily attended committee meeting Tuesday evening at the Lou Walker Senior Center in Stonecrest.
Commissioner Chakira Johnson, the board’s presiding officer, asked staff to make changes based on the suggestions commissioners and residents made at Tuesday’s meeting and present the revised document at a June 23 meeting.
She said at that point the board should defer action again on the amendment “until everyone has time to digest that language and then go from there.”
She added that she expects the Board of Commissioners also will extend the moratorium on the development or expansion of data centers that is set to expire this month.
Data centers are effectively huge warehouses that store computer servers to power artificial intelligence and other digital products.
The draft amendment says data centers would not be permitted within 500 feet of homes, parks or trails, among other requirements. On Tuesday, Commissioners Michelle Long Spears of District 2, which includes Brookhaven and Decatur, and LaDena Bolton of District 7, a “super district” that covers the eastern half of the county, said the distance should be doubled to 1,000 feet.
Some residents want the facilities farther away than that.
“The current text amendment will not protect us,” south DeKalb resident Jackie Malcom told commissioners. “The current version requires only 500 feet between neighborhoods and data centers. We need at least a mile.”
Credit: Estela Muñoz/AJC
Credit: Estela Muñoz/AJC
Malcom, who lives off Bouldercrest Road in District 3, added that she is concerned about potential emissions from large data centers and their impact on water resources.
Resident Amy Fields-Taylor noted that county officials have said an outright ban of data centers would open the county to legal challenges.
“My question to you all is, ‘Why are you not afraid of us?’” Fields-Taylor told commissioners. “Where in the ordinance does it provide for us in regards to health care or financial ruin?
“I can tell you, if I get sick, lose my home’s value and get stuck next to a data center, you can bet your bitcoins I am going to call a lawyer. So be afraid of us, not them.”
Among the changes to the amendment requested by some commissioners, Bolton said she would like the county to prohibit data center campuses that total 500,000 square feet or more. Many data centers in Georgia are far larger, and it’s rare for a campus proposal to be under 1 million square feet.
District 1 Commissioner Robert Patrick, who represents north DeKalb cities such as Chamblee, Dunwoody and Tucker, suggested the moratorium be extended another year. “Let the PSC elections happen,” he said, referring to the Public Service Commission. “We’ll figure out what direction they’re going to go, and then, we bring it back to the Board of Commissioners at that point.
“We have our residents up in arms, sort of frustrated even with the considerations that we have right now.”
In December, the Public Service Commission approved Georgia Power’s plans to undertake an unprecedented expansion of its power generation fleet, mostly to serve data centers. Two seats on the Republican-controlled PSC will be on ballots in November.
Patrick added that there are some “economic reasons why the county would benefit” from data centers, drawing some negative reactions from audience members. “I hear you saying no, but at the end of the year, we all have to pay our taxes, and that ends up being a concern that everybody gets upset about.”
In an interview on Wednesday, District 6 Commissioner Ted Terry said he also would support a one-year extension of the moratorium.
“People are really concerned about data center impacts — the impact on our water, our health and our environment — and we shouldn’t be in a rush,” said Terry, whose district includes the western half of DeKalb. “We should fully study the health and environmental impacts of the location as well as the impact on the grid, and not be in a hurry.”
Staff writers Drew Kann and Zachary Hansen contributed to this story.
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