City of Albany plans town hall sessions to discuss data centers with residents

ALBANY – When it comes to data centers, invective from detractors can reach peak volume levels loud enough to drown out, well, a data center. 

Residents from rural areas and cities are showing up at meetings to denounce the centers, and petitions are circulating online from Missouri to Michigan and from Pennsylvania to the Philippines.

The issue isn’t just in another state or country, however. Developers have had their sights on southwest Georgia as well. 

The Crisp County Commission in June 2025, for example, approved rezoning to allow for a 2.1 million-square-foot data center expected to cost more than $6 billion that is scheduled to be completed in several phases between 2029 and 2033.

A developer also is looking at Blakely for a proposed 12 million-square-foot campus.

In Albany, Aidan Hartwell has asked for a pause. Hartwell has initiated a petition on Change.org, and he also appeared before the Albany City Commission earlier this month to request a moratorium.

The Dougherty County Commission also hosted a speaker from the Association County Commissioners of Georgia on the topic in April to give some pros and cons of data centers.

Some of the issues that Hartwell raised included the use of water and power. A data center can use up to a million gallons of water a day, as much as a large apartment complex.

“That water will need to be treated, which is a further strain,” he said. “Centers are bypassing water regulations. The centers are a major drain of power.”

Pointing to Thomas County, which Hartwell said has initiated its own 12-month pause to draft regulations for data centers, he said that Albany should do the same.

“I’m for getting everything out for full consideration,” he said.

Hartwell’s petition at https://www.change.org/p/albany-ga-datacenter-moratorium had 217 signatures as of Thursday afternoon and lists City Commissioners Jon Howard and Willie Weaver as decisionmakers on the issue.

During the commission’s Tuesday meeting, City Manager Terrell Jacobs said that the city will host sessions for the public on the issue.

“We are (looking) at town hall meetings so they can have all the latest information,” he said. “Hopefully, we can do that in the next month. We are nowhere close to (having) a data center.

“We hope to have several community meetings, some town hall meetings to answer questions and discuss the pros and cons of data centers so the public will understand.”

For his part, Howard said that he became aware of the controversy around data centers last year during the annual Georgia Municipal Association meeting. The centers also do not have a large economic impact on the cities and counties where they are located because they require few employees once completed, he said.

“I’m doing some of the pros and cons of it,” Howard  said. “I said we need to do some focus groups, inform people.

“I do know it (data centers) requires a lot of money and it makes noise. I know it would have a huge impact on our water system.”