SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. - Faced with an influx of rezoning and related requests for proposed data centers – massive facilities that process, store, manage and distribute digital data – the Social Circle City Council unanimously enacted a 90-day moratorium on those requests at its Sept. 16 meeting. The council retains the option to extend the moratorium beyond the 90 days approved with the Sept. 16 vote.

The moratorium proposal was a last-minute addition to the agenda by Councilman Steve Shelton, who offered no details on his reasoning for the request.

Approval of the agenda addition came before the council considered a set of zoning-related actions for two proposed data centers, both of which were already in the city’s review and decision process prior to imposition of the moratorium.

The council eventually approved a set of annexation and rezoning requests for the two proposed data centers, rejecting only a request that the city annex property currently in Newton County – the city straddles the Newton County-Walton County line – that was part of the actions requested for one of the proposed data centers.

In recent months, the city council has approved two other data center projects, although both of those projects, one proposed for 200 acres at Amber Stapp Studdard Road at Social Circle Parkway, and the other proposed for 338 acres along Interstate 20, appear to have foundered.

In comments prior to the council’s vote to impose a moratorium on all zoning-related actions pertaining to data centers, which have consistently attracted community concern and outright opposition, Taylor told the council, “The community sees it coming at them fast – they have no idea how fast it’s coming at staff and council.”

“Within the last month,” Taylor continued, “since the last (council) meeting, we’ve had requests for three additional ones, in addition to the two tonight, that will be coming before the council.”

“It’s coming too fast, too soon, and we need to have the opportunity to work through the ones we have before we move forward on any others,” Taylor told the council.

The data center proposals considered by the council at its Sept. 16 meeting involve a 28-acre parcel off Fairplay Drive east of Social Circle Parkway that is part of one data center proposal, and a 42-acre Newton County tract on Cannon Drive that is part of the other data center proposal. Plans call for both parcels to be combined with other parcels for data center development.

The council approved the annexation of the Fairplay Drive tract, but rejected the annexation of a Newton County tract, both of which are part of plans for the respective data centers. The proposed Fairplay Drive data center is planned for a 234-acre site, while the proposal involving the Newton County property covers a proposed 268 acres.

It was unclear how the council decision not to annex the Newton County acreage would impact plans for the data center proposed for that tract and other acreage in the area.

In other action on the Fairplay Drive tract, the council voted 3-1, with Councilman Tyson Jackson dissenting, to rezone the acreage from its agricultural classification to a light industrial classification.

In a related vote, the council deadlocked on granting a special-use permit needed to place a data center in light industrial zoning. Mayor David Keener broke the tie by voting in favor of granting the special-use permit.

The council also conducted a set of votes related to the Cannon Drive tract and two other parcels, already in the city limits, associated with the data center proposal.

In that series of votes, Keener broke a council deadlock by voting to deny the annexation. Once that action was taken, Keener broke a second council tie by voting to approve the rezoning of the acreage within the city that is also part of the data center proposal.

In the final action on the acreage within the city, Keener again broke a tie vote among council members by voting in favor of granting a special-use permit to allow a data center in the light industrial zoning made applicable to the tract in the rezoning vote.

The 90-day moratorium on data centers, expiring in December, will mean that the data center issue will pass to a partially reconfigured city council following the Nov. 4 election, with winners set to take office in January. Councilman Nathan Boyd, who opted not to seek reelection, will be replaced by Adam Edgar Conavay, who attended the Sept. 16 meeting, and incumbent Traysa Cody Price will be facing a Nov. 4 challenge from Justin Waylon Bradford.

The data centers proposed for the two sets of properties are being pursued by 3Rivers Development, an Atlanta-based firm specializing in data centers, industrial storage and cold storage facilities. The owner of the acreage involved in the proposals is WSG Land, a Marietta-based enterprise. The company’s Carlton Walstad represented the project in front of the Social Circle Planning Commission, and on Sept. 16 in front of the Social Circle City Council.

Addressing what has become a concern in communities dealing with data center requests, Walstad told the council that there is an “end user” in place for the project, although he would not identify that entity, citing a non-disclosure agreement.

End users for data centers come routinely from among major technology companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta. Meta already operates a data center in the Stanton Springs industrial and mixed-use development off Interstate 20 near Social Circle.

Having an end user in place before a data center is built can provide hosting communities with some assurance that the enterprise will be a success, offsetting their considerable demand for water, needed for cooling, and for electricity, with property tax revenue and, although limited, at least some local job opportunities.

“It is a quality project that will get done,” Walstad said of the 3Rivers Development efforts in Social Circle.

As has been the case at planning commission and city council meetings at which data centers have been discussed in Social Circle, the Sept. 16 council meeting included comments from concerned citizens.

Christi Studdard, who lives a short distance outside Social Circle, suggested before the moratorium vote that city officials appeared to be complicit in the data center issue.

“You’re implementing it, steamrolling it,” Studdard told the council. “It just keeps crawling and keeps bleeding, and it seems there is no end in sight.”

Studdard was particularly critical of the practice under which data center developers request a rezoning to a light-industrial classification, and simultaneously submit a special-use permit request to make their data center an acceptable use in a light-industrial area, rather than in a heavy industrial area, where data centers are permitted outright.

Studdard was told Tuesday by Cody Ellis, a planning administrator with the city, that the practice of allowing a rezoning to a light industrial classification, with a special-use permit, protected the city from having to deal with the possibility of subsequent heavy industrial uses if a data center should fail.