Chatham County Board of Commissioners voted Friday to implement a six-month moratorium on large-scale data centers in unincorporated parts of the county. The move makes it the third Coastal Georgia county to enact such a ban, and follows other moratoriums passed by several towns in Chatham, including Savannah, Garden City and Bloomingdale.
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The development also comes amid broad public anger and backlash to the planned $20 billion OpenAI data center deal in Effingham County, which was negotiated in secret and could make the tech company known for creating ChatGPT the largest taxpayer in the county, as well as the largest electricity customer in Coastal Georgia.
According to the ordinance, Chatham’s 155-day ban prohibits development of centers 10 megawatts or larger, and the conversion of warehouses and industrial spaces for data center use. During the period, the county will undertake a study to determine the conditions needed to facilitate data center development while prioritizing public health and safety, according to the resolution voted on Friday.
“We don’t have anything that would address the relationship between residential and this mega, just commercial development, and we need to look at everything which is in here about the usage as far as electricity and water and everything else,” said District 7 Commissioner Dean Kicklighter, who initially proposed the moratorium and whose district comprises portions of western Chatham County.
Kicklighter initially wanted a 12 month pause, but shortened the measure to 155 days at the recommendation of the county attorney, he said. He also noted that a pause could be extended if the county did not collect all information by the Feb. 16, 2027 expiration date. At most, the moratorium could be extended by 60 days, according to the ordinance.
“If we do not have the information we need, it can and most likely would be extended by this body,” he said.
District 4 Commissioner Brian Hussey, whose district includes Chatham’s island neighborhoods, noted he was in support of the moratorium and study, but encouraged the commissioners to embrace data center development as an option to grow government revenue and decrease property taxes.
“We have roughly 9 million square feet of vacant warehouse space in our county right now,” he said. “Data centers could give an opportunity to turn those empty spaces into productive tax-generating assets, all without putting one heavy truck on the road.”
Commissioners also acknowledged the possibility of further action beyond the moratorium on smaller sized data centers, to potentially include micro data centers.