Data center ‘gold rush’ pits local officials’ hunt for new revenue against residents’ concerns

This story was originally published by the Georgia Recorder.

Twiggs County commissioners recently approved a massive data center project, sparking a legal battle and deepening distrust between citizens and their elected officials in the rural middle Georgia community.

The decision was made despite vocal opposition aired at a contentious public hearing and accusations that the process was improperly rushed to bypass a state review that was at the time paused.

The Eagle Rock Partners proposal was ultimately approved at a mid-September county commission meeting. A couple months later, a state panel in November officially added data centers to the list of large-scale developments that must undergo a regional impact review. Waiting “would kill” the project, Ken Loeber with Eagle Rock Partners told the commissioners at the time, but he did not say how. 

The Twiggs County data center project did not undergo this review process, which opponents argued should have been mandatory under the county’s own local laws. County residents, concerned that the commission rushed the rezoning process with few details, filed a lawsuit asking the court to overturn the approval, arguing that the county violated its own ordinances and that the commission’s actions “were an abuse of its police and zoning powers.”

The project was under consideration during a months-long window when the Georgia Department of Community Affairs had paused the developments of regional impact process, which the agency says is designed to be a communication mechanism for local officials – and not a state regulatory tool. According to information submitted by the developers, the data center would be built on about 300 acres of land, but there is no specific information regarding the facilities’ square footage or the amount of water it needs to operate, which would have been included in the impact review.

Rob Fricks, a Twiggs County resident and lawyer, said to the commissioners at a public hearing in the fall that developers were rushing to receive approval “while the dogs are away” and that the commissioners did not “have the facts” needed to advance the proposal.

“I don’t know if this is good or bad. I cannot make a decision because the only thing I heard is that which the applicant has provided, and you guys should not blindly make a decision because the citizens of Twiggs County … are relying on you guys to make an informed decision,” Fricks said. “If you vote in favor of this tonight, you are not making a good decision because you do not have the facts.”

But Kerry Howell, an attorney for Twiggs County, had a different interpretation of the county’s ordinance about which projects are subject to the regional review process and said that it did not apply while the process was paused for data centers. He said he disagreed “with any contention that it is not proper to go forward with the zoning application tonight.”

To win approval, the developer offered a series of financial concessions that were read aloud at the meeting. These included a guaranteed real property tax return of at least $175 million on the land and infrastructure, a $100,000 payment to the school district for career training programs, and another $100,000 to the county for fire, public safety, or recreation. The developer also agreed that the data center would not be a cryptocurrency mining operation, a condition added late in the process after a resident discovered the possibility and alerted the commissioners.

In the county’s December response to the lawsuit, the county pushed back against claims that its rezoning decision was made in haste or as a result of “fraud, corruption, or a manifest abuse.” The county also denied that the concerned citizens “have a substantial interest in the zoning decision” or that they “will suffer permanent, special, or irreparable injury and damage as a result of the zoning decision.”

The situation in Twiggs County, which is home to about 8,000 people, highlights the different approaches local governments in Georgia are taking to manage a surge in data center proposals with little guidance or regulation at the state level. Without state regulations, counties are adopting widely different approaches.

DeKalb County, for example, took a more cautious approach by passing a moratorium on data center applications and holding auditorium-packed town halls where residents could learn about their potential negative and positive impacts.

“The greater benefit may not be in only creating 30 to 70 jobs but in the revenue that you create as a result of the tax digest that could be utilized for revitalization of a community that has been in decline,” said DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson at an October town hall.

DeKalb recently extended its moratorium on data center applications until June 2026 and deferred proposed regulations at least until January to allow for further study. The proposed regulations would reclassify data centers from “minor” facilities to massive “campus” developments, which would require special land-use permits and restrictions to industrial zones.

This is playing out as the county faces significant community pushback against a proposed 1-million-square-foot data center in Ellenwood.

Nancy Lubeck, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Twiggs County government officials, said that local communities are left “flying blind” regarding the long-term impacts on the state’s power grid and water supply. She said that without a centralized system to track or limit the cumulative impact of these massive facilities on the state, their rapid growth could lead to a boom-and-bust cycle, leaving counties with resource shortages and abandoned infrastructure.

“Somebody needs to be watching to see what the impact is going to be overall,” Lubeck said. “How many of these things can Georgia safely support? And if nobody’s looking at that, then we could end up being in a lot of trouble.”

In nearby Monroe County, county officials unanimously raised concerns about the infrastructure demands of a proposed $8.4 billion data center in Forsyth, a city of about 4,300 people, warning that the massive development could strain local water supplies and county roads. The project’s DRI report projects the data center will require 1.5 million gallons of water per day, and commissioners questioned whether the city can meet this demand, saying that the city struggled to supply existing customers as recently as 2025.

“Major infrastructure would need to be done through Macon, Monroe County, and Forsyth to provide this amount of water,” Monroe County officials wrote in response to the Forsyth data center’s DRI report.

Local officials are often drawn to data centers because they can generate massive amounts of tax revenue. Some of them view data centers as a “cash cow,” a term Clint Mueller with the Association County Commissioners of Georgia used to describe their profitability, which can offset the tax burden on local residents. While the buildings themselves generate property tax, Mueller said that “the real money” comes from the personal property taxes on the computer equipment inside the facilities. Because this equipment is replaced every few years, it can provide a tax stream for the county.

“Probably the biggest positive aspect that a lot of county commissioners are looking at is they’re trying to lower taxes for their other residents, and they look at this as a sort of a cash cow to do that with, so that’s why they like them,” Mueller said.

The revenue can be transformative for local budgets. Cochran-Johnson told DeKalb residents that a data center investment of roughly $125 million per megawatt could yield $6 billion in real and personal property value over a 15-year period. That translates to about $27 million in annual tax revenue.

“Data centers are like the modern-day gold rush,” said Shane Short, executive director of the development authority of Walton County, who was invited to speak at the October town hall in DeKalb about how their local government addressed the proposals.

Counties seem to be racing to approve data centers, primarily because officials view the current boom as a finite “window of time” that could close. Mueller said there is a fear that if a county does not secure a data center now, the opportunity may be lost forever.

“I think we have a period of time where we’re going to kind of run out of new capacity,” Mueller said.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.