The Athens-Clarke County Commission put a pause on new data centers Tuesday night.
The moratorium passed Tuesday night will put a pause on new data centers until early March. Opponents of data centers say they use excessive amounts of water and electricity, in addition to decreasing quality of life for neighbors.
Clarke County has one data center located on Voyles Road in East Athens, built in 2024 and owned by Southern Company. District 9 Commissioner Ovita Thornton—whose district includes the data center–said during the meeting that the moratorium was a step in the right direction.
“We never would have expected another data center trying to come here,” she said. “I think when the first one popped up, it should have set some alarms, but here we are, we have a moratorium, and we’ll move forward.”
Currently, county ordinances do not contain a definition for data centers, which some commissioners argue makes the projects hard to regulate. This may be set to change, however, since the mayor and commission will meet on December 11th to discuss a proposed amendment to county ordinances that will define data centers.
During the meeting, Commissioner Carol Myers of District 8 asked county managers if the new moratorium would impact a proposal to install a data center at the current site of Athena Studios, a film studio in northeast Athens. The owners of the studios are seeking to change the use of the facility.
County Manager Bob Cowell implied that the proposal doesn’t stand a chance under current practices which limit data centers to I-zoned parcels.
“Data centers are newer than our ordinance, and so what that requires the staff to do is to interpret which zoning classification does it go in,” he explained. “For all of the reasons stated here (Electric consumption, water consumption, general impact), staff’s determination is that that requires an I-industrial zoning for that use.”
The parcel that contains Athena Studios is zoned E-I.
The moratorium passed unanimously, with statements of support from three commissioners.
This article comes to Now Habersham in partnership with WUGA News
