In Georgia, tax breaks, cheap land, and unchecked access to power grids continue to make the Peach State an attractive place for big tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft to set up shop and ultimately has positioned it as one of the fastest-growing destinations for data centers in the country.
But some Atlantans are fighting back and logging small and major wins to protect their communities from what they say are the harmful impacts of the data center boom here in metro Atlanta.
From DeKalb County to Southwest Atlanta in Fulton County, residents are organizing against the rapid expansion of data centers.
“We’ve really been pretty successful in organizing, especially in South and Southeast DeKalb,” Gina Mangham, an attorney and organizer with Renew DeKalb, a group pushing back against data centers, told Capital B Atlanta.
“People have come out. We’ve done flyers, both for forums and for meetings, to get people to the Board of Commissioners meetings, and I’ve got to say, the turnout has been great.”
The data centers, which house servers powering cloud storage, artificial intelligence, and other digital services, have raised concerns among advocates and lawmakers alike due to possible hikes they could cause in utility bills for residents and their overall massive energy and water use.
Science for Georgia, an advocacy group, estimates that as of February 2025, all the current and planned data centers in the state would require the same amount of energy that it takes to power around 3.9 million homes.
Data centers also need water to operate so that air conditioning can continuously run to keep the computers inside the facility from overheating. Science for Georgia estimates that all current data centers in the state require around 27 billion gallons of water a year to operate.
While supporters of these developments point to tax revenue for their communities, opponents say data centers consume enormous amounts of water and energy, offer few long-term jobs, and crowd out opportunities for housing.
Over the past year, residents throughout the metro area have delayed or stopped data center proposals by building coalitions, educating neighbors, and applying sustained pressure on elected officials. Their efforts offer lessons for other communities battling similar developments.
Understand your local zoning process
Residents in metro Atlanta say many communities lose data center battles before they even realize one is happening as zoning legislation and data center proposals can pass quietly and quickly if residents aren’t aware of them in the first place.
In DeKalb County, Mangham said that residents nearly missed a zoning text amendment that would formally define data centers and expand where they are allowed in areas of the county.
She learned about the amendment at a county Community Council meeting she attended last August. It was advanced separately from any specific project, making it harder for residents to understand its implications.
“People don’t really pay attention to text amendments,” Mangham said. “They’re more focused on actual developments. That’s why this almost flew under the radar.”
County commissioners have since delayed the vote on the amendment multiple times, and a moratorium on new data center applications was extended for an additional six months, all efforts that Mangham says are “wins” due to the efforts of residents informing the community on zoning changes happening.
In 2024, residents in Adair Park were able to get Atlanta City Council members to block an ordinance that would have allowed data centers to be built in their community.
Matt Garbett, the land-use chair for the neighborhood association Adair Park Today, told Capital B Atlanta that in order for communities to know if a data center development is being proposed, they need to keep a watchful eye on legislation and proposals that are being introduced at the county or city level.
He said proposed development projects and other zoning legislation go through multiple committees and readings, which can give residents a bit of time to catch any data centers being pitched.
“It’s unfortunately very reliant on private citizens having the time to read through a boring list of legislation and find [proposals] because elected officials don’t always go to the community early on in the process,” Garbett said.
Organize and educate
In DeKalb, after finding out about the zoning text amendment and a large-scale data center proposed in Ellenwood, local groups including Renew DeKalb and the Party for Socialism and Liberation went door-to-door, hosted town halls, and mobilized residents to attend county meetings.
“We hosted biweekly community meetings and town halls,” said Ngaya Swai, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. “Then we organized outreach — bus stops, grocery stores, wherever people were.”
He said those efforts helped drive large turnouts at Board of Commissioners meetings and contributed to the extension of the county’s data center moratorium as well as repeated deferrals of the text amendment and the Ellenwood proposal.
In Atlanta, Garbett said that Adair Park residents built a coalition that extended beyond their neighborhood to include West End, Mechanicsville, Pittsburgh, and others.
“This wasn’t just about Adair Park,” Garbett said. “That site impacts multiple neighborhoods.”
According to Mangham, an important piece of organizing residents is educating them thoroughly on the issue.
She said Renew DeKalb prioritized presentations at homeowner association meetings and community forums to explain what data centers are and how they affect water use, power demand, and the environment.
“We didn’t just say, ‘This is bad,’” Mangham said. “We explained why.”
Swai said information sessions helped unify people across neighborhoods and political lines in DeKalb.
“Once people understand the ramifications, both locally and statewide, it gives people a lot of fire,” he said.
Mangham said Renew DeKalb prepared a white paper for the Board of Commissioners on the impacts of data centers drawing on Department of Energy studies, environmental data, and testimony from health and energy experts.
“We wanted to be able to back up everything we were saying,” she said.
Forming relationships with local officials
In Adair Park, long-standing relationships with city leadership helped elevate concerns beyond the district where the data center proposal originated.
“I already had relationships with City Council members and with the mayor’s office,” Garbett said. “That made a big difference.”
Those relationships helped ensure the proposal received attention citywide. Mayor Andre Dickens ultimately issued a public letter opposing the legislation, and it was struck down in its final vote.
For communities without those connections, Garbett said relationship-building must happen quickly and carefully.
“You can’t come in angry,” he said. “You have to come in human, explaining how this affects families and the future of the neighborhood.”
Residents in DeKalb and Atlanta say their experiences show that data center expansion is not inevitable, but resisting it requires vigilance.
“These fights are happening all over the country,” Swai said. “And people are winning.”
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