The data center fight in Bulloch County, Georgia
As of September 27, 2026, Bulloch County, Georgia has a data center moratorium in force (action taken 2026-02-17; documented end date 2026-12-31).
Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.
Status today
90-day moratorium on data center permitting in unincorporated county; extended 5-0 on May 5 through Dec 31 2026. Commission voted 4-3 against outright ban on Sep 1; moratorium remains in place while citizen working group considers regulations.
SourceNews
read 2026-09-06
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
The project on the table
Burkhalter Road data center (4AM Development) — Awaiting decision
Filing LLC: 4AM Development, LLC · Acres: 26
Two-story 230,000 sq ft data center plus a 32,000 sq ft substation on ~26.5 acres at 6539 Burkhalter Road (R-4 residential to Office & Business rezoning). Planning Commission recommended approval 5-1; City Council decides Aug 18, 2026. Bulloch County, separately, has been extending data-center moratoriums.
Next: Heard 2026-08-18; decision pending. Call the board clerk for the vote date and get on the notification list.
Latest in the record
- 2026-08-18 — Statesboro City Council scheduled to consider the rezoning request - the decisive vote. · source
- 2026-08-08 — Dozens of Bulloch County residents gathered outside Statesboro City Hall on Saturday, August 8, 2026, carrying signs and chanting to oppose the proposed Burkhalter Road data center rezoning, citing noise, air pollution, water usage and wildlife concerns. · source
- 2026-08-04 — Statesboro Planning Commission voted 5-1 to recommend approval of 4AM Development LLC's rezoning of ~26.5 acres at 6539 Burkhalter Road (chair dissenting), with a condition dedicating a 10-ft frontage strip for future road work. · source
- 2026-08-04 — On August 4, 2026, Statesboro City Council (morning meeting) and the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners (evening meeting) each authorized negotiations with Kimley-Horn & Associates to design jointly funded Burkhalter Road corridor upgrades. · source
- 2026-06-02 — On June 2, 2026, Statesboro City Council approved its Data Center Ordinance on second reading in a 3-1 vote, with Councilwoman Shari Barr opposing. · source
- 2026-05-05 — On May 5, 2026, the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 to extend its data center moratorium through December 31, 2026, and voiced opposition to data centers in the unincorporated county. · source
Full dated timeline on the project tracker.
Source. Read 2026-08-07.
Recent news
5 stories tracked since 2026-08-28 across 4 outlets. 3× Local officials are moving to pause or block the project. 2× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. Most recent: “Bulloch commissioners reject data center prohibition, deny Highway 24 liquor store” (Grice Connect, 2026-09-02).
- Bulloch commissioners reject data center prohibition, deny Highway 24 liquor store
- Bulloch commissioners reject data center prohibition, deny Highway 24 liquor store
- Bulloch County Commissioners deny data center ban in narrow vote
- Bulloch County Commission Votes 4-3 Against Outright Data Center Ban
- Tabled data center ban back on Bulloch County Commission’s Tuesday agenda
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 5 headlines archived.
What to do next
- Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
- Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in Georgia.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- Georgia briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in Georgia
- Bloomingdale (33 mi) — Enactedfixed term, end date not recorded
- Garden City (41 mi) — Enactedterm not documented
- Savannah (45 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-01-29
- Augusta (75 mi) — Expiredterm ran to 2026-09-19
- Augusta-Richmond County (76 mi) — Expiredterm ran to 2026-09-19
- Columbia County (85 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Camden County (102 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-06
- Kingsland (110 mi) — Expiredterm ran to 2026-08-09
All 46 tracked actions in Georgia are on the state page.
As of August 2026 · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.