A developer's town hall about a proposed data center outside Kingston drew so many residents on Tuesday night that organizers had to move it out of city hall and into a nearby restaurant. Thor Equities wants to build on a site of roughly 561 acres along State Route 293, about two miles east of town, and neighbors showed up with plenty of questions.
According to FOX 5 Atlanta, Thor plans to develop about half of its property, and developers said the data center will use a closed-loop water system to reduce municipal water consumption. Thor executive vice president Raj Vohra said the project could bring net benefits through new tax dollars and help local schools. Kingston has fewer than 1,000 residents, so a project of this scale looms large.
The same report says Thor confirmed that no client has signed a contract to occupy the facility, leaving the future technology or enterprise operators undetermined. Construction would begin between two and four years after the required government reviews are cleared, the station reported.
Neighbors Split Over Money, Water and Green Space
Not everyone in the room was opposed. FOX 5 reported that some neighbors backed the potential financial benefits for Kingston, and Jody Hardin said the project could provide revenue for local improvements.
Others fear what a data center would do to the rural landscape. Paul Muir, who lives near the site, said development threatens natural resources, forests and his farm, and he said elected leaders had not been transparent about the zoning process.
Water has been a flashpoint at earlier meetings, too. The Daily Tribune reported that residents raised concerns about water supplies, wells, groundwater, noise, glycol in the cooling system, diesel generators, property values and quality of life. A Thor representative answered at that meeting, “We are bringing water in from 3 miles away, county water. We are not using water from the property.”
What Thor Says the Project Would Bring
Thor has pitched a 150-megawatt facility. DatacenterDynamics reported that the project carries an estimated $1 billion price tag, with completion targeted for 2030. The company says it could generate around $2 million a year in local tax revenue and about 50 full-time jobs, and it estimated water usage at 50,000 gallons per day.
The Daily Tribune account also quotes a Thor representative promising to fund a sewer line that would serve a Kingston neighborhood and downtown businesses. At the Kingston City Council's Oct. 5 meeting, Thor's McEneaney said the project is still early, adding, “We’re not even at the step where advanced site planning has been done,” according to the Daily Tribune's coverage of that meeting. The council took no action that night.
Conflicting Accounts of the Zoning Board Vote
Reports differ on what the Kingston Unified Zoning Board did on Monday night. FOX 5, citing city records, said the board voted 2-1 to recommend a special use permit for a data center on 261 acres along State Route 293. The Daily Tribune, by contrast, reported that the board unanimously recommended denial of a request to annex the site.
Accounts of the project's size also vary. A Thor executive told the council the proposal is for one 360,000-square-foot building, while planning materials describe roughly 350,000 square feet, and the site is variously given as about 559 or 561.51 acres.
FOX 5 reports the Kingston City Council needs to approve the special use permit and has scheduled its next meeting for Monday, Nov. 2, at 7 p.m.
Georgia's Data Center Boom Frames the Fight
Kingston's debate is part of a statewide wave. Regional Media News reported that the Kingston project is the 17th new data center on the Georgia Department of Community Affairs' list of projects with regional impact announced since Jan. 1. The University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences notes that closed-loop systems can cut water consumption by up to 70% compared with open, evaporative cooling, while a medium-sized data center can use up to 300,000 gallons per day.
The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District adds that closed-loop systems can limit use to under 100,000 gallons a day, versus as much as 9 million for evaporative systems. It also warns that Georgia is prone to drought, with such events increasing in frequency over the past 20 years.
