Newton County objects to three annexation requests as residents warn of data-center impacts

Newton County commissioners on Oct. 21 unanimously approved resolutions objecting to three recent annexation requests from nearby municipalities after residents raised concerns about water supply, traffic, noise and changes to residential land use.

The resolutions — covering Alcovey Rise LLC (a Covington annexation of roughly 1,500 acres proposed for a data-processing center), Falconwood Farms LLC (about 90 acres near Highway 278 proposed for warehouse space), and Georgia Strouds Creek Land LLC (Shrouds Creek, a proposed data-center site) — instruct the county attorney to transmit objections to the respective cities and to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to begin arbitration procedures.

Why it matters: Commissioners and residents said the proposed re-zonings would change rural and residential land to light industrial uses and could increase demands on county infrastructure, particularly water and roads. Several residents said local services and property values could be harmed if large industrial facilities were sited near neighborhoods.

“The county owns the water system for Newton County. You’re the ones that can set the fees, only you, by the law of Georgia,” resident Dennis Taylor said during the public-comment period, arguing that large data centers would sharply increase water use and require costly new reservoirs and piping.

Residents described other local impacts. Beverly Copeland, who lives on Elks Club Road, told commissioners the narrow, winding road serves two schools and a daycare and said construction and clear-cutting that accompany industrial development could increase runoff into the Alcovy River and threaten endangered plant communities. Jeff Bishop, a…