One potential avenue for regulating a data center development in rural Grady County was rejected by local officials on Monday.
The Grady County Board of Commissioners voted Monday morning not to put a question to residents on forming a county planning commission to regulate data centers.
The decision comes after the Amber Town Council decided to forgo a proposal to annex almost 3,000 acres, including the land for a proposed data center.
In July, Aligned Data Centers bought land in unincorporated Grady County to construct a data center. Residents have voiced their concerns about the project, including at a Board of County Commissioners special meeting on September 8. But at the meeting, legal counsel advised that the county itself doesn't have the power to enact a moratorium on data centers — only municipalities can do that.
They instead suggested other options, one of which would be to create a county planning commission to regulate land use. But District 1 Commissioner Zachary Davis said he took calls from constituents over the weekend, and that residents were hesitant about being zoned, particularly farmers.
"I feel like most of the people that move to the county, they don't want to be zoned," Davis said. "They don't want to be told where and what they can build."
Another option suggested at the September 8 meeting was to enter into individual municipal-county planning commissions with towns in the area, which would not require a county vote. But District 2 Commissioner Ruth Bingham said she worried about the logistics of having a series of separate commissions with different towns, and she didn't want to affect Amber residents who had previously opposed annexation.
"I feel like it's a state issue, that the state should do something so that everybody's on the same page," Bingham said.
The measure voted on during Monday's meeting did not specifically address municipal-county planning commissions. Bingham said in an interview that she is continuing to look into the option.
Aligned will host a public meeting at Amber-Pocasset High School on October 6 to discuss their plans.
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