Cartersville-area residents did not stay home on Wednesday night. Hundreds of Bartow County neighbors crammed into a community meeting to push back on a proposal for a data center on roughly 111 acres along the Etowah River, arguing the project is simply too close to homes and riverfront green space.
Speaker after speaker pressed officials about water use, noise and the size of industrial equipment that could land near the river. As questions piled up and answers stayed vague, tensions rose, with neighbors demanding clearer explanations from both developers and county planners about environmental and infrastructure impacts.
According to FOX 5 Atlanta, the meeting featured a steady stream of public comment and at times turned heated, as attendees called for more scrutiny of the site's proximity to the Etowah. The outlet reported that residents focused on potential noise, truck traffic and possible effects on local wells, all tied to building out the roughly 111-acre site.
Why Neighbors Are Worried
Residents told county planners they are worried that cooling systems, backup generators and substations could bring near-constant noise and heavy electrical infrastructure to a corridor that now borders a riverfront area. They also questioned what that kind of buildout would mean for nearby homes and the character of the Etowah.
County planning discussions and a recently proposed zoning text amendment would put conditions in place, including requirements for closed-loop water systems and on-site power generation, to try to limit those impacts. Georgia Media Group reported on those draft rules as Bartow officials race to keep up with fast-moving data center proposals.
Bartow's Data Center Boom
Bartow County has quickly become a focal point for large-scale data center projects, from Switch's 126-acre KEEP 2.0 campus near LakePoint to larger rezoning requests still working through county files. Trade outlets and project trackers point to a separate, much larger campus known as "Project Bunkhouse," tied to Taurus DC and Digital Realty and mapped across hundreds of acres in Stilesboro.
Data Center Dynamics and an independent dossier at PoweredByWho outline the Bartow County Planning Commission's recommendation on that project and trace the broader public-records trail surrounding the proposals.
What County Officials Are Doing
County planners have started drafting specific rules for the industry and have recommended changes to the zoning code that would require noise limits, closed-loop cooling and on-site power generation for data centers, according to official documents.
Minutes from a Bartow County public meeting, along with the rezoning packet, detail the filings and Development of Regional Impact materials that now move to the county commission for a final decision. Those public records include maps and staff analyses that residents leaned on at the hearing to question developers directly. The minutes are part of the county's formal record on the petitions and staff recommendations.
What Comes Next
Developers still need final approval from the Bartow County Commission before the Etowah River proposal can move forward. Residents told reporters they plan to keep showing up at hearings until they see stronger protections written into local rules.
Local observers and community groups have already pointed to petitions and moratoriums in other places as models for pause-and-review tactics while Bartow's zoning language is finalized, a pattern noted in local reporting and commentary.
For now, the commission's meeting schedule will decide how quickly the riverfront proposal advances, and county staff say public comment will remain part of the record. This story will be updated as the commission posts new hearing dates and developers submit more detailed plans.
