Residents take sides as Monroe County Commissioners prepare to vote on data center

No one in Monroe County could remember when a planning and zoning board meeting was this packed.

It was July 28, the hottest day of the year so far, and a sea of residents in red T-shirts packed the Monroe County Conference Center just off Interstate 75, their anger simmering as the start of the hearing drew closer.

Board members had been expecting a big crowd, but even they were surprised by the almost 300 people who showed up — all to voice opposition to the proposed rezoning of about 900 acres for a data center near Bolingbroke, a small, unincorporated community in southern Monroe County.

The opposition succeeded that day, with theP&Z board voting unanimously to recommend denying the project.

But the real battle continues as the Monroe County Board of Commissioners prepares to vote on the project Tuesday evening. Opponents of the data center say it would disrupt the small-town character of Bolingbroke. Supporters, meanwhile, say it would generate millions of dollars in tax revenue and improve life for county residents.

A big change for Bolingbroke

The data center, tentatively named the Bolingbroke Technology Center, would be a 900-acre“mega site” devoted exclusively to a data center, according to a website created by the property owners. It would be located along U.S. Highway 41-S, just off exit 15 on I-475.

According to plans released ahead of last week’s P&Z board meeting, the site would include nine buildings to house computers, with substations and retention ponds throughout the area to manage water and power.

Residents who attended the July 28 planning and zoning meeting expressed concerns that noise and light pollution generated by the data center would disrupt the bucolic scenery that attracted them to the area.

“Data centers generate significant noise and consume enormous amounts of power and water,”Margo Kenirey said. “We chose our home for the quiet, the trees, and the promise of a residential neighborhood.”

Other residents said the data center wouldn’t fit with the surrounding area. Jeff Ruggieri, executive director of the Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission, said it wouldn’t make sense to put such a large development in an area that’s mostly residential.

“Keep in mind these zonings have to be compatible,” Ruggieri said.

The property owners who are pushing to rezone the land said the county commissioners can put conditions on the rezoning that limit noise and make sure the property retains as much greenery as possible.

Haley Newnam, a Monroe County resident who owns part of the property that is under consideration for rezoning, said she and her sister, Holly Doss, grew up on the land and inherited it after their father died in May 2023.

She said that she, her sister and Otis Ingram — who owns the other part of the property — are planning to push for conditions to limit noise and deforestation. Once those are in place, they said, developers who purchase the property must adhere to the conditions in order to build.

“They can’t just decide, ‘We don’t want all this green stuff, we don’t want all these trees, we don’t want those fields,’” Newnam said. “They can’t make those decisions once it’s put in place.”

Ingram said he doesn’t believe the development is out of place in the area either, as a rock quarry is located less than a mile down the road.

The property owners also argue building a data center in Bolingbroke would be beneficial to the entire county.

According to the MGRC report, a data center could generate around $60 million in tax revenue a year. Ingram and Newnam said that money would allow the county to fund new schools, a new hospital and road improvements.

“We see our project being able to increase the standard of living and the community quality of life for everybody in the county, not just the people in Bolingbroke,” Ingram said.

Is the area ready for a data center?

The Monroe County Planning & Zoning Board recommended to deny the request to rezone the land on the grounds that it didn’t feel like the property owners were prepared to sell and work with a developer.

Ingram said that he, Newnam and Doss don’t currently have a buyer for the property but that several companies have approached them about the land. The property owners did not specify what companies they have been in touch with.

Ingram left comments on LinkedIn posts from companies that own and operate data centers around the U.S., asking if they would be interested in the Bolingbroke site. The comments didn’t mention that the site needed to be re-zoned for commercial use.

“I am a developer of Data Center site of 905 acres with a 1250 MW capacity, abundance of water and all qualified utilities,” one comment read. “We are right off US Interstate 75 Southbound with over one mile frontage.”

The board also expressed concern that the property owners didn’t have an adequate plan to supply water to the data center.

According to the property owners’ own estimates, a data center in that location would use about 1 million gallons of water a day at peak operation, which would start around 2032 or 2033.

Ingram said the data center would get water from the county, but a report from the Middle Georgia Regional Commission — which is responsible for evaluating the impacts of major projects in the region — said Monroe County would have to purchase the water wholesale from the Macon Water Authority.

Rachad Hollis, a spokesperson for MWA, said that while MWA serves parts of Monroe County and has the capacity to support “future large-scale developments,” it has not been contacted by anyone with the project and is “not involved.”

“MWA remains neutral as the community and county elected officials determine future next steps,” Hollis said in an email to The Telegraph.

Ingram said it’s the buyer’s responsibility to contact Monroe County and MWA to secure water service.

Data centers are proliferating across Georgia

If approved, the Bolingbroke data center would be the second such development in Monroe County. The board of commissioners approved rezoning about 900 acres along Rumble Road for a data center in November 2024.

Monroe County isn’t alone in seeing sudden interest from data centers. Data centers have cropped up across Georgia as demand for computing power to fuel artificial intelligence and online services and applications increases.

According to commercial real estate firm CBRE, Georgia — particularly metro Atlanta — has become a leader in attracting data centers.

Amazon agreed on July 25 to pay around $270 million to buy nearly 1,000 acres in Lamar County, which lies just west of Monroe County, to build a data center in an existing industrial park.

This follows an announcement in January from Amazon Web Services — a subsidiary of Amazon — that it plans to spendat least $11 billion on new data centers in metro Atlanta in order to meet increased demand for computing power for artificial intelligence.

However, many localities have seen opposition to the projects. While state and local leaders once welcomed data centers with open arms, more places have become wary of their potential impacts on residents.

DeKalb County placed a 100-day moratorium on data centers on July 8 so the county can study the impact of the facilities and develop regulations.

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs stopped taking applications for new data centers last month in order to reassess how they should be analyzed when considering regional impacts. It’s not a moratorium as it does not stop new projects from moving forward at the local level.

As the July 28’ meeting wrapped, opponents of the data center whooped and cheered as board members moved to recommend to deny the proposal.

But now comes the vote that counts.

The Monroe County Board of Commissioners moved its Tuesday evening meeting to the Monroe County Fine Arts Center outside of downtown Forsyth in anticipation of crowds.

Despite the P&Z board’s denial, Ingram, Newnam and Doss remain committed to rezoning the land.

“It’s for the good of all of Monroe County,” Ingram said during the July 28 meeting. “Data centers are the backbone of today’s economy.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2025 at 6:29 PM.