There have been a few developments this week as the debate over data centers in the state continues.
*The Macon Telegraph reports that a 12-million-square-foot data center proposed in Forsyth in Monroe County is in question after the city’s Forsyth Planning & Zoning Commission made no recommendation after a deadlocked Wednesday meeting. The project, if approved and built according to preliminary plans, would be six times the size of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and use more than a million gallons of water a day, according to a development of regional impact report produced by the Middle Georgia Regional Commission.
*Meanwhile, Decaturish reports that the DeKalb County Commission, at a meeting Tuesday deferred a data center proposal until the summer. DeKalb County has received a special land use permit application for a data center at 4358 and 4280 Loveless Place. This would be in small lot residential and mixed-use low-density zoning districts.
*And Capitol Beat News reports that data centers in Georgia did not produce the same high payback in exchange for nearly half a billion dollars in tax breaks as reported by state auditors last month, according to a correction issued Wednesday. In a report first released on Christmas Eve, the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts said the state effectively gave away $474 million in the fiscal year that ended in July by exempting data centers from some taxes.