Why has a Georgia agency paused reviews of new data center proposals?
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional comment from the Department of Community Affairs and to clarify DCA’s relationship with Georgia’s regional planning agencies.
As data center development in Georgia surges, one type of regional review for the power-hungry projects is being shelved — at least temporarily.
A Georgia agency has ordered regional planning commissions to pause reviews of new data center proposals because of an unprecedented wave of projects being pitched across the Peach State.
The Department of Community Affairs confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it has paused all new data center proposals from entering into the Development of Regional Impact process — an infrastructure review typically required for large projects. The DCA recently implemented the pause to reassess how data centers should be analyzed during the DRI process going forward.
The DCA directive is not a moratorium and does not stop new projects from moving forward at the local level, an agency spokesperson said.
While this reassessment takes place, local officials can move new data center projects forward without the additional layer of analysis and scrutiny that comes from a DRI review.
A DCA spokesperson said data centers are not among the 20 development types currently within the agency’s rules for DRIs, so it’s unclear how computer server farms should be evaluated using the review’s processes, if at all. Until this pause, the DCA said data centers have not been uniformly analyzed through DRIs in a standardized way by regional commissions because of this lack of clarity.
The state DRI database is a one-stop repository of information for the public to review major development projects that affect multiple jurisdictions. The pause on regional reviews will make it harder for members of the public to track new proposals spread across dozens of jurisdictions.
“DCA cannot speak to how local governments will handle local development proposals outside of the DRI process as the agency does not have a role in those local processes,” the DCA spokesperson said in a written statement.
Typically triggered by a rezoning request or permit application, a DRI review tends to be the first time many large developments enter the public eye. The process evaluates a project’s water consumption, power needs and traffic demands while disclosing other information on a development’s scale.
