County Manager Steve reported that he and others attended an Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) mobile classroom and tours of energy and data infrastructure, including a solar facility and a Meta data center. He told commissioners the county’s requirements — proximity to transmission lines and recycled water use — match industry standards and that Meta and other data operators look for those conditions.
"The requirement that you placed on the data center to be in close proximity to the transmission lines and how you're asking them to do the recycle for water, is the premier way to bring data centers into your community," the county manager said.
Steve described generator testing protocols observed at a Meta site — brief monthly tests rather than full-time operation — and said the county’s proposed zoning conditions mirror noise- and water-control measures the manager saw on the tours. He also said the tours included Georgia Transmission, a coal-fired plant, a 30-acre solar array that uses sheep to maintain ground cover, and Rivian product demonstrations.
Commissioner Flowers Taylor praised the county’s industrial strategy and described the area as a successful example of a low-visibility, high-standard industrial park. "Spalding County has the only green industrial park in the Southeastern United States," Flowers Taylor said, adding that data centers can produce far greater tax revenue than warehouses if the county holds firms to strict conditions.
Flowers Taylor also cautioned against unregulated development that, he said, had occurred in neighboring counties and urged the board to hold firms to county standards for noise, water use and zoning conditions. The manager and commissioners said they will continue to use restrictions and conditions as bargaining points with prospective data-center operators.
Ending: The board did not take a formal zoning vote at the meeting; commissioners and the county manager framed current standards as industry-aligned and signaled ongoing oversight as development proposals proceed.