Athens council tables proposed data-center and battery-storage zoning changes after residents oppose plans

City Manager Elizabeth Borstad read proposed ordinance language and definitions during the April 13 City Council meeting that would have added “Data Center, Enterprise,” “Data Center, Non‑Enterprise” and supplemental regulations for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) to the city’s zoning code. Borstad read the enterprise definition as: “Data Center, Enterprise. A portion of a building or facility designed for exclusive internal use, built to house the high‑density computing infrastructure essential to an entity’s core operations and cooled by traditional A/C cooling.”

The items drew extensive public comment. Dozens of residents used the public‑communications period and later public hearings to oppose data centers and BESS in or near Athens, citing concerns about water and electricity demand, environmental effects and the pace of change. Several speakers asked the council to pause consideration or impose stricter limits; the transcript records repeated statements that speakers “spoke in opposition” and urged tabling or stronger rules.

Council action followed. On separate motions, Councilwoman Katha Lawyer and Councilmember Bryan Barker (for one data‑center item) and Councilwoman Lawyer and Councilmember Bill Priestley (for the BESS item) moved to table the final readings and first readings. Each motion carried unanimously. For the supplemental data‑centers regulations, the council’s motion specifically instructed the city manager to engage an attorney experienced in the subject matter and to commission further third‑party study and analysis before returning the ordinances for additional consideration.

Mayor Aaron Smith said the effort grew out of earlier contact between staff and a prospective data facility and that the city had worked with the Planning and Zoning Commission to craft definitions and a regulatory path. City staff emphasized that the text under consideration was intended to be adaptive and could be refined as technology and law evolve.

By tabling the measures and directing legal review and outside studies, the council delayed any changes to zoning related to data centers and BESS. There was applause from the audience after the motions to table were approved. The council did not adopt any of the proposed ordinance language at the meeting; next steps are legal review and consultant work before the items return to council for further consideration.