Marietta City Hall is bracing for a full house next Tuesday as neighbors gear up to confront officials over a hyperscale data center planned just behind their homes off Bells Ferry Road. The project, already rezoned and greenlit last year, would bring a two-building data center campus and an on-site electrical substation to roughly 31 acres directly behind newly built townhomes. The City Council meeting, set for June 10 at 7 p.m., is the next formal chance for residents to get their objections on the record.
What the city approved
In a unanimous vote in mid-June 2025, the City Council rezoned about 31.4 acres at 1751 Bells Ferry Road from Community Retail Commercial to Light Industrial and signed off on a special-use permit tied to relocating the existing cell tower on the property, according to Marietta City Council minutes. That decision cleared the path for a campus-style data center development, although the developer still has to secure permits and complete grading and utility work before any vertical construction can start.
Size, power and cooling
Project documents and industry coverage describe a pair of two-story buildings totaling about 347,200 square feet, with an aggregate IT load near 108 megawatts. The larger building would handle most of the computing, and the campus is planned around a closed-loop, water-based cooling system, as reported by Data Center Dynamics. During the rezoning presentation, the developer’s attorney said the site would create roughly 40 jobs and that the developer would pay to build the on-site substation rather than shift that cost onto Marietta Power customers, Atlanta News First reports.
Neighbors say it's the wrong place
Neighbors, joined by an opposition group calling itself "Not For Us - Cobb County," argue that the massive computing hub is a terrible fit for land that backs up to residential property. They are worried about round-the-clock noise, heat radiating off the buildings, and long-term effects on water supplies and electric rates. As reported by The Georgia Sun, Ward 6 Councilmember Andre Sims pressed the developer on potential heat impacts during the rezoning debate, and the developer "acknowledged it would produce a lot of heat." Opponents cite state audits and peer-reviewed studies on data-center pollution and grid strain to bolster their case.
County pause doesn't cover this site
The Cobb County Board of Commissioners voted in February 2026 to temporarily halt new data-center applications in unincorporated parts of the county, but that moratorium does not touch the Bells Ferry Road project. The site sits inside Marietta city limits, and zoning was approved last year, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Developers and city staff have said the project will still need major utility upgrades, including the new substation, before any equipment can be installed.
What's next
Marietta’s official calendar lists the City Council meeting for 7 p.m. on June 10 in the council chambers at 205 Lawrence Street, where residents will be able to speak during the public-comment period, according to the City of Marietta. Because the council already rezoned the property last year, undoing or changing that approval would require further action by elected officials or a challenge through city procedures. In the near term, permitting and utility work, rather than another zoning fight, are expected to be the next steps before any construction can move forward.
