Georgia already has roughly 100 data centers up and running, another 35 under construction, and hundreds more proposed across the state, and now a Georgia nonprofit wants residents to understand what that means before the next facility lands in their backyard. Drawdown Georgia has released a data center toolkit designed to help citizens understand the facilities and their impacts as the industry reshapes communities from metro Atlanta to rural counties along the interstate corridors.
The toolkit centers on a downloadable 29-page guide titled Data Centers in Georgia: What Should Communities Know + Ask?, according to WABE. The guide includes a six-part video series, a public community meeting checklist, questions residents should ask about proposed facilities, resource contacts, and guidelines for negotiating a community benefits agreement between a developer and local stakeholders, per the same report.
John Lanier, a founding member of Drawdown GA and executive director of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, said the goal is to change the tone of the conversation entirely. He said the toolkit should move data center discussions from fear-based toward fact-based, and he hopes city and county officials will use it to make informed decisions about proposals coming their way, WABE reported.
Atlanta Leads the Nation in Data Center Growth
The stakes are especially high in metro Atlanta, which CBRE has reported is the top market for data center development in the entire country, with a bigger percentage increase in construction than anywhere else in the U.S. Atlanta's under-construction data center capacity has reached 2,882 megawatts, a 52.3% jump year over year, according to CBRE figures cited in the WABE report. Science for Georgia has separately reported that the Atlanta region alone has at least 100 completed data center facilities, underscoring how concentrated the buildout has become. Not every facility looks like a warehouse full of servers, either — WABE points to Coda at Tech Square in Atlanta as an example of a data center that resembles an ordinary office building.
Data centers have become one of Georgia's fastest-growing businesses, and that growth is now colliding with concerns about the power grid and water supply. According to the Georgia Public Service Commission chairman, power companies requested an additional 16,000 megawatts per year back in fall 2023 because of data center growth, as detailed in a webinar recap published by monroecoga.org. The Chattahoochee Riverkeeper has projected that Georgia's data centers could eventually use 30 million gallons of water daily — about what the entire city of Gainesville consumes, per the same webinar summary.
Lawmakers Weigh Tax Breaks and Infrastructure Costs
State lawmakers are separately debating how much of the financial burden data center companies should shoulder. Georgia currently has about 100 data centers operating statewide, and under existing law many large facilities are exempt from paying sales tax on equipment such as servers and cooling systems, according to WJBF. Senate Bill 410 would end those tax breaks, while House Bill 1063 would require data center companies to pay for the power infrastructure and construction needed to support their own facilities, the station reported.
Lawmakers say the goal of the bills is to protect residential customers and small businesses from higher utility bills as the industry keeps expanding, per WJBF's reporting. Even if new rules are adopted, existing and already-approved projects would still be allowed to use the current tax incentives through 2031, according to the same report.
Separately, an ACCG webinar recap noted that 35 data centers are currently under construction statewide with hundreds more proposed, projecting roughly 90 million square feet of construction activity. That recap also noted that Georgia's Department of Community Affairs amended its Development of Regional Impact process on December 15, 2025, to require that any technological facility go through that review, according to the webinar summary. A site-selection executive told the same webinar that most proposed facilities are concentrated in Atlanta and along the I-20 corridor, with development following fiber and interstate routes toward Macon and Columbus. Monroe County recently enacted a data center moratorium, and Crawford County followed suit, per that account.
Local Pushback Reaches the Courtroom
Not every community is waiting for a toolkit or a new law. Residents in Effingham County filed a lawsuit challenging a zoning decision that allowed for a potential data center, according to WSAV. The suit identifies the proposed multi-billion-dollar AI facility as Project Camellia and alleges its details were negotiated by corporate executives and local government leaders behind closed doors, per WSAV's reporting.
Industry groups are also trying to shape how these fights play out. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce has launched the Digital Infrastructure Alliance, intended to promote responsible infrastructure development, WABE reported. Chris Clark, the Chamber's president and CEO, said the alliance aims to explain Georgia's statewide approach and community needs while increasing local transparency. Clark said ultimately it is up to each community to decide whether a data center is right for them, according to the same WABE report — a decision Georgia officials across the state are now weighing as they consider their broader approach to the data center boom and the state's digital landscape.
