SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. – The Social Circle City Council has unanimously extended its moratorium on acceptance of applications for data centers interested in locating in the city.

The extension will run for an additional 90 days beyond Dec. 15, or until the council approves any proposed changes to the city’s development code on regulations and standards for data centers.

An initial 90-day moratorium was approved unanimously by the council on Sept. 15, as the city was facing a string of annexation, rezoning, special-use permit and other requests for an unrelated series of proposed data centers.

Data centers are massive facilities used for the collection, storage and processing of large quantities of digital data.

With the Dec. 15 deadline for expiration of the initial moratorium looming, and the next city council meeting not scheduled until Dec. 16, the council held a called meeting Dec. 4 specifically to hold a vote on extending the moratorium.

Extending the moratorium will also allow the city’s planning and development staff to develop proposals for regulation of data centers within the city’s unified development code. Those proposals must be reviewed by the Social Circle Planning Commission, which can also make its own recommendations, prior to coming to the city council for a vote.

The planning commission’s next meeting is set for Dec. 18 at 6 p.m. in the Community Room at 138 E. Hightower Trail. The planning commission, appointed by the city council, serves in an advisory capacity, meaning the council is not bound by any of its recommendations.

When updated, an online agenda for the planning commission’s Dec. 18 meeting is expected to include specific information on proposed changes to the city’s unified development code regarding data centers being proposed by the city’s planning and development staff.

According to agenda information available as of Dec. 8, any proposed changes will be coming to two separate sections of the development code, one addressing allowable principal uses of property and the other dealing with the standards for property uses.

Currently, data centers are allowed outright only in areas zoned for heavy industrial use. But data center proposals coming in front of the council have sought permission to rezone properties for light-industrial use, accompanied by requests for special-use permits. Data centers can operate in light-industrial zones with a special-use permit.

Should the planning commission, as expected, forward any recommendations on proposed new regulations and standards for data centers —from city staff and/or the commission itself — to the council from their Dec. 18 meeting, the council could consider those recommendations as soon as January, well before the expiration of the moratorium extension.

In recent months, Georgia has become a focal point for data center development, as the ongoing boom in artificial intelligence has spurred a need for the dramatic expansion of computational power. The Stanton Springs mixed-use and industrial development in the edge of Social Circle already hosts data centers for Meta (formerly Facebook) that largely preceded the recent boom in data center development.        

Since January, the Social Circle City council has approved a handful of zoning-related requests clearing the way for data centers, but to date, none of those proposals appear to have moved forward.

Last month, a proposal for a 1.5-million square-foot data center planned for 151 acres at Hawkins Academy Road and Roy Malcom Road, comprising an annexation request, a zoning change from an agricultural classification to a light-industrial classification, and a special-use request to allow a data center in a light-industrial zone, earned narrow approval from the city council.

The series of 2-1 votes, with Councilwoman Traysa Price and Councilman Steve Shelton voting in favor and Councilman Tyson Jackson in opposition – Councilman Nathan Boyd was ill and did not attend the meeting – came after nearly two hours of public hearings.

Those hearings featured family members of the current owners of the property who were supportive of the project, along with a roughly equal number of opponents of the proposed data center. Prior to the council vote, one opponent characterized the proposal as not just a zoning issue, but “a moral one.”