The Paulding County Planning Commission denied a text amendment request to add one parcel to the county’s Technology Park Overlay (Ordinance 25-07), expanding the overlay from about 995 acres to roughly 1,314 acres and applying a 200-foot buffer to the newly added parcel.

Staff said the overlay is intended to provide development guidance for large facilities such as data centers, addressing noise, water and electricity usage. The state’s development-of-regional-impact process may again include data centers; staff noted that any data center above certain size thresholds could trigger that state review.

Multiple nearby residents spoke in opposition. Todd Palmeil said he learned about the proposed change by phone the night before and expressed concerns about watershed and long-term water management, saying the community did not want a data center 'back behind us in our community.' Raymond Phillips, speaking for a neighbor, urged commissioners to deny the request and asked that the developer consider landscaping to reduce headlight glare into adjacent properties.

Commissioners discussed the origin of the request and confirmed it was initiated by the property owner, not the county. After public comment, a motion to deny adding this single parcel to the overlay passed; the chair said the motion 'passes 4 2 and 1' and that the report will be forwarded to the Board of Commissioners for consideration at its December 9 meeting. The transcript does not provide a roll-call list of named votes accompanying that wording. The planning commission adjourned after the chair’s closing remarks, during which he announced he will step down from the commission after many years of service.