Residents press Paulding commissioners to extend moratorium, tighten rules on data centers

A steady stream of residents told the Paulding County Board of Commissioners they want a longer moratorium and stricter zoning rules for hyperscale data centers in Technology Park overlay districts.

"I think we should extend the moratorium and wait a few years and see how they play out for other counties around us before we decide if it would be good for Paulding," Taylor Kim, a Sweetwater Landing resident, told the board. Other speakers asked for mandatory air‑pollutant reporting, independent ecological monitoring, binding infrastructure funding guarantees, contingency plans for drought and decommissioning bonds or covenants that run with the land.

Technical testimony raised infrastructure concerns. "Their power draw can also easily climb into the hundreds of megawatts continuously, and all the heat they produce has to go somewhere," Jeffrey Baird said while describing AI data‑center operations and water and noise impacts. Multiple commenters also criticized the text‑amendment process used to create the overlays, arguing it lacked clear, plain‑language notice to affected homeowners and can allow large facilities 'by right' without property‑specific hearings.

Speakers requested that any future approvals be confined to true industrial zones, that the county publish independent environmental assessments before permitting, and that the moratorium be extended long enough to evaluate data‑center impacts in neighboring counties. The transcript does not record any immediate code changes or votes to extend the moratorium at this meeting.