Georgia's Data Center Boom Raises Questions for Mableton as Communities Weigh Costs and Benefits
- Stephanie Hanlon
- 6 days ago
- 11 min read
Editor's Notes: *We are publishing this piece so Mableton residents can get ahead of Georgia's growing data center trend. Having the facts early helps us shape our community's future, rather than just reacting to it.
— Matthew Stover, Publisher, The Mableton Common
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Georgia has become one of the nation's fastest-growing markets for data center construction, fueled by increasing demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence. But after nearly a decade of rapid growth, communities across the state are increasingly questioning whether the facilities deliver enough economic benefits to justify their demands on water, electricity, tax incentives and nearby neighborhoods.
While there are currently no data centers in Mableton, several nearby projects have sparked controversy, leaving residents and local leaders considering whether the city should welcome similar development in the future.
Georgia's Growing Data Center Market
Image Credit: Katie Tucker/The Telegraph. An aerial view of the Meta’s Stanton Springs Data Center on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025, in Newton County, Ga.
According to industry data, Georgia currently has approximately 160 data center projects. About 34 are operational, representing roughly 2,406 megawatts (MW) of operating capacity, while another 126 facilities are planned or under construction, representing more than 10,450 MW of additional capacity.
Georgia is widely considered one of the top data center markets in the United States, and industry experts say the expansion is expected to continue as demand for artificial intelligence and cloud services increases.
Do Data Centers Deliver a Return on Investment?
As more data becomes available on the economic and environmental impacts of data centers, some researchers and community leaders are questioning whether the public return on investment matches the incentives provided to attract them.
According to the state's fiscal projections for 2026, Georgia is expected to forgo approximately $2.5 billion in sales tax revenue through the state's High-Technology Data Center Sales and Use Tax Exemption program. That projection represents a significant increase over previous estimates. Separately, a University of Georgia report found that approximately 70 percent of companies receiving the incentives indicated they likely would have built in Georgia even without the tax exemption.
Becca Ford, a member of the board of directors for the Mableton Improvement Coalition and chair of its zoning commission, said she has yet to see evidence that data centers provide a meaningful return on investment for local communities.
While property taxes still apply to data centers, Ford said she believes some facilities are assessed below their highest potential use. She argued that if residential neighborhoods or commercial developments occupied those sites instead, local governments could potentially generate greater long-term tax revenue.
Mableton Perspective
Ford said no applications for a data center have been submitted in Mableton. However, she noted that the commission reviewed two warehouse proposals over the past year and explicitly excluded data centers as a permitted use.
She said her concerns center on environmental impacts, including noise and light pollution, along with the relatively small number of permanent jobs created after construction is complete.
"It maybe can help in a rural area with road construction or substations, but that wouldn't help us in Mableton," Ford said.
"They do too much to the environment and don't provide enough back. They don't provide large long-term job creation. It's the return on investment from a tax standpoint. Because we are not in the middle of nowhere, somebody's neighborhood is going to be near that hum.”
Mableton City Councilwoman Cassandra Brown said there are currently no known proposals for a data center within the city, but she believes local governments must still be prepared to evaluate any future applications fairly.
Brown noted that several large data centers already operate nearby in Douglas County, making the issue relevant even without a current proposal in Mableton.
Personally, Brown said she would not support a data center located near residential neighborhoods and believes Georgia needs stronger statewide regulations before additional facilities are approved.
"I think we really need to back up and think about the whole idea of data centers in Georgia," she said. "Georgia doesn't have good, solid laws around that right now. In some cases, ratepayers are bearing the cost of the expansive needs of data centers, particularly electricity rates."
Brown said policymakers need to consider the broader human and environmental costs of the industry's rapid expansion.
"There is a reckoning that we have to come to with this technology," she said. "Based on what I've been reading, a lot of these data centers are being built on a speculative basis. I think we need to tap the brakes on this whole thing and figure out how and why we need it."
At the same time, Brown acknowledged the growing dependence on artificial intelligence in everyday life.
"We use AI every day in our daily lives, so there's an irony there," she said. "But not a lot of people work in data centers. There are construction jobs while they're being built, but once they're operational, they don't require many employees. Some communities have been told they'll reap all these economic benefits, and we're finding out that's not really the case."
Brown said the controversy surrounding the proposed Marietta data center demonstrates the importance of residents staying engaged with local government decisions.
"We have a lesson from Marietta," she said. "That data center was approved more than a year ago, and people are just now awakening to the fact that it's happening. This really ties into people being involved in their local government."
She believes additional safeguards are needed at every level of government.
"I believe there need to be guardrails—not just at the city level, but at the state and federal levels—on how this impacts us," Brown said. "I don't believe they bring the kind of economic impact that the promoters typically say they do."
Brown pointed to recent residential developments along *Cooper Lake Road as an example of how Mableton's new city government has begun shaping projects inherited from Cobb County. While those developments were approved before the city was incorporated, developers returned to the city for design reviews, allowing council members to recommend changes such as additional brick and windows, which the builders accepted.
"It's something that we need to address as a society," Brown said. "What are the rules of engagement? How does this work? It's probably not going away, so is there a reasonable way we can all coexist with it? But that doesn't mean I want a data center in Mableton.”
Nearby Data Centers
Although Mableton does not currently host a data center, several nearby facilities illustrate both the industry's growth and the concerns surrounding it.
One of the nearby facilities is CoreSite's AT2 data center at 1130 Powers Ferry Place in Marietta, a 67,000-square-foot facility serving enterprise and cloud customers. The facility houses network providers and technology companies including Google, Akamai Technologies, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and American Tower.
Exact power and water consumption for individual facilities is generally considered proprietary and is not publicly disclosed. However, facilities of comparable size typically require substantial amounts of electricity and may consume hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each day depending on their cooling systems.
The Powers Ferry facility receives electricity from Georgia Power. Water service is provided through the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority, which draws from the Chattahoochee River and the Etowah River basin.
While the Powers Ferry facility has generated relatively little public attention, the Marietta City Council has faced significant opposition over a separate proposal to rezone approximately 31 acres near Bells Ferry Road for a new data center campus. Residents have expressed concerns about the project's projected electricity demand, water consumption and potential impacts on surrounding neighborhoods.
The nearby Flexential's Atlanta campus in Lithia Springs, a 205,000-square-foot complex consisting of two primary data centers, has drawn less public criticism, in part because it uses a closed-loop water cooling system, incorporates renewable energy initiatives and is located within an established industrial corridor rather than adjacent to residential neighborhoods.
The Mableton Common reached out to Flexential for comment as the closest data center operator to Mableton. Company representatives said they were unable to schedule an interview last week and this week but would consider responding to emailed questions. No responses had been received by publication time.
Environmental Concerns
Environmental impacts have become one of the most contentious aspects of Georgia's data center boom, with residents in several communities raising concerns about water consumption, electricity demand and the approval process for new facilities.
Georgia drew national attention in May when U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), displayed a jar of discolored tap water from a home in Morganton, Georgia, while highlighting residents' concerns about changes to their drinking water following Meta's construction of a large data center nearby.
Residents have reported declining water pressure, deteriorating water quality and damage to household appliances. Local officials have also warned that water rates could increase as infrastructure improvements are made. Some residents say they have resorted to purchasing or hauling water for drinking, cooking and bathing. As of publication, residents continue to seek additional state and federal review of the issue.
In Brantley County, residents have voiced similar concerns over a proposed data center development. County officials classified the project as light industrial, a designation that opponents argue does not accurately reflect the facility's scale or potential impacts. Residents have also expressed concerns about chemicals commonly used in some industrial cooling and water treatment systems, including chlorine compounds and bromine, and whether they could affect local water resources.
Residents opposing projects in Brantley County, Morganton and Marietta say their concerns extend beyond environmental issues. Many argue that large data centers have been approved with limited public awareness or community input, leaving residents to learn about projects only after zoning decisions had already been made.
A petition opposing the Brantley County project states, "In Brantley County, the construction of data centers poses a genuine threat to our communities. We, as taxpayers, should have a say in decisions that affect our environment and way of life. Alternative solutions, like promoting sustainable tech practices and seeking economic opportunities that do not jeopardize our natural resources, must be prioritized."
The debate over new data centers comes as Brantley County continues recovering from a series of environmental challenges, including what local officials have described as the county's worst recorded drought followed by the largest wildfire in Georgia history, which scorched approximately 50,000 acres and destroyed about 120 homes. Opponents argue those events underscore the importance of carefully evaluating developments that could place additional demands on local natural resources.
Legislative Response
As concerns over the rapid expansion of data centers continue to grow, Georgia lawmakers have recently considered several bills aimed at balancing economic development with the environmental, energy and financial impacts on local communities.
The Georgia Data Center Ordinance Hub, maintained by the Georgia Tech Energy Policy and Innovation Center, tracks state and local legislation related to data center development and serves as a resource for local governments considering new projects.
Among the most significant proposals were two bills that would temporarily halt new data center construction while policymakers study the industry's impacts.
House Bill 1012 would have established a statewide moratorium on new data centers until March 1, 2027, giving local governments additional time to evaluate infrastructure needs and develop zoning and land-use policies.
House Bill 1059 proposed a longer moratorium, pausing new data center construction from July 2026 through December 2028 while creating a state commission to study the industry's economic, environmental and energy impacts.
Several other bills sought to reform the financial incentives that have helped fuel Georgia's data center boom. Proposed legislation would have reduced, modified or sunset the state's High-Technology Data Center Sales and Use Tax Exemption, which critics argue has become increasingly costly for taxpayers.
Lawmakers have also introduced measures intended to shield residential and small-business customers from rising electricity costs associated with increasing demand from large data centers. Senate Bill 34 and House Bill 1063 would have required utilities to ensure those costs are borne by the facilities creating the additional demand rather than being shifted to other ratepayers.
Additional transparency measures have also been proposed. House Bill 528 and Senate Bill 421 would have required data centers to publicly report their energy and water consumption, information that is often treated as proprietary despite the facilities relying on public infrastructure and utilities.
All of these measures ultimately stalled, expired, or failed to pass into law before the legislative session adjourned. Despite growing bipartisan anxiety over resource consumption, intense industry lobbying and a dramatic, last-minute Senate adjournment gridlocked the proposed utility reforms. Consequently, the state's highly lucrative 2018 sales tax exemptions for data centers remain completely active, and developers face no new statewide limits on grid integration or water transparency leaving Georgia residents having to face the consequences of higher costs, lower quality of life, with little job creation or increased revenue.
Federal Outlook
While most decisions about where data centers are built are made by state and local governments, federal policymakers are also paying increasing attention to the industry's rapid growth.
The expansion of artificial intelligence has made data centers a national infrastructure priority, prompting discussions in Congress and federal agencies about electricity generation, transmission capacity, water resources and permitting reforms needed to support growing energy demand.
Federal lawmakers have also proposed legislation related to AI oversight, cybersecurity and critical infrastructure, while regulators continue evaluating how increasing electricity demand from data centers could affect the nation's power grid.
Unlike Georgia's tax incentives and local zoning decisions, however, the federal government's role is generally limited to issues such as energy policy, environmental regulations, interstate electric transmission and national security. Decisions about land use, tax incentives and whether to approve individual data center projects remain primarily in the hands of state and local governments.
As artificial intelligence continues driving demand for computing power, analysts expect both state legislatures and Congress to face increasing pressure to establish clearer rules governing where data centers are built, how they are powered and how their costs and environmental impacts are shared among businesses and the public.
Mableton Mayor’s Position on Data Centers
While there are none currently in Mableton, the city is uniquely positioned within this technology landscape as the only U.S. city to be 100 percent in the cloud, therefore dependent on data centers. Mayor Michael Owens, an IT professional in his full-time career, recently championed Mableton becoming the first U.S. City to be 100 percent cloud based with 100 percent off site hardware. Mableton was even a winner for the Smart Cities Connect 2026 Smart 20 award.
In the Mayor’s February 12 op-ed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, titled “Data centers and AI are helping my Georgia city punch above its weight,” Owens argued that new data center construction provides local governments with more revenue, needed jobs and enhanced energy infrastructure. He noted that Georgia’s reliable and diverse grid is one of the reasons the state is seeing a significant boon in data center construction.
“They’re also the backbone of artificial intelligence, putting our state in a leading role in the global AI race and attracting world-class talent and capital,” Owens said in the Op-Ed.
Now that we have more data on the consequences many local cities are experiencing as a result of data centers, we reached out to clarify Owens position on them for Mableton and what positives there are to outweigh the negatives but he was unable to speak on the phone or respond to emailed questions prior to this article being published.
“As mayor of Mableton, I will stay the course on data centers and AI. Our city of 80,000 people has a very small staff, so AI is a tool that allows us to punch above weight, while still being fiscally responsible,” Owens wrote, asserting his commitment to AI and data centers in the Op-Ed.
The Mableton Common will also explore the broader ethical and practical concerns with AI in general as this AI-inspired data center boom could have long-lasting impacts on how society is structured, what education young people will need for the future and the economic realities of the anticipated job losses from AI work consolidation.
If you have any tips, concerns or relevant opinions related to data centers near Mableton, please email matthew@mabletoncommon.com
*CORRECTION: This was originally posted as Floyd Road. It should've said Cooper Lake Road.
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About the Author
This article was written by Mableton resident Stephanie Hanlon. You can find more of her work online:
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