With Data Centers, Transparency Is the Only Acceptable Policy

By Maurice Carter, Sustainable Newton Co-Founder & President

Effingham County residents were startled last month with news a $20B OpenAI data center project was approved by their local officials without public notice or any opportunity to comment. A story in Sunday's edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recaps the events that led to the July 22 surprise announcement, with the goal of answering Effingham County residents who wondered "How is it that we didn’t hear a peep about this until it was already done?”

We want to answer the logical next question for our neighbors here in Newton County:  "Could it happen here?"  The answer is "thankfully not," but it could have turned out differently.
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As AJC reporter  Adam Van Brimmer explains it, 2024 updates to Effingham County's zoning ordinances allowed the OpenAI project to be approved by county officials without public notice.  "A push to modernize the county’s zoning ordinance resulted in data centers already being a permitted use a year before OpenAI first made contact," he writes. "A key element in addressing the antiquated zoning laws was the creation of a permitted use table. This tool established what could be built where 'by right' — meaning without significant review. The initial version was added to the zoning law in late 2024; the tables of uses ran for 10 pages. Data centers were on the list but drew little attention."

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It Could Have Happened Here -- But Not Anymore

Before the Covington City Council enacted a data center moratorium in January, the same vulnerability existed in the city's zoning ordinances, which listed data centers as permitted by right in light and heavy industrial zoning districts (M1 and M2).  Those were the requirements in effect when Amazon Data Services started their project on Alcovy Road and when the Serverfarm data center (and associated pop-up power plant) were initiated on Hazelbrand Road. The moratorium was enacted to allow the city's Planning and Development staff to draft revisions to strengthen the city's ordinances and provide more control over data center construction and operation.  The City of Covington Planning Commission approved new language on July 14, which Planning and Development Director Judy Thagard presented to the mayor and council for a first reading and a public hearing on Monday, August 3.  Below is a replay of the presentation and the public hearing:

No More Data Centers Permitted by Right

The draft amendment presented to the council for the first reading and public hearing included  critically important changes that would prevent a situation like what occurred in Effingham County:
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1. Data centers are only allowed in M1 & M2 zoning districts and require a Special Use Permit (SUP). No data center is permitted by right going forward, once the ordinance is adopted and the moratorium is lifted.
2. The process to obtain an SUP requires a public hearing before the Planning Commission and also before the City Council.
3. The ordinance also requires that, at least 30 days prior to a public hearing, "the applicant shall conduct at least one (1) community meeting to describe the project, including the proposed site plan, building elevations, equipment-yard locations, proposed buffers and screening, utility demands, anticipated construction impacts, and a viewshed analysis from public rights-of-way and nearby residential areas."  Signs announcing the public meeting must be posted on the property, and the applicant must also advertise the meeting in the newspaper and in letters sent to all owners of property within 1,000 feet of the proposed data center site.

​In his motion to approve the first reading and proceed to a second and final reading before adoption on August 17, council member Jared Rutberg proposed strengthening the public notice requirements with the following changes:
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1. To require the applicant to advertise and host two public meetings.  
2. To require that the applicant send letters of notice to any owner of property within two miles of the data center property line.

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(Members of Sustainable Newton's Environmental Hazards Committee had previously requested two public meetings and a wider letter distribution in our written and verbal comments to staff and the planning commission.)

The council voted unanimously to approve the first reading with those changes.  This is a massive step forward for transparency around data center projects in Covington.  We believe certain provisions of the supplemental requirements outlined in the new ordinance can be improved before final adoption -- especially in areas like noise limits, prohibitions on "behind the meter" generation of firm power using fossil fuels, and formal signoffs on water usage plans.  But, regardless of those opportunities, we commend the council for valuing public involvement and requiring transparency from data center developers and themselves. And we urge them to follow through by adopting a final ordinance on August 17 that retains all of these rules around public notice and involvement.

A Word About Newton County's Data Center Ordinance

NOTE: The Newton County Board of Commissioners also has a moratorium in effect until October 20 and is currently reviewing draft changes to their Unified Development Ordinance concerning data centers. The draft we have read requires data centers to have a Conditional Use Permit (CUP), which would also entail some level of public notice. We will remain engaged in those discussions to encourage the commissioners to put similar transparency requirements in place that mirror what Covington has done.