B. Campbell, a stay-at-home mom living in the southwest neighborhood of Sylvan Hills, said she’s feeling “on edge” about the rapid growth of data centers in Atlanta as a contentious, $500 million project is being proposed for her side of the city. The project would span 350,000 square feet, the size of 6.08 football fields end to end.
In only a few years, Atlanta has become one of the fastest-growing markets for data center development in the country. In the first half of 2026, the city had the most data center space under construction in the U.S. It’s the first time the city has surpassed Northern Virginia, which has been called “Data Center Alley.”
As both the government and frustrated residents grapple with this unprecedented growth, a pending report from the Mayor’s Office will lay out findings about the impact that data center development is having on the city. It will also provide recommendations on how to tackle growth. The report, called the “Data Center Strategy,” is set to be released on Oct. 30.
According to an official city website, the report will focus on the impact that data center development has on the city’s water, energy, land usage, economy, and more.
Campbell, who wished to withhold her first name, said her main concerns are about the long-term impact the tech projects could have on the community’s health and environment. She said when thinking about the topic, her mind immediately goes to the future of her child and all the kids growing up in the community.
“I just think about… property values going down and that further decreasing the support that the schools and the children have because data centers are not favorable,” Campbell told Capital B Atlanta. “People aren’t moving to data center city, which is what Atlanta seems to want to become. That’s not profitable long term. I’m worried about the culture being eroded to become like a corporation’s dream versus the dream that the people have.”
City officials and residents that spoke with Capital B Atlanta said that they have concerns over the transparency around the report, the lack of public input involved in its creation, and the absence of health and environment groups being consulted for it.
City of Atlanta Councilmember Kelsea Bond told Capital B Atlanta the city council was only made aware of the pending report from the Mayor’s Office last month, shortly after Bond proposed their own legislation to create a data center task force.
“The purpose of my task force was to… hold these conversations publicly and on the record, and the fact that this was already apparently happening behind closed doors — the city council didn’t know about it,” Bond said. “The general public certainly didn’t know about it. To me, that’s starting off on the wrong foot because data centers have such huge implications for the communities that they impact.”
Bond said the proposal was ultimately sent back to the city’s utility committee during the full council meeting on Aug. 17 at the request of the Mayor’s Office. That’s when the city council was informed that the Mayor’s Office had begun working on data center findings with its own assembled task force of stakeholders.
According to the city’s website, multiple city departments — including Planning, Watershed Management, Transportation, Finance, and the City Attorney — are being consulted for the report. Other groups being consulted include the Office of Sustainability and Resilience, Georgia Power, Invest Atlanta, Georgia Tech, and Atlanta University Center institutions.
Bond said the main differences between their proposed task force and Mayor Andre Dickens’ task force is that their proposal included public meetings and hearings as well as independent environmental and health groups such as the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, the South River Watershed Alliance, and the Morehouse School of Medicine as stakeholders.
Bond said the mayor’s initiative does not include public input or any outside environmental or health groups as stakeholders that will be consulted for the report.
The Mayor’s Office did not immediately respond to Capital B Atlanta’s request for comment.
Due to these differences, Bond said that they feel these task forces have different intentions and worry the report could offer recommendations that could loosen some of the existing restrictions that the city has on data centers.
“My first gut reaction is that they formed this task force to figure out a way to allow data centers without the public outrage that typically comes with any data center proposal these days,” Bond said. “I’m almost afraid that they are trying to manufacture consent for data center expansion in Atlanta… and it seems like they’re ruling out from the start completely banning them. Whereas from my perspective, I primarily care about the health and safety of Atlanta residents.”
Campbell expressed similar concerns and said that the language used on the city’s website about the pending report came across as “biased” toward data center growth.
“They’re not naming potential harms… they’re not even lifting up some of the concerns. ‘What’s the best way to reduce noise?’ The best way to reduce it is by not having it,” she said.
She said that the lack of transparency around the report and the community’s disapproval of the proposed data center for southwest Atlanta being ignored have eroded her trust in local leadership.
Tyrone Clemons, who lives in the Southwest neighborhood of Pittsburgh, said that he believes there’s a possibility the Mayor’s Office and Bond’s task force could work together to help tackle data center growth in Atlanta. He hopes that however the city decides to go about data center development, Black communities will not be the ones to bear the burden of them.
“[Data centers] should not be put in a densely populated area, and definitely shouldn’t be put in historically Black neighborhoods that have been disproportionately impacted by poor zoning and industrial developments,” he said.
Clemons, a software engineer, said he also hopes that the Mayor’s Office will focus on the long-term impact of data centers and not just the economic benefits.
“It needs to be regulated. Is it really that valuable, or are they just trying to keep up with economic trends because whereas this corporation might only be worried about their balance sheet for the next two to five years, a lot of our community members are worried about their land and their community for the next 30 to 60 years, and I think the mayor should be considering that,” he said.
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