Correction: Dec. 17, 2025, 11:30 p.m.: Commissioner Patrick Donovan was misidentified in an earlier version of this article.
Updated Jan. 6, 2025: Read the text of the data center zoning ordinance here.
Updated Dec. 19, 2025: Despite the zoning commission’s recommendation, the Port Wentworth City Council on Thursday voted to include in its city zoning ordinance a definition of data centers and regulatory parameters about their construction, siting and operation.
In a unanimous vote Monday, the Port Wentworth planning commission rejected a proposal to define data centers in the small city’s zoning ordinance.
The panel’s non-binding recommendation goes to city council for its consideration on Thursday.
At Monday’s meeting City Attorney Scott Robichaux explained the proposed ordinance change was meant to define a data center and provide “reasonable rules that we can put in place if somebody did want to bring a data center to us.” The amendment “is not an approval of data centers,” he repeatedly told the panel of eight commissioners and audience of about 30 citizens at the mid afternoon meeting at City Hall.
The proposed requirements include details regarding setbacks, parking, accessory buildings and prohibited facade materials. (Read the text of the proposed zoning amendment on page 29 of this document. Watch a video of the meeting here. )
About half of the citizens in attendance provided public comment, all of it opposed to data centers. They criticized the potential water and electricity demands of data centers and warned of an approaching AI bubble.
Port Wentworth resident Debbie Wiley said she would like to see the city ban them.
“A single, large data center uses hundreds of thousands to over a million gallons of water per day, primarily for cooling,” she said. “That is permanent year-round demand placed on our municipal water system, competing directly with residents, fire protection and future growth.”
LaRay Benton had some of the same concerns. “Even if you use city water to cool it, what you’re doing is you’re taking away the water capacity that the city now has to improve commercial, retail, other hospitality, but some of the other residential development that we actually need and want here, right, to include any entertainment and leisure.”
Port Wentworth, with a population of about 15,000, has a permit to draw 232,000 gallons a day from the Floridan aquifer. It uses about 200,000 gallons a day of that capacity. But the city sits in the state’s “red zone” where groundwater use has been ratcheted downward to protect the aquifer.
“We can’t drill new wells or anything like that,” City Manager Steve Davis said. “So by no means will there be any groundwater used. It will be a surface water fix.”
Port Wentworth supplements its groundwater supply with treated surface water it purchases from the city of Savannah. Port Wentworth could also use the 200,000 gallons a day of treated effluent from its wastewater treatment plant to cool a data center if need be, Davis said.
But water usage wasn’t the residents’ only concern. Some cited data center electricity demands.
“We know that the power grid is not sufficient to handle all the new developments of residential, commercial and industrial in our area right now,” Ginny Hines said.
Others worried about noise.
“Data centers create noise and air pollution from the massive cooling systems and backup generators,” resident Ray Rafalowski said. “These disrupt nearby residents’ sleep and health. Data centers create very few jobs, basically low wage janitor and maintenance positions. There is absolutely no benefit to the residents of Port Wentworth to bring a data center to our city.”
Jeff Beauvais of the nonprofit One Hundred Miles raised concerns about what he sees as a hurried process. The ordinance was first introduced Nov. 20 and the full text available only since Friday.
“Why rush passing a major ordinance like this during the busy holiday season in less than a month?” he asked. “It is not a recipe for success.”
While the city had included some guardrails, the ordinance remained too permissive, Beauvais argued.
“This approach is out of step with best practices six Georgia counties have already adopted considering data center ordinances that include specific development standards meant to limit the water use, energy use, visual and noise impacts, as well as the other environmental impacts that are associated,” he told the commission. “Port Wentworth should look to these local laws for guidance, and they will find that their law is sorely lacking in comparison.”
A flyer from One Hundred Miles lists five counties that have passed moratoriums on data centers while they investigate further: Troup, Pike, Lamar, Clayton and Monroe. Another four counties — Lumpkin, Forsyth, Bartow and Douglas — have passed ordinances with additional requirements on data centers, with Dekalb currently developing its ordinance with community input.
Port Wentworth does not have a signed agreement for a data center, Robichaux said. But he insisted they will be coming to the Savannah area.
“We do know that they were looking for data centers in this region,” he said. “We’re one of the fastest growing regions in the country. Port Wentworth is in the top three fastest growing cities in Georgia. Pooler is right behind us. Hardeeville is the fastest growing city in South Carolina. South Effingham and Rincon are exploding, and all of these people use data. In your phones, in your homes, in your businesses, everywhere. Data is everywhere, so it is needed, it is going to come, somewhere.”
Commissioner Patrick Donovan, a real estate agent, worried aloud about the effects of data centers on home values, likening them to a jail or a toxic waste dump.
“So where they put these places by these industrial building areas no one’s gonna want to live here,” he said. “And then all the people that live here, they’re stuck with their houses forever. I love where I live, but not if there’s a humming data center right across the street. So, and I think everybody agrees with that. We’re 28% industrial in this city. We’ve got plenty of industrial stuff. (The ordinance) needs to be more in-depth.”
With Commissioner Sean Register drew applause when he recused himself from the vote because his work as a consultant has involved helping two municipalities that are looking at data centers. The remaining seven commissions agreed to reject the ordinance.
After the vote, Port Wentworth Mayor-elect Tracy Saunders said got the outcome she wanted.
“Today is the perfect example of how things are supposed to work. You get proposals. You submit information,’ she said. “Get feedback, and you listen to that feedback. And you could tell that today, everybody up there was listening, and they responded.”
Beauvais, of One Hundred Miles, was looking ahead to Thursday.
“The planning commission was unanimous and that this is not a strong enough ordinance, and the city council gets that recommendation,” he said. “And now it’s on the city council to table this and listen to the people.”
The Tide brings regular notes and observations on news and events by The Current staff.
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