Jones County Commission passes 90-day moratorium on data centers right after developer backed out

The Jones County Board of Commissioners passed a 90-day moratorium on data centers during their Tuesday meeting, putting a pause on projects that have already stirred controversy in the county.

Commissioners said the moratorium is to give the county more time to understand the impacts of data centers and to create and amend codes pertaining to the projects.

It follows a proposal to rezone more than 600 acres of agricultural land in the county for a data center. The proposal was set to be voted on during Monday’s planning and zoning meeting, but stalled after developers withdrew the application.

District 1 Commissioner Sam Kitchens introduced this new moratorium during the Tuesday meeting, and said he is especially concerned with the pause on state-mandated studies for data centers.

Data centers are considered developments of regional impact, which are large-scale projects whose effects ripple beyond the locality they are built in, according to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

Normally, these projects must undergo DRI studies by the Department of Community Affairs to examine the scope of their impact. However, the Department of Community Affairs paused reviews for data centers in July, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Officials said the pause was not a moratorium, as data center projects could still move forward at the local level, but later said data centers are still part of the DRI review process.

Kitchens said he feels the county should wait to vote on data centers until the projects can be reviewed through the DRI process.

“It’s only paused on data centers, that ought to say something,” Kitchens said. “I have some real concern with that.”

District 4 Commissioner Daylon Martin was the only member of the five-person board to vote against the moratorium. He said the commission was breaking its own rules by adding the moratorium to the agenda during the meeting instead of putting it on at least three business days prior, as county rules dictate.

He also said he didn’t see a need to add the item and vote that night, as the data center project that prompted public backlash had been withdrawn.

“They pulled their application, what is the haste?” Martin said.

Despite Martin’s objections, the motion passed by a margin of 4-1. It’s effective immediately.