The Columbia County Planning Commission voted to approve a text amendment establishing a DC (Data Center) zoning district after a two-hour public hearing that drew more than a dozen residents, conservationists and industry representatives.

The ordinance, as approved, creates a standalone district with a 2-acre minimum lot size, a new table of permitted and conditional uses for data centers and related utilities, and operational requirements that include required predevelopment sound studies, a 70-decibel maximum at the property line for operational equipment, photometric and shielding requirements for lighting, and a written “will-serve” verification from utilities. Staff told the commission that the new text does not rezone any parcels; any property owner seeking to change a parcel to DC would still need a separate rezoning public hearing before the Planning Commission and the Board of Commissioners.

Why it matters: county residents and environmental groups pressed the commission for stronger protections on noise, water use and ecological impacts. The ordinance attempts to balance those concerns with standards tailored to modern data-center design — but opponents said the standards fall short on enforceability, buffer distance and water safeguards.

What the ordinance requires: staff walked the commission through the main features: a 2-acre baseline parcel size (with carved-out exceptions for stormwater and utility parcels), building setbacks and larger property-level buffers (250 feet minimum, 500 feet where adjacent to residential uses unless special mitigation like a berm and visibility study is accepted), maximum permitted building height increased to 75 feet, and explicit accessory uses limited to employees (for example, day care or cafeteria uses would not be public-facing). Photometric plans, landscape standards scaled to large campuses, screening for substations, and a cessation-of-operations clause (requiring removal of facilities after a prolonged shutdown) were also included.

Sound and generators: the approved text requires an applicant to submit a sound study at the time of zoning application and to demonstrate compliance with a 70-decibel limit at the property line for operational equipment; staff said enforcement would include a pre-occupancy verification study and the ability to require corrective measures. Generator testing was revised in the final motion: testing and maintenance are limited to backup/emergency use and must be sited and run to minimize noise and vibration; the commission accepted narrower language on testing hours and emphasized that routine or nonemergency running should be minimized.

Public comments and concerns: residents urged stronger buffers, lower decibel limits and firm water-use restrictions. “We want you to value community over computers,” said Marlena Bergeron, speaking for several conservation organizations. Alan Wyatt, a lifelong resident, criticized the 70-decibel standard, telling commissioners that his ambient measurements were about 35 dB and that “70 decibels is 3,000 times greater than 35 decibel.” Several residents asked that the county require closed‑loop cooling, more stringent stormwater controls, dark‑sky lighting limits and clearer enforcement mechanisms; commenters pointed out that a previously approved 2,000‑acre property in White Oak (Trammell Crow/White Oak Tech Park) already holds S‑1 zoning and would not be governed retroactively by this text amendment.

Staff and industry responses: Will (planning staff) and other staff members described the district as a modular rule set designed to be specific without rewriting unrelated sections of the zoning code. An industry representative with development experience said modern data centers can and do adopt closed‑loop cooling and dark‑sky fixtures and signaled willingness to negotiate project-level mitigation.

What happens next: the Planning Commission approved the text amendment and will forward the ordinance to the Board of Commissioners for consideration (the county’s process includes two readings at the commission level). Staff and the public noted that numeric standards such as the decibel limit and buffer reductions may be revisited as specific projects trigger site-plan review, utility letters and environmental permitting.

Ending: the commission approved the addition with a motion that specifically narrowed generator-testing language; staff reiterated that the action establishes the rules for future rezoning requests but does not reassign zoning to any parcel automatically.