DeKalb residents push back on data centers as leaders weigh new regulation

As DeKalb County leaders work to regulate data centers, residents gathered at a town hall meetings to voice their concerns. 

The county held its fourth town hall Wednesday, at which speakers shared concerns about health impacts, property values, and water resources, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting.

DeKalb resident Brandon Brown told GPB that he believes the community feels it is being sold out for money and DeKalb leaders need to do a better job at explaining legal nuance.

“If it were at all possible to do a permanent moratorium, I would be all for it. But in lieu of that, I think having the strongest text amendment and regulations possible is a good thing,” Brown told GPB reporter Amanda Andrews.

County Commissioner LaDena Bolton told GPB that completely banning data centers could have negative consequences.

“If we say no data centers whatsoever, and there’s no legal standing for that, when they sue, then we lose all of our rights to regulate what we want,” she said. “They can sue and get what they want. This way, when we regulate on the front end, we tell them what we will allow in our communities.”

The DeKalb Board of Commissioners will hold its next business meeting on Dec. 16, the same day the moratorium on data centers ends. The drafted regulation includes 500-foot buffers and noise limits.

Another meeting was held at Wesley Chapel William C. Brown Library Tuesday, where residents voiced concerns about a proposal by PCC Dekalb LLC for a 95-acre campus near a school and residential neighborhood in Ellenwood.

Gina Mangham, with community advocacy group Renew Dekalb LLC, spoke with Fox 5 and argued that data centers do not bring any benefit to the community while having negative impacts on the environment and infrastructure.

“The regulations the way they’re being written are not enforceable. There’s no one to enforce them. There are no sanctions, penalties or remedies,” she said. “The land will be ruined, the environment will be killed, and we will have a data center wasteland.”