LISTEN: Residents of Monroe County in Middle Georgia shut down efforts to build a second massive data center in their community. GPB's Grant Blankenship reports.
FORSYTH, Ga. — Residents of Monroe County in Middle Georgia successfully fought an effort to repurpose 900 acres of forested land for a data center.
The Monroe County Commission took up the issue Tuesday night, a week after the local planning and zoning board denied to recommend to rezone the land for the data center in the unincorporated town of Bolingbroke, close to horse farms and homes surrounded by woods.
Hundreds of people wearing red “Say no to rezoning” T-shirts filled the county fine arts building to show the commission why they were against it. But first, Charles Ingram, one of two landowners trying to pull the deal together, told the community how he believed the projected $5.8 billion data center would benefit them.
“What that means for Monroe County is a $5.8 billion in investment with $60 million in annual tax revenue," he said. "200 to 250 jobs, high-wage-paying jobs. Imagine all the possibilities and projects that $60 million in annual revenue could generate.”
Currently, Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer is the single largest source of property taxes in the county — and it’s slated to close in less than a decade.
Bolingbroke resident Jeff Ruggieri spoke from the point of view not only a resident but as head of planning and zoning in neighboring Bibb County, and also as an expert in the field. He framed the data center choice as a cash windfall which, ironically, could hobble future growth.
“Based on a 2020 study, the state of Georgia requires of 75,000 new housing units to meet current housing demand. Granting this rezoning will only exacerbate that problem,” Ruggieri said, by robbing local businesses of new customers. Or by deterring future residential development anywhere near the area.
"We'll have plenty of money, but no one to spend it on,” Ruggieri said.
The county commission heard 25 minutes from both sides and then moved to vote on the issue. The unanimous “no” to the project was met with cheers and hugs.
Monroe County Chairman Alan Gibbs said his vote was part of his promise to keep the county rural.
“Data centers bring in a lot of money," Gibbs said. "I don’t want to fundamentally change how we do things in this county over money. And this is one of those things: where does this stop? If we just allow anything to come in, what’s the next phase of that?”
Gibbs said the county was taking a second look at the rules it uses to shape and nudge new development to see how the rules could be more responsive to those sorts of questions.
Monroe County already has another data center under development not far from Bolingbroke, near the Rumble Road exit of Interstate 75. It’s the southernmost of a number of such centers planned or underway in the Ocmulgee River Watershed.
