Jefferson County

What the rule says

We read the county's public draft, six pages, in full. These are the main points.

• Data processing, storage and hosting are allowed by right in the T District.
• Size and distance: a 5-acre minimum, buildings up to 75 feet tall, 300 feet from property lines, and 500 feet from homes (200 feet of that vegetated). Those distances are measured from the outer edge of the whole district, not each building.
• Noise: 65 decibels in the daytime and 55 at night, measured at the district boundary. The draft does not say which kind of decibel reading (dBA or dBC). One sound study is required before the certificate of occupancy. Fines go up to $1,000 a day. See our Noise page for why the kind of reading matters.
• Backup generators: the cleanest type (Tier 4F), with testing limited to set hours.
• Water: closed-loop cooling is preferred, and water and sewer must come from local governments or public authorities.
• Lighting: dark-sky rules.

Credit where it is due: the 500-foot setback from homes, the generator rule, the lighting rule and the per-day fines are real protections.

What the rule leaves out

• No special permit for each project. No separate hearing, and no required community meeting or mailed notice to neighbors.
• Water, sewer and power are checked late. The providers confirm capacity only when the building gets its certificate of occupancy, after it is built.
• No decommissioning plan or bond. Nothing says who removes the buildings or cleans up if the company leaves.
• No yearly reporting on water, power or noise, no well testing, and no limit on low-frequency sound.

The Ogeechee Riverkeeper asked the county to pause, send the draft back to its Planning Commission, and allow data centers only as conditional uses. It also raised noise, light and air pollution, the power grid and rates, water quality and wetlands (WRDW, October 23 ↗). The county's Planning Commission had asked for more time before the commissioners met.

What the county's records show

We filed an open records request on October 1 and got files on a flash drive on October 28. We read all of them. Here is what they show, and what they do not.

• A power plant company asked first. The records name Beaufort Rosemary, a developer based in Virginia, as the company behind Norton Mill Energy. That is a proposed natural gas power plant of 500 to 1,500 megawatts on about 150 acres near Wrens. Its slide deck to the county says it needs a tax break to compete on price.
• The county helped it ask. On April 17, the County Administrator emailed the Board chairman and the company sample wording for a letter. The letter asked the Planning Commission to add power plants and data centers to farm-and-residential zoning as a conditional use. On July 1, the company sent a signed letter asking for that change.
• The company watched the schedule. In early August, the company asked whether the hearing on the new Technology District was the 20th or the 27th. The administrator answered with a timeline for the draft.
• The county's lawyer wrote the draft. The administrator gave the lawyer four requests for it: cleaner generators, closed-loop cooling with water from a public system, a sound study, and 300 and 500 foot setbacks. Most of that made it into the final text. A required low-frequency sound test and plans filed with the rezoning application did not.
• Some model language was left out. The lawyer's own notes had a ban on private wells, a requirement to remove the buildings within 12 months of closing, and a rule that the applicant pays for any upgrade to county utilities. None of the three is in the final text.

What the records do not show: any data center company, any data center application, or any link between this power plant company and a data center. They also do not include any emails with the engineers, Georgia Power or the electric cooperative who spoke at the July 16 meeting. The county has not answered the part of our request about nondisclosure agreements.

The July 16 public meeting

The county held an information meeting at the Old Armory with a panel of engineers, Georgia Power and the electric cooperative. The script told the room that the county "has had interest from data centers, but no project in the works." It also said "No public comment for now." The county's own presentations say data center tax revenue could let the county lower its millage rate.

What we don't know yet

• How each commissioner voted on October 28, and when the rule takes effect.
• Who asked for the Technology District to begin with. The draft says only "this requested text amendment."
• Whether a data center company has talked to the county. The Development Authority told us in writing on October 5 that it was not working with one.
• Whether Jefferson will add a special permit, decommissioning rules or yearly reports later.