Zoning vs. data centers: Without land use laws, Laurens County can’t issue ban

 Laurens County residents might one day have to choose between the lesser of two so-called evils – data centers or zoning.

Several residents turned out for Tuesday’s County Commission meeting, continuing to call for a ban or at least a moratorium on data centers. But without a countywide zoning ordinance, unincorporated areas of the county are prime locations for data center companies – and there is not much officials can do to stop them.

“There is no zoning here in Laurens County because the people of Laurens County don’t want it,” said Commission Chairman Jimmy Rogers.

The commission attempted to pass a zoning ordinance in the 1990s but drew a massive public outcry that eventually killed the proposal. Rogers, who was not on the board at the time, compared those protests to the standing-room-only crowd that attended a recent commission meeting over data center rumors.

“It was like people are with data centers,” Rogers said. “You’d fill this building up 10 times – they did not want people trying to tell them what to do with their property.”

Resident Vonda Morton demanded the commission adopt a ban on data centers. With almost 200 data centers either operating or planned in Georgia, another is not needed in Laurens County, she said. Morton argued that promises of tax relief and new jobs are not worth the water, light, air and noise pollution associated with the centers.

A federal grant application surfaced last month that mentioned the former Mohawk carpet plant as a possible location for a data center, stirring up community concern. 

The Heart of Georgia Altamaha Regional Commission, a quasi-governmental planning agency, applied for funding to potentially test sites for environmental contamination. The Mohawk property was among them, and one of its identified uses suggested in the application was as a data center.

The grant application was denied.

County commissioners assured the overflow crowd at last month’s meeting that the county had no plans to bring a data center here. Morton said Tuesday that a data center ban would earn the commissioners more trust with the community.

“Your refusal to do so makes us suspicious that there are already back-room deals in the works,” said Morton.

Rogers promised to keep the public informed should a data center ever try to locate here.

“We’re not trying to hide anything,” he said. “Right now we’re going to let it stand like it is. If somebody comes in and starts talking about it, you’re going to know about it.”

Another resident, Joe Powers, asked the commission to consider a six-month moratorium on data centers.

“This will give us time to decide what we may want, what guidelines we can put in place, if we are faced with the decision of putting a data center here,” said Powers, who is running for state representative in November.

Brittany Howard also asked for a ban or moratorium, citing the biblical account of God giving man dominion over nature as a responsibility still expected of us today.

“That didn’t mean using it all up and throwing it away,” she said. “It means to be good stewards.”

Counties without zoning cannot ban data centers, but they can consider specific ordinances to restrict or regulate their external impacts, such as noise level or water usage. 

Neighboring Montgomery County is considering a land use ordinance for data centers that would serve as an “alert system” should a data center company look to locate there.

The ordinance would require companies looking to build a data center to purchase a business license, pay an application fee of $10,000 for each data center, apply for a special use permit and host community information meetings for county residents. 

Companies also would have to comply with buffer requirements for the construction, build fencing, regulate noise levels, provide the county with an environmental impact analysis, swear under oath to not seek tax abatements and remain subject to a five-person review board comprised of residents.