SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. – The Social Circle City Council on Tuesday ended a moratorium on applications for data centers that had been instituted five months ago as the city was facing a deluge of applications for zoning changes, annexation requests and special-use permits for the massive facilities – often covering 1 million square feet or more -- that store, process and distribute huge quantities of digital data. 

Enacted on Sept. 15 of last year for an initial 90 days, the moratorium was extended last month by the council for another 90 days as of Dec. 15, and would have expired on March 15. But two unanimous Tuesday council votes – one on amendments to the city’s development code regulating data centers, and a second on special-use permitting procedures that apply to data centers and other land uses, triggered a provision of the moratorium that called for its termination as soon as the city put data center regulations in place. 

Those regulations, a combined effort of the city’s planning staff and the council-appointed planning commission – the council is not bound by recommendations from either source – covered a wide range of issues, and were modified slightly by the council on Tuesday before the unanimous vote that put them in place. 

In recent months, Georgia has become a hotbed for data center proposals, even as local governments, including in Social Circle, have worried about the facilities’ prodigious needs for water and electrical capacity. Thus far, none of the numerous proposals for data centers that got at least some consideration from the city prior to the moratorium have materialized. 

The only data centers in the area, which long predate the relatively recent surge of interest in Social Circle, are operated by Meta (formerly Facebook), in the Stanton Springs industrial and mixed-use development off Interstate 20 just outside the city limits.  

Among the more important changes approved by the council Tuesday is a provision requiring that data center developers obtain special-use permitting for data center projects even when they are proposed in areas zoned for heavy industrial use, where data centers had previously been allowed without such a permit. Now, special-use permits, which need council approval, are required for data centers in both heavy industrial and light industrial areas, the only areas in which they are allowed. 

Other changes to standards and regulations for data centers in Social Circle approved Tuesday by the council include a minimum 50-acre lot size; stringent requirements for fencing and vegetative screening, although a change made by the council Tuesday will allow perimeter chain-link fencing, as long as it is concealed by vegetative cover; a water, sewer and gas impact study; noise limits requiring that sounds no louder than a normal conversation can be heard at property lines adjoining residential or agricultural areas, an emergency response plan and regular inspections by the city. 

The council’s newest member, Adam Conavay, a financial systems manager who won the District 3 seat in November as the sole qualifier after incumbent Nathan Boyd opted not to seek reelection, was a vocal presence during discussion of the new data center regulations. 

Conavay prompted the rest of the council to remove a provision of the proposed data center regulations that set a $1,000 per day fine for violations of the amended regulations. He argued that a $1,000 fine might be cheaper than addressing the problem that led to the fine, an economic no-brainer for the data center operator. Instead, the new regulations will note that fines are to be determined. 

A public hearing held prior to Tuesday’s council vote brought just one comment. John Miller, a Social Circle business owner who has been vocal on local planning and zoning issues in recent months – he had applied, but was rejected in other Tuesday council action, for a seat on the planning commission – was concerned about water usage at data centers and asked for a provision in the new regulations to ensure prudent use of that resource at data centers. 

Specifically, Miller asked the council to consider requiring a stringent review of water-use plans prior to approval of data centers, and also asked that the proposed regulations be tabled until such a review process was put in place. Councilman Steve Shelton, acknowledging Miller’s concerns, went on to say that a required engineering review of data center plans would catch problematic water use issues. 

City Attorney Tony Powell augmented Shelton’s point, noting that data center proposals would be reviewed by the planning commission and the city council, at which time such issues could be addressed.