ATLANTA — The Atlanta City Council has another data center-related regulation on their discussion docket after Monday’s council meeting.
Councilmember Kelsea Bond introduced a resolution at that meeting to create a Data Center Task Force to look at best practices for the development, placement and regulation of data centers in the City of Atlanta.
Atlanta already has some regulations in place for data centers, such as a moratorium on any data centers being built on or close to the Atlanta Beltline.
In a statement from Bond’s office, the councilmember said Georgia is approaching a status of being the second largest data center market in North America.
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Bond said over the past several years, Georgia has gone from having “only a handful to roughly 75 statewide.”
With data center developments continually proposed across Georgia, Bond said the acceleration of these developments has resulted in Atlanta residents becoming concerned about their impacts on air quality, water resources, electric and water billing costs and more.
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“As this technology rapidly develops, it’s essential that government decision makers thoroughly understand the impacts of data center expansion” Bond said. “Atlanta residents have raised serious concerns regarding air and noise pollution, and increasing utility costs, and health impacts. Our local government should be making zoning and land use decisions that benefit regular working Atlantans – not out of state multi-billion-dollar big tech companies.”
Should the full city council approve the creation of the task force, Bond’s office said it would bring multiple Atlanta departments together, as well as public health and environmental experts.
If the task force is created, they would be charged with examining how development and regulation of data centers is done across the U.S., including how they impact electric grid capacity, the local water supply and noise levels, as well as the city tax digest and ratepayers.
Once that examination is done, the task force will be required to submit recommendations to Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and the Atlanta City Council about how to regulate data centers in the city.
Hannah Baker, a member of the Georgia Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group, shared a statement expressing concerns about data centers’ prevalence in Georgia and their ongoing, rapid development.
“The influx of data centers and how our city handles them is one of the most critical issues we will be facing for the next decade,” Baker said. “Thanks to Council Member Bond for convening this group so we can make sure this unprecedented data center growth doesn’t harm our communities.”
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