Public Hearing: YES ☒ NO ☐ Department: Planning & Sustainability
SUBJECT:
Title
COMMISSION DISTRICT(S): All Districts
Application of the Director of Planning and Sustainability to Amend Chapter 27 To Establish a Definition, Regulatory Guidelines, and Development Standards for Data Centers in M (Industrial), M-2 (Heavy Industrial) and O-I (Office-Institutional) zoning districts. This text amendment is County-wide.
Body
PETITION NO: N12-2025-0972 TA-25-1247647
PROPOSED USE: Data Centers in M, M-2 & O-I zoning districts.
LOCATION: County-wide.
PARCEL NO. : N/A
INFO. CONTACT: Eva Chauveau, Long Range Planner
PHONE NUMBER: 404-371-2155
PURPOSE:
Application of the Director of Planning and Sustainability to Amend Chapter 27 To Establish a Definition, Regulatory Guidelines, and Development Standards for Data Centers in M (Industrial), M-2 (Heavy Industrial) and O-I (Office-Institutional) zoning districts. This text amendment is County-wide.
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommended Action
COMMUNITY COUNCIL: CC-1: Full-cycle deferral; CC-2: Deferral; CC-3: Full-cycle deferral; CC-4: Denial; CC-5: Denial.
PLANNING COMMISSION: (Sept. 9, 2025) Full-Cycle Deferral.
PLANNING STAFF: Approval.
STAFF ANALYSIS: The DeKalb County Planning & Sustainability Department is seeking to adopt an ordinance for regulations on data center developments, consisting of a physical room, building, or facility that houses infrastructure for building, running, delivering, or transmitting applications and services, or for storing and managing the data associated with those applications or service. The proposed ordinance defines ‘data centers’ in three capacities of minor, major, and campus - which is dependent on square footage, load capacity, and/or whether a substation is required for operation. Major and campus data centers shall only be permitted in Light Industrial (M) and Industrial (M-2) zoning districts due to their scale, limited employment generation, and lack of public accessibility. These facilities are not compatible with Activity Centers or residential neighborhoods. Minor data centers will be permitted as accessory uses in Office Institutional (OI) zoning districts and permitted outright in Office-Development (OD) zoning districts to accommodate small-scale operations in higher intensity areas. The proposed ordinance includes separation and buffer requirements, architectural standards, operational requirements, and supplemental assessments on water consumption, energy consumption, and tree preservation. The purpose for these regulations ensures that any new and/or existing developments do not impose upon the health, wellbeing, and welfare of DeKalb County Residents. The proposed ordinance considers the impacts of data center development on the economic, social, and environmental aspects of DeKalb County. Planning Staff is collaborating with DeKalb County’s Watershed Department to address water consumption concerns. Staff has also relied on key information from Georgia Power, Atlanta Regional Commission, and Data Center developers to ensure that regulations are conducive to the development goals of the County and the community. Therefore, it is the recommendation of the Planning & Sustainability Department that the text amendment application, which includes separation and buffer requirements, architectural standards, operational requirements, and supplemental assessments on water consumption, energy consumption, and tree preservation, be “Approved”. Please see attached Staff Report for more detail.
PLANNING COMMISSION VOTE: (September 9, 2025) Full-cycle deferral 9-0-0. Commissioner West moved, Commissioner Cooper seconded for a full-cycle deferral to the November 2025 zoning agenda.
COMMUNITY COUNCIL VOTE/RECOMMENDATION: (CC-1: Full-cycle deferral 6-0-0; CC-2: Deferral 8-0-0; CC-3: Full-cycle deferral 10-0-0. Discussion included but not limited to that the text amendment needed to be tweaked to address potential noise concerns, should not allow near residential areas, consider requiring use of renewable resources such as solar and rainwater catchments, simplify distance calculation; CC-4: Denial 6-1-1. Council cited not enough regulation for proposed data centers; CC-5: Denial 8-0-0.