More than 200 residents from south of downtown Atlanta flooded the campus of Georgia State University on a recent Monday evening to debate plans for a data center in their neighborhood.
As the meeting ran late into the evening, it was finally time for a vote. Members of Neighborhood Planning Unit V, which includes Adair Park, Summerhill, Pittsburgh, and other neighborhoods, rejected the prospect of yet another data center in the vicinity.
If things were right with the world, the will of the people would be enough to uphold the law of the land. Instead, the proposal moves on to zoning review. The City Council is expected to vote in June.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Two years ago, the City Council banned new data centers located within a half-mile of the Atlanta Beltline or MARTA stations and some neighborhoods.
Shortly after the ban, Texas-based Digital Realty requested an exemption to build a $500 million structure in Adair Park, located near the West End MARTA station and the Atlanta Beltline.
If the City Council overrides community sentiments and abandons its own previous convictions, it could dampen one of the most promising outgrowths of data center debates across Georgia — the fervent belief that we the people can still fight big industry and win.
Georgia has quickly become one of the top three states for data center development, alongside Virginia and Texas.
Tax incentives and ready access to power have enticed Microsoft, Meta, Google, Databank and other companies to build the behemoth centers across Georgia where 62 data centers are in operation, 56 are under construction and 340 have been announced, according to figures from Aterio and Visual Capitalist.
The hulking buildings house the information technology infrastructure needed to build, operate and deliver applications and services such as content streaming, online banking, social media, data storage and artificial intelligence.
But as more data centers have moved into urban and rural neighborhoods across the state, residents in the surrounding areas have felt the burdens they bring rather than any benefits.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Data centers, designed to accommodate the rapid, complex computing needs of AI, demand more power than ever, which has fueled consumer worries about rising costs of energy and water.
Residents who live near the centers have also expressed concerns about high-voltage power lines, noise from generators and cooling systems, and the stigma of having an unsightly blob of a building down the block or across the road.
Some politicians have suggested that residents in the unlucky position of living near a data center are collateral damage on the state’s journey to economic prosperity. But some of the arguments in support of data centers have begun to wear thin.
A data center may bring jobs to the area while it is under construction but once the center is up and running, research shows it offers limited employment prospects for locals.
In Virginia, ground zero for active data centers, researchers found that each center only brings 25 to 30 permanent jobs to the area, fewer than the average McDonald’s.
Politicians and advocates also tout the tax benefits of building and operating data centers, but that increased revenue often fails to offset the revenue that was given up in the form of tax incentives.
A December 2025 audit by the University of Georgia found that the net fiscal impact of Georgia’s High-Tech Data Center Equipment Exemption (the official name of the state’s tax incentive) ranges from -$17.0 million in 2018 to a projected -$780.2 million in 2030.
As residents are pulling together to demand more transparency and consideration from the data center developers encroaching on their neighborhoods and towns, industry players are also seeking to unify around a common message that will resonate with American citizens and win broader support.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
A data center sounds much better if it is positioned as critical component of national security or a key factor in achieving economic dominance over China. That almost makes it seem as if hosting a data center in your neighborhood is a civic duty or an honor bestowed upon anyone invested in American greatness.
In Adair Park, Digital Realty hoped to convert 713 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., a vacant and polluted site where printing presses were once warehoused, into a data exchange to amplify operations at its nearby data center downtown.
Company officials, hoping to win resident support, said they were open to considering community benefits including retail space and $5 million deposited into a community trust as part of the development deal.
As companies continue to seek out swaths of Georgia on which to develop data centers, the deals will likely get sweeter. And we’ll no doubt hear more talk of how integral data centers are to holding a competitive advantage, not just the U.S. but in the world.
So when we hear this messaging, when community benefits are dangled like candy to win converts, we should view it with the same healthy skepticism that members of NPU-V reflected in their opposition to Digital Realty.
In an industry moving at breakneck speed, promises can be fleeting but the Atlanta City Council took decisive action to prevent data centers from encroaching on certain spaces and communities.
The community has spoken. Now it’s time for the council members to hold the line.
Read more on the Real Life blog (www.ajc.com/opinion/real-life-blog/) and find Nedra on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AJCRealLifeColumn) and X (@nrhoneajc) or email her at nedra.rhone@ajc.com.
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