Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. I'd like to call uh the January 15, 2026 planning commission meeting to order. Um please stand for the invocation given by Russell Wilder and the pledge of allegiance by Jamie Lester.

Y'all would bow with us. Oh, dear Lord, we want to thank you for this day. We want to thank for the opportunity to serve our community. We ask that you look over this meeting. You guide us, direct us. Remember that we're all neighbors and remind us to to be civil to one another as we we discuss issues before us. We ask you look over our first responders, our law enforcement, our our fire and rescue here in Columbia County, our military here and overseas that protect us. We ask that you look over us as we all leave this meeting and give us a safe journey back to our homes this evening. All these things in Jesus name we ask. Amen.

Amen. ledge to the flag of the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We do have a quorum this evening. We have uh first order of business is election of officers. Mr. Chairman, nominations are now in order for the office of chairman, chair person of the Columbia County Planning Commission. Chairman, I'll nominate Commissioner Moody for the Office of Chairman. I'll second.

I have a motion and a second on the on the floor. Any more nominations? Uh, nominations are closed. Um, all those in favor of Moody as chairman, raise your right hand. Motion carries. [clears throat] Vice chair.

Nomination. Nominations are now in order for the office of vice chairman of the uh Columbia County Planning Commission. I make a motion to nominate Commissioner Holloway for the Office of Vice Chairman. I second.

Any more nominations for Vice Chair? Nominations are closed. All those in favor of Emmery for vice chairman of the planning commission, raise your right hand. Motion carries. [clears throat] Gentlemen, you've reviewed the uh minutes for the December 18th, 2025 uh previous meeting. I need a approval of those minutes. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve the meetings of the previous minutes December 18th, 2025. I'll second.

I have a motion on the floor and second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. Gentlemen, we've reviewed the agenda for this evening. I need approval of that agenda. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's meeting. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. [clears throat] Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to clarify that the planning commission is a recommending body to the Columbia County Board of Commissioners. The decisions made on reszoning and variance request tonight will be forwarded to the commissioners for final action on February 3rd, 2026. If you wish to address the board of commissioners at their meeting, please see Mr. Butler to obtain a request to speak form. Any request with a public hearing will have a minimum of 10 minutes permitted per side for the presentations of opinions, data, and evidence of by proponents or opponents of a request. The applicant will be allowed to speak first and any member of the public may speak after. Either side may seed their time during the hearing if they so desire. Getting into the debate agend agenda. Um, we have a new business massage operator's license. Um, that's [clears throat] I2 a A1 massage operator license for Cheryl Connell and Rodriguez. Will

there sheriff's request for a relocation for Seaw Transformations? Applicants are Cheryl Connell and Sarah Rodriguez to provide mil services only the administrative office at 155 Morehead Drive and the requirements of the ordinance. Staff recommends approval of the request. Okay, gentlemen, do I have a motion? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the massage operator's license for Cheryl Connell and Sari Rodriguez for mobile massage only.

I'll second. I have a motion on the floor and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. [clears throat] Public hearing part of the uh meeting tonight. We have a temporary use authorization. Mr. Dylan. Yes, sir. Uh as you've said, this is an application for temporary use authorization at 4017 Prescott Drive. Uh this is a aerial uh of the site. Uh some of you, some of the commissioners may remember um this is actually a an application for a renewal of a TUA affiliated with uh significant damage done to the home on this property because of Helen um repairs. Unfortunately, the the property owner's contractor has fallen through. So, he is applying for an additional 12 months to make use of a trailer on this site. Um this is the location of the property uh south of Old Evans Road off Prescott Drive. and it is currently zoned R3 single family residential. Uh again, this shows the location where the trailer has been for the past 12 months, where it's proposed to remain for the next 12 months. Um the applicant and his contractor have both been informed that all the necessary permitting will need to be uh gotten for any work done on the house there and that once the house is repaired uh the use of this trailer must be discontinued at that point and it must be you know uh it can no longer be hooked up to utilities there on the site. Uh just as the intent of this chapter uh is explained in the code. Uh this is a photo of that damaged under the home. again. Uh the property owner uh got a contractor that has eventually and sort of slowly fallen through. He has since uh gotten a second contractor that's now working back and forth with his insurance company to begin work to repair the damage seen here and that is why he is requesting the TUA and staff is recommending approval of his request

to renew his TUA. Thank you, Dylan. The honor applicant Ed Jones would like to come forward and add anything to what Mr. Dylan spoke of the road.

Okay. Any any other person here uh for this? I'm his neighbor. Yes. Come on up and you need to come to the podium, please, if you want to speak. State [clears throat] your name and address for the record, please. Amber Thompson, uh, for 4010 Prescott Drive. Andrew King, 4017 Prescott Drive. Okay. You have anything to He has recently been told that demolition is supposed to start on Monday finally. They were finally given a date. Okay.

So, but it's still going to be a while before a new house is built. Okay. Very well. Thank you. Any other member of the audience would like to speak for or against? Gentlemen, can I get a motion? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the temporary use authorization at 47 Prescott Drive. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor raise your right hand. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next item on the agenda, VA26-1-01. Dylan.

Uh, yes, sir. This is an application for a variance to a setback at 5359 Magnolia Court. Uh, [clears throat] there we go. Sorry. So, this is the location of the site again. Uh, just north of Magnolia Court, uh, east of William View Parkway and, uh, near the Highland Lake subdivision. Uh it is currently zoned RA and this is an aerial aerial shot of the uh the site. Um the property line we're dealing with is kind of uh you can see it's a flagpole shaped lot. It's the lot line shared with the property between this one and Magnolia Court. Yes, in this location. Um [clears throat] because this lot line doesn't intersect uh with a roadway, it is considered a rear lot line. Uh for it to be considered a side lot line, it would have to intersect with a roadway to, you know, benefit from a reduced side setback as opposed to a rear setback in the RA zoning district. And so we'll see in just a second, uh, for functionality's sake, uh, the applicant is requesting to reduce this setback to a 10-ft setback. Um, as would be customary with a side setback in RA zoning and, uh, in many other residential zoning districts in the county. Um, the structure that's intended to be constructed here is an RA storage uh, RV storage structure. Um, again, they would have to be backing the RV into this location. So, maneuverability is going to be tight and so they're requesting uh the reduction in that 25 ft setback uh for uh ease of maneuverability uh for the RV into that location. As we saw with the aerial shot of the of the uh property, it is uh the structure is very far off the roadway and screened from public view um in every way. Uh really the only uh neighbor that could be impacted is the

one that this is sharing this lot line. Um beyond that uh this uh section of the property is one of the last remaining areas where it's relatively flat. You can see with the concept plan here shown on the right. There's pretty significant topography associated with the pond and the creek at the back of the property. Um so again for ease of construction and uh in an effort to clear less of the property and maintain more of the property's rural character uh this location is also uh optimal according to the applicants as well. Uh this is a uh photo of the existing site. Again, they're looking to construct a structure that we'll take a look at here in a second to store the RV that's shown as well as a small garage annex off the side of the the uh uh building on the interior of the property further away from the neighbor. Um, most importantly with this application, the neighbor that shares that lot line has actually issued a letter of support for the applicant's request. Uh given again that you know largely you can consider that that is the only neighbor that could be adversely impacted by the construction of this uh building uh staff is recommending approval of the request.

Thank you [clears throat] Dylan with the owner Christine May or applicant William May would like to come forward and add anything. Um I'm actually their daughter Christina Blunt and your address 4845 Old Beller Lane in Grovetown. Thank you. Um, and I don't really have anything else to add of what we have any questions. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other member of the audience would like to speak in favor or against? Gentlemen, [clears throat] can I have a motion? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to recommend approval of file VA26-101 variance to reduce the rear setback at 5359 Magnolia Court to 10 ft. I'll second.

I have a motion on the floor and second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. Next item, VA26-1-2, another variance. Dylan.

Uh, yes, sir. So, this is another application for a variance at 3510 Gloucester Court. Uh, this shows the location of the parcel uh in the uh Highlands at Watervale uh subdivision um back a little ways off of Furious Ferry Road. and the parcel is currently zoned R3 single family residential. This is a closer look at the uh property. Um however, we're probably best served discussing the details of this application. Yes, with the site survey in front of us. Um so uh earlier this year, the property owner began a project to widen their driveway. As a part of that, they've uh installed uh what you can see here labeled on the right side of the plan wall, a retention wall. Uh it is constructed to be in line with the pre-existing grade. However, they were dealing with some topography over there on that side of the property that kind of produced the need for that wall. Um however, an issue arose with the wall. Uh Columbia County Code only allows walls and fences to be three feet tall in the front setback. Uh the rough front setback is a little ways in front of the house on this parcel. As you can see uh right here on the plan uh the wall is listed to be 4.8 ft tall in that front setback. So it exceeds that 3-foot tall allowance and that produced the need for the variance. Uh once this site survey was conducted for this request, it was also revealed. You can see back here the shed on the property is also uh constructed within a uh the setbacks for both the side and rear lot line. Um the applicant again he constructed a wall in line with grade. Uh he believes that it uh is construct it's it is constructed with a French drain at the base and so there aren't any issues with runoff with it. Again you can see it here. It's not out of character in a residential area.

Um again the only issue with the wall other than it being in a couple easements uh that storm water easements that the county holds is that it exceeds the height limit allowed in the front yard. It's, as you can see, not uh any kind of uh visual impact on any uh you know, street users or neighbors or anything like that. And the shed in the back corner of the property has been there for many years without any kind of issue. That is also certainly in keeping with the residential area and the surrounding area as well. Very normal for sheds to be kind of located in the corners of residential properties as well. So there's no issues there. Um, as I just discussed, the wall is the wall and the shed both stand within uh storm water easements that the county holds. Um, due to that, there is a condition requiring easement encroachment agreements to be uh an easement encroachment agreement for this application that is being processed uh in tow with this application. We already have that paperwork and it will continue to uh move towards final approval with this application as well. Um, beyond that, we also have a couple conditions explaining that the shed, even though it's because it's within the setbacks on the property, it can't be expanded further into those setbacks, effectively making that encroachment worse. Uh, and if it were to, uh, meet its demise in some way, uh, the new shed that's constructed to replace it would need to comply with code. As long as those conditions are met, uh, county believes that this application is approvable and in keeping with the character for that area. Thank you, Dylan. Um, Mr.

I don't have anything to add. You have anything to add? I didn't know if I No, sir. I didn't know. What's your name and address, please? Garson Hedrickk, 3510, Glouester Court. Okay, we have any questions? Can I get a motion? Mr. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to recommend approval with condition of file BA26-01-02 variance to reduce the side and rear setbacks for an existing shed and allow a retaining wall over 3 ft in height to remain within the front setback at 3510 Glowcaster Court. A second. I have a motion on the floor and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. Next item. Thank you.

Thank you. Next item, VA26-1-03, another variance to section 90.98 and 90.139 on Furious Ferry Road. Dylan,

uh, yes, sir. This is for a portion of a parcel at 348 Fury's Ferry Road. Uh, this shows the location of the parcel. Um, we'll see why we're talking about just a portion of this parcel in just a moment. Uh, but it is again just off Furious Ferry Road at this location. And as you can see, the parcel is splitz zoned. Uh the front section of the parcel is zoned C1 neighborhood commercial, while the rear and the rest of the acreage of the parcel is zoned R3 single family residential. So this application only applies to the C1 section up along Fury's Ferry Road. And this is a closeup of the parcel. As you can see, it is uh raw land in the back uh more the residentially zoned part of the parcel. Uh the only uh development on site is for a structure up very near to Fury's Fairy Road in the C1 section of the parcel. Um and the applicant is seeking to uh read uh make site improvements and make use of the existing structure. Uh you can saw you could see on our last slide, it is very close to Furious Fairy Road and constructed well within the 125 ft normal setback that would be established from Furious Ferry Road and C1. Uh the reason for that is this structure uh everything we can find on it uh indicates that it was built in the 1960s. Uh even the C1 section of this parcel was reszoned in the early 1980s. Um Furious Ferry Road uh has definitely widened since then and changed in character as well as site layout requirements have also changed in that time. That's kind of the reason that structure is uh you know constructed in this location somewhat out of place. And so being that the applicant is seeking to make make use of that structure, she was informed that these variances would be needed for it to remain in its location. So as you can see, a new uh

front setback of 15 ft from the front lot line is proposed. Um as well as uh some of the site layout requirements that have uh modernized or changed uh since the initial construction of this building are that uh commercial zoning districts are required to have uh buffers between their development and adjacent residentially zoned property. Um the property uh to kind of the uh southeast here is zoned R3 single family residential. So it does require a 20ft structural buffer along that lot line. And as you can see, the very tip of this property of this uh building is just within that 20 ft. And so she is requesting that again just the building be allowed to remain in its current location. Um again, uh most of the issues with this site are related to the fact that it's been vacant for some time. um providing this applicant the opportunity to make use of the existing building and uh make some site improvements like the detention pond shown as well as the paved parking lot shown on this plan. Uh granting the variances to allow her to kind of make these [clears throat] site improvements and uh bring a a vacant property kind of out of that vacancy and back into use. Uh we think that that represents a a reasonable balance of the code. And so, uh, this is a a photo of the existing building on the site. Again, she's looking to, uh, make use of that structure. Um, sorry, we'll get back to our slides here in just a moment, but um, yeah, sorry. So, there are a couple uh, conditions proposed with this site. Uh, as you saw, it was split zone. That's not customary in uh, Columbia County. We prefer for these uh, split zone properties to be subdivided. along their, you know, zoning changes. And so there is a condition requiring that that happen prior to any kind of use of the

structure. Um, and additionally, ju similar to the conditions we had for the shed for the previous application, we have a condition just explaining that if anything were to happen to this structure that's currently on the site that she's looking to make use of, uh, a new building constructed on the site would need to comply with the setbacks and the buffers instituted by code [clears throat] and not encroach into either one of those site limitations. And so given that those conditions can be met, uh, staff is recommending approval of this application. Thank you, Dylan. Are you Mr. Holt? I don't have anything. Okay. You don't have anything to add? We have any questions? Can I get a motion? Make sure that Oh, I'm sorry. [clears throat]

Is any other member of here today would like to speak for or against this? Okay. Can I have a motion? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to recommend approval with conditions of file BA26-01-03. variance to reduce the building setback and buffer requirements to permit reuse of an existing building at for 348 Furious Ferry Road. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. Next item. Thank you.

VA26-1-04. This is also the Fierce Fairy Road property. Dylan, yes. This is an application for a variance for the exact same property that we just took a look at or sorry for a variation to the overlay district. Uh this is the location of the parcel

and we already discussed the zoning previously. Um this is an illustration. It may be difficult to see but there is hatching on the uh a hatching pattern shown on the commercial properties that front on Furious Ferry Road. Um there is a corridor protection overlay uh district that's uh in place for all non-residential parcels up and down Furious Ferry Road that have additional uh in this case the uh additional requirements we're worried about for the uh uh overlay district are uh related to the architecture of the buildings. Again, as we discussed uh the existing building on the site was constructed in the 60s. Um the overlay district has only been in place since 2005. again. Yeah. So, it is most beneficial for us to take a look at the existing building on the site as we discuss this. Um, a couple things with this building that are uh abnormal for the overlay district are uh there's a 25% glazing uh or you know limit on uh uh windows across the face of a building facing the roadway. Uh obviously in this case with these large windows, they're exceeding that 25% limit. Um, beyond that, the blocks that are used uh for the exterior of this building are a smooth face block that is a an architectural finish for the exterior of buildings that's not allowed in that overlay district. Um, again, the larger issues with this existing building were related to their to its location on the site. Um, as you can see, it hasn't been in use for some time. So providing the applicant relief from these architectural requirements will allow her to make sight improvements as well as kind of uplift the the building with maybe a change in these windows as well as a fresh coat of paint as she's explained is her goal uh would really help again freshen up a site that's been vacant for some time there along Furious Ferry Roads corridor and within the overlay district.

So given that benefit for the surrounding area, staff believes this application is approvable. Um the uh again we're including the condition just requiring that if this building were you know for whatever reason destroyed or demolished or in need of rebuild um the new building looking to replace this one would need to comply with all the requirements of code. uh we're only allowing uh these uh concessions for the existing structure on site and so with that condition staff believes uh this application is approvable.

Thank you Dylan. Mr. Holt, would you like to add anything? Any other member of the audience tonight would like to speak in favor or against? Gentlemen, can I get a motion? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve file VA26-01-04 variation to permit reuse of an existing building at 348 Fury Street Road. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor raise your right hand.

Motion carries. If I could uh pause for a minute, could we clear the uh audio booth window, please? And could we can can we move on down? Thank you. Appreciate [clears throat] that. We got to keep that clear. Next order, our next item on the agenda, RZ26-01-01, the resoning from PE from PUD to DC. Vice Chair request for reszoning for about 418 acres currently zoned PUD planning and development uh to DC data center district for proposed data center development shows [clears throat] location of the properties in question again intersection rightsboro road Harlem road again currently zone planning development uh for the Greenpoint development uh the surrounding development or the surrounding zoning around this you have some M1 and RA RA to the east cross street more pling development for other portions of Greenpoint and also to the east as well. The north cross I20 again more parts of Greenpoint as well as some M2 development there of the site and the site itself again on Harlem Road and on Rightsboro Road on the next one and the plat of the properties again with the southern end of this property and also the northern end. And this shows the current PUD from back in 2020. And the request that we're we're looking at tonight is for a reasonzoning to DC data center district. And this is a very new district. Uh just got established back in the beginning of December. It has lots of things within it that are typically conditions for having larger buffers with this. We'll be talking about that in a moment. Um it has requirements for the generators, has requirements for different uses on the site. Again, it functions in a very different manner than our typical standard resoning like the C2 for instance. In this situation, what we're

looking at is about about three million square feet of data center about 2.8 million total with 30 360,000 square feet of warehouse as well. In support of that also substation to the north, they are proposing to reduce their buffers. Uh typically what you would have on riceboro road would be 250 ft or rice and road excuse me 250 ft. That's for 125 on this section here. And then no reduction on Riceboro Road and then on the different then on the to the west that would normally be 500 ft asking for 250 ft of underserved buffer. One thing with the zoning classification, the buffer u reductions are not part of the zoning. They are part of the actual site plan view for the site. The reasoning for that is that when you have all of the data in front of you in terms of the actual construction documents, the actual height of these buildings, the actual grading plans, you can better understand how this is going to work out. So, it's one that the buffers are not really part of this, but they are. We're seeing that yes, there is going to be a reduction asked for this, but again, that is not part of the the ask this evening. Uh, with the application as well, again, we talked a little bit about sound with this. You do have a well, let me go back the visual survey. kind of shows what we're going to be looking at for the actual review of of the uh the buffer reduction. You have here they do have the the BMS in place. You know, looking at how that's going to impact views from the street itself and also on the other side of the property to the south and to the west. So, part of with our part of the DC district requires you to present a sound survey. This shows what your basically your existing sound is of the property lines. Um this shows it here. We're looking about going from 75 at the most on the Avenue Harlem side to uh a little bit less than 60 or right at 65 and a half on the the middle of the site. One of the problems they're going to have is that has it has to be 70 70 dB at the property line. So there's going to be

some some ways to reduce that is going to have to be done with the actual design of the site. So there is going to be some some change to that. We'll see a little different way to do the sound survey with the next application. So in terms of future development uh so currently we have kind of two different future future de development maps to look at. We have vision vision 2035 which one is currently in place. We also have found for the future that is not yet adopted but does have uh these uses included within them. So you kind of have to look at okay what you have to kind of weigh them both individually but also say is there a way to make it work for both of them. So with the current uh uh character area you have activity center is a mixeduse activity center which essentially allows what Greenpoint is allows for mixed use development allows for professional commercial single family uh some multif family perhaps. So they greenpoint fits within this very well. Um, from a the standpoint of this request itself, uh, you do have the ability for things like the employment center here to as it grows grow into the activity center if you so if you wanted to view it that way. The other thing too to think about is you have high power lines on this site that do and you will need that for a data center. So it's one you have multiple things at play that can say yeah you can you can make an argument that vision 2035 would allow something like this here with the foundations for the future you have a technology and industrial uh future carrier excuse me which includes this site also across the street and then also the existing W park that we talk about later tonight. So it's one that you know the the plan that's currently in review and set to be adopted hopefully soon uh anticipates having this sort of use in there. Now in terms of again we talked earlier about uh having uh conditions perhaps or that are typical for development. Uh we actually have conditions on this one as well. Uh one of the ones that is actually part of the DC district is a

developer fund all necessary water and sewer raised for the the proposed project. Again, that is included in the district itself. However, water utility has asked to include that as a condition. Uh you will see that condition on all three of these. It's one that we want to be very clear. That is how this is going to work in any of the any of these districts. The second part is that a water and sewer usage agreement and our drought management plan may be required. This be assessed during site plan year within five year projection noted above. Um again they they want to know or have a better understanding of how water will be used over time on the site as it is developed in order to have a a plan in case they needed uh for assessing that last part of that prior to approval of building perstruction on the site five year fiveyear projections include water projections and sanitary sewer projections again that will be updated annually it will be required until the full scale of project development is complete and our major major technology changes our site infrastructure affect water usage All into account set recommends approval with conditions of the request.

Thank you. Will state your name. Uh Erin Aaron Bill. I am the chief development officer for Cloverleaf Infrastructure. Uh we are at 712 uh Main Street uh sweet 3100 Houston, Texas 77002. Okay. Would you like to add anything? Uh no. Happy to answer any questions if if anybody has anything. I I had one question. You had two buildings on your property that had 180,000 square feet called warehouses. Yes, sir. What would you be storing in that much? So, um

I'm sorry. I asked him. He's got two warehouses on his plat that shows 180,000 square feet per warehouse. And I was just wondering what that those two warehouses would be used for. Yeah. So the warehouses are used for basically replacement hard drives, uh spare parts, uh power cords, servers are dual corded. Sometimes those those cords go bad.

Um extra patch cables and things. Uh you'll note that they can be accessed from the outside of the secured perimeter of the data center. So it's kind of a cross docking situation. So the trucks can come in, load equipment into um the warehouses and then the staff from inside the secured perimeter can access those materials and take them directly to the data centers. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other [clears throat] questions? As far as noise, what uh what is the minimum decel level you think that you could achieve at a property line? Uh the 70 dB will be acceptable for us. uh we will have to deal with as will noted that there's already uh because there's already there's already an excess of of the 70 dB

excuse me yeah excuse me please keep your comments to yourself I will not tolerate any outburst or any comments um so let's let's be respectful and let let him speak and let him answer the question

yes the uh uh thank you the the operation of the data centers um even in a very quiet environment uh were able to achieve the 70 decibb at the property line given the current technologies that are used to cool the data centers. The cooling is the the primary thing that uh that drives the sound on the data centers uh from again from the cooling equipment and the way that the the data centers are designed today. The cooling equipment goes towards the interior of the site. There's a lot of attention paid to uh the amount of sound that's generated. So 70 dB is achievable again where it's already exceeding that. That's going to be a challenge and as Will said we'll have to work through that. But uh don't see really any challenge with uh 70 dB at the at the property line.

You anticipate a closed loop system? Uh yes sir. The the data centers all the data centers at Clo Cloverleaf has done uh have been uh our our customers have committed to 100% uh closed loop systems for cooling. Is that the plan for this? Uh that that is our current plan for this. There there is an end user or there will be an end user and they may come and ask for water. Uh but if they ask for water, that would be something that would be up to the county to determine um if you have the capacity to be able to serve that. But again, our customers to date, no one has has gone and asked for uh water for cooling. And it it will be an initial fill up of water to start the system and then

Yep. That's it. Just aial initial use of some water. Yeah. So there's there's really two uses of of water. One is to to fill the closed loop system. There's a little bit of top up here and there, but you know, very minimal. Um, and then obviously there is the domestic use. So, bathrooms, break rooms, shower rooms, things like that. Uh, the type of thing you would typically see in a small office building where you have uh, you know, two to 300 employees as we're projecting. So, that's the type of water use we'd anticipate here. And how often is that is that recycled out that you empty it and fill it back up? Uh, it doesn't. It doesn't. You just you consistently top up the system. Are there any chemicals in this water?

Uh, there is bit bit of a chemical similar to a glycol. It's really not a lot different than a than a car radiator. So, the the type of chemicals that we're all exposed to within approximate feet, you know, every day. Okay. Any more questions? Do I have any other member here uh that would like to speak for this? Thank you. Thank you. Do I have any members here in the audience would like to speak against? Okay, one at a time. Um, I don't have a list of names, but one at a time. Speak your name and address. You have five minutes.

Hi, I'm Alicia Taylor. Do you need my address?

Your address? 514 Lewisville Road, Grovetown. I'm speaking to this one just like I will speak to the other data centers that are going in. I have looked up and done the research. Below 70 dB is safe for prolonged exposure, i.e. normal talking. At 85 dB, it is safe for eight hours. At 90, it's only safe for two hours. That data center is going to be running 247. So, we're exceeding some of these levels. The power lines that he has spoke to, they generate electromagnetic fields. Those can cause cancer, especially increased risk of childhood leukemia. It's a problem. There's a fire risk with all of the power lines. You're destroying habitat and ecosystem. You have wildfire or um wildfire hazards especially to birds most especially to large birds like eagles and our falcons and then to the offage of water that is soaking down into and running. There's a lot of water out in Colombia County. I've got a pond on my property. There's a on nature's way and I realize we're not talking that way but all of that water that goes to feed lives or to uh water livestock to water our gardens. So now we're absorbing that into the things that we are going to eat. Any of our pets that are outside are drinking water from outside and I find all of these to be a little bit of a problem.

Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chairman. My name is Lee Muns. I live at 6343 Harlem Grove Town Road, and I'm here this evening to speak in opposition to the resoning request for the Pumpkin Center data location. One thing I want to bring to your attention is a DRRI has not been done for this particular location. And in order for Columbia County to comm continue to commit to be a part of the communities of distinction, that is a requirement. Of all the resonings being considered in this area, this particular request causes me the greatest concern, and I know it does for many residents who live in the close proximity to the proposed site. Less than two years ago, this same property owner presented a very different vision for the land. At that time, there was some initial concern from residents, but many people ultimately came to support the plan because it aligned with the way this part of the county has been growing. Families were moving into this area seeking a more residential environment, more space, more peace and quiet, safer neighborhoods, and less nighttime traffic. The proposed development includes the uses The proposed development included uses that this vision would align with medical facilities, the potential for a grocery store, small restaurants, local storefronts. It was a plan that would create a hometown feel, a place where neighbors could interact, raise their children, and build a community. That plan made sense for this location and for the people who chose to invest their lives in their homes here. Now, just 2 years later, that vision has been replaced with a proposal for over 2.5 million square ft of data center development. And therein lies the

problem. We have zoning laws, planning processes, and long range land use plans for a reason. They exist to protect the quality of life, to ensure compatible uses, and to create communities where people feel safe and confident raising their families. This proposal undermines those goals. We are already discussing three data center locations in this area. As of today, that represents appro approximately 15 million squaret of data center space and that number could even grow larger larger particularly at the White Oak campus which has additional property available for future expansion. At the same point, we have a have to ask where is the balance? Traffic is a major concern. Much of the traffic exiting 183 travels toward Harlem. And while some traffic heads toward Appling, the Carter between 183 and Harlem continues to grow. That traffic will only increase. We often hear that construction will take three, four, or five years and then it will be done. But those years matter. that those are years of heavy construction traffic, noise and disruption for residents who already live there. Noise is another serious issue. The noise study already shows that the current levels exceed the recommended standards. If more trees are cleared, more land is disturbed and industrial scale noise producing facilities are construction constructed, the impact will be far greater than what residential or mixeduse development would create. People have moved to this area in the last 1 to three years precisely because it was residential, close to schools and a planned neighborhood, not an industrial complex. I understand the argument about property

rights and I respect it. But though a thoughtful and transparent process, residents accepted a planned unit development based on a specific vision. They still support that vision. Changing course now for the financial windfall undermines the trust that was built in that process. Money is not everything. If we sacrifice the quality of life, no amount of revenue will replace it. History has shown us time and time again that money alone does not create happiness or strong communities. Finally, the primary entrance and exit for the facility would be on Highway 221, the Appling Harlem Highway. Anyone who travels that road knows it is heavily congested in the mornings and afternoons and often during the middle of the day. Turning this area into a multi-year construction zone will only make conditions worse. And when construction ends, we must ask what lasting benefit will justify that impact. In my opinion, the benefits simply are not there. For these reasons, I respectfully and strongly request that you deny this resoning application. Of all the resonings under consideration, this is one I am most adamantly opposed to. Thank you for your time. And [applause] [cheering] [applause]

good evening, commissioners. My name is Vin Muller. I live on Pecan Road in Appling. It's interesting to see that all three current data center requests have the identical paragraph that will refer to um for everyone's benefit. I'll read that staff does have several concerns with the request and has proposed conditions to address them. Water utility has requested that a five-year projection to include water and sanatory sewer projections be provided prior to approval of a building permit for any structure on the site. This is proposed to be updated at a minimum yearly until full-scale project development is complete and or if major technological changes or site infrastructure changes affect water usage. The intent behind this is to have communication and collaboration on any proposed utility upgrades that may be required to allow for better coordination over time. The developer or owner is solely responsible for the infrastructure improvement cost. Water utility may also require a drought management plan or a water and sewage uses usage agreement. This will be assessed during civil site plan review or with the five-year projection. Lastly, a condition that reiterates that the developer will fund all necessary water and sewer upgrades for the proposed project is requested. This is also a part of the current code for this district, but it is reiterated here. Here's my take on this. I'm beginning to think that the county has finally realized that the supply of water from the lake and the Savannah River is not infinite as many of the commissioners believe. I've also noticed that in the three resoning requests before you tonight, only the Greenpoint property has an estimate for water usage at 26,000 gallons per day, which I appreciate. That's a reasonable number.

There are no estimates for Bird. There are no estimates for White Oak, which has grown by 60% since it was originally reviewed by you. Do you have any water consumptions estimates for these other two projects? Guess not. Th this is just for comments and and your your comments about this. We do not ask. Um, and I know you don't have to answer, but there's no reason I can't ask. I understand.

It is interesting that in the last two, there's in the statements for the last two narratives that initial buildings will use closed loop cooling. Is the gentleman who supports this one said, initial buildings, they intend to use closed loop cooling. Intend is a weasel word that's put in there to say maybe we might, but we can always ask for a variance. Variances seem to go very well. They can choose any the eventual operator user whatever they term that is can choose any cooling system type that they want and that type will change the amount of water that they consume. [clears throat] These data centers and any others that haven't been disclosed to the commoners yet will require massive electrical support and subsequently will require Georgia Power to put generation equipment somewhere in the nearby area. Have you received any communication from Georgia Power about how many millions of gallons of water per day they will need for generation? I know you don't have to answer that, but it's a serious issue. A combined cycle gas turbine set uses four or five million gallons a day. Recently, there have been comments by the board of commissioners and discussions at the October 1st development authority recruitment meeting about how the evaporation from the lake is greater than the amount of water that these data centers will consume. It's a facicious statement. has nothing to do with a reality of the lake being finite, not infinite.

These discussions try to downplay the legitimate concerns many citizens and the Savannah Riverkeeper have tried to address and bring to your attention. Yet, the development authority has been discussing drilling wells into the aquifer and petitioning the Army Corps of Engineers for increased water allocations from the lake and the river. Now, based on your own concerns and the conditions that you've recommended, it appears the county finally supports and mirrors the concerns of the citizens. The county has sold us down the river, literally. and the approval of even more data centers will only make a bad decision worse. I am not in favor of approving any of these requests, but due to the earlier approval at White Oak as an S1 for data centers so they could operate under that basis, I acknowledge that one must move forward. That said, it is time for planning to quit doing the bidding of the board of commissioners and reject both bird and the Greenpoint requests. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] [applause] Good evening everyone. My name is Khloe Helen and I'm here today to discuss my concerns about the new data centers proposed for Appling. I'll get right into my key points. I have five of them. Number one, increased utility rates. Data centers increase local electric utility rates by driving up overall energy demand which constrain electrical grid capacity and force utilities to invest in costly infrastructure upgrades. These costs are often passed on to the residents through higher energy bill rates. You can claim that these costs will be covered by the operators, but historically this has been proven to be untrue. Rate payers nationwide have seen their electric bills increase at twice the rate of inflation in the past year alone.

Georgia Power had six rate increases in just two years that have driven up what homeowners pay by up to 37%. With the NDAs currently in place, we the public are forced to take your word that our bills will not increase. Number two, high resource consumption. Even a small data center can place an immense concentrated burden on local infrastructure and natural resources. In Newton County, Georgia, a metadata center that opened in 2018, uses 500,000 gallons of water per day, 10% of the entire county's water consumption. The data centers in Appling will supposedly use practices such as closed loop cooling systems. These show potential water savings of 50 to 70%. It does not make the data centers self- sustainable, and they will still put a strain on our local water infrastructure if not regulated strictly. Number three, resource efficiency trade-off. Data centers get hot. They need cooling and lots of it. Current cooling technologies force a trade-off between energy and water efficiency, limiting sustainable solutions. Data center cooling can be optimized for either energy efficiency or water efficiency. But with current cooling technology, achieving both simultaneously is not possible. Number four, climate [snorts] and energy challenges. Data centers massive energy demands are prolonging the operation of fossil fuel plants and undermining state renewable energy goals as seen in other states like Michigan, Virginia, and Nebraska. To ease concerns about environmental impact, data center operators frequently pledge that their facilities will eventually run on clean energy, including things like next generation nuclear sources like small molecular reactors. However, these remain largely theoretical. They do not exist yet. For now, companies claim they will rely on fossil fuels as a temporary solution until greener solutions become

available, whenever that is. So, number five, I saw in your letter to the public, you stated the jobs that this data center will help make, but data centers do not make lasting jobs. Data centers do not bring up high-paying tech jobs to local communities because they operate as infrastructure projects rather than traditional job creating businesses. Once they're built, they require very few on-site employees. The jobs that data centers do create typically are low-wage, non-technical positions such as security, maintenance, and janitorial work. These roles are often filled by contractors rather than full-time employees, meaning they lack union protections, benefits, and job security. As a result, these positions tend to be short-term and do not contribute to sustained economic growth or long-term career opportunities for local residents. In conclusion, the rapid growth of data centers with their enormous energy and water demands necessitates targeted policy interventions to mitigate environmental impacts and protect our local community. I am not going to make unreasonable demands. Instead, I urge the board to adopt sustainable growth policies for data centers, mandating energy audits, strict performance standards, and renewable energy integration, while also mandating transparency in both energy and water usage reporting. Broader measures should include protecting local tax revenues for our schools, regulating utility rate hikes to prevent cost shifting to consumers, and aligning data center energy demands with state climate goals to avoid prolonging reliance on fossil fuels. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. [applause] Thank you. [applause]

Good afternoon. I'm Julia McClendon and I live on Redgate Court in Martinez, Georgia. And I have several concerns, but I'll start with my main one. Um, there are many different types of air pollutants that come from this. And the one that sets me off the most will affect my students. I teach special ed children and a lot of them have respiratory issues. It can cause childhood leukemia which was mentioned before [clears throat] um sorry and pollutes the water. In Mainsville, Georgia, there was a medicine center that went up and the tap water became murky and sediment filled from all the local wells. The people could no longer drink their own water, shower in it without boiling it. and the preschool I worked at previously would have brown water every couple of weeks. So, we already have an issue in our county with that. And the PM2.5, which is a fine particle matter, which can be made up of different mixtures of organic chem organic components, chemicals, dust, soot, and different variations of metals, and it can enter through your lungs into your bloodstream. There's no way to remove it. You cannot detox it and it will cause birth defects and decrease fert fertility rates. Sorry guys. And I'm also concerned about the environmental effects about our very fragile amphibian population and our birds of prey which are dying at a significant rate. In 2022, the National Institute of Health mentioned that 68 um different particles have been released into the air and they cause gyological cancer. Um, sorry, but clean water is my main

thing. And also, um, data center sales have been exempt on capital equipment purchases on their taxes in Northern Virginia and s southern Georgia. Um, $33 million tax exempt, which became a burden on the local taxpayers and increase the local taxpayers power bills. So I have questions that will have to be rhetorical but my questions will be where will the water be sourced from and as said it will be topped off how much how often will it be topped off and children in our county don't have free lunches so I would like to focus more on our own people before putting toxins in the air and before a parasitic data center is erected.

Thank you. [applause] Thank you.

Joanne Murdoch, 1547 Swint Road, very close to Greenpoint. Um, some people might know me as Moan Jurok. Just want to be clear. [clears throat]

It was pointed out to me earlier tonight that I was here when Greenpoint originally asked for their PUD back in like 2020 fighting against that. I'm not here to bash the data centers. I don't want it. But I'm here because of the Greenpoint development plan as it was originally. I was opposed to it, but it passed and they've ended up being great neighbors. The plan looked lovely, beautiful. Plenty of people bought into it. They bought their home. I've been 30 years at my house. It was our forever. It is our forever home. And this data center does not fit with anything in that area. The promises made in 2020 to get the reasonzoning for this pud and mud development has been just some say because of the economy and the housing not selling they're looking to try and get their money out somehow since they can't sell the houses. We citizens who live around there shouldn't have to pay for that. We shouldn't risk everything the people in Greenpoint bought and put their money into because the developer had a bad economy come up on him and now he can't get his money back. We trusted him to provide a product and now he's trying to change the game. And I know there's some people who say that nobody wants to have a house on the side of the interstate. This is perfect use for that land along the interstate. But I ask everybody to ride up and down I20 eastbound and westbound lanes between Bair Road and the way stations and you will see large residential developments on the interstate. Canterberry Farms, lots of houses right along. People do live along the interstate.

I just ask that you do not reszone. Keep the development that was originally granite back in 2020. Thank you. [applause]

Do I have Do I have any other member of the audience tonight who like to speak against? State your name and address for the record, please.

Cassandra McCoy, 523 Cranberry Circle. All right, I've got this. I'm here to speak in opposition to the 944 acre bird farms project. This development isn't just a building. It is a permanent ecological and resource-heavy industrial footprint that Colombia County cannot afford. The facility is estimated to pull 6 million gallons a day. But it isn't just about what they take, it's about what they put back. The water isn't evaporated, is often discharged as blowown water. This waste water is concentrated with bioides, corrosion inhibitors, and heavy metals used to keep cooling pipes clean. When 944 acres of land are paved over, this chemical runoff along with thermal pollution enters our local creeks and groundwater. We're risking the purity of the very aquafer our appling neighbors drink from. [clears throat] Second, 944 acres of rural conservation land is a vital ecosystem. This project will replace forests and fields with a massive concrete heat island. This doesn't just move wildlife, it destroys it. The 247 industrial noise at 70 dB, the sound of a constant vacuum, disorients birds and disrupts the breeding cycles of local species. Furthermore, the artificial light pollution from this campus in size disorients migr migratory birds and nocturnal animals. We are trading the natural heritage heritage of Georgia's for a ghost campus that offers no life to the land it sits on. Developers promise 200 to 300 jobs, but at what cost? We are getting one job for every three acres while community gets the industrialcale diesel pollution. Testing hundreds of backup generators releases nitrogen and oxides into our air. We're being asked to breathe diesel exhaust and listen to industrial humming so that a few hundred people can have jobs. Not permanently, by the way. That is a bad deal for the thousands of families who live here for the peace, the clean air, and the clean water. do

not approve this project. Every city that has had a data center has regretted it in a way of their water, their air, or just their peace of life, their quality of life. Thank you for your time. Thank you. [applause] Mr. Could I ask can I ask Aaron a couple questions real quick that I think may cut down on a few speakers that, you know, have come up from some of the folks who have already spoken. Erin, would you mind answering a few questions? [clears throat] Uh yes sir, happy. Yeah. Would will the buildings be seen from 221 Harlem Highway?

Uh there is 100 ft of old growth trees and buffer that are there. Uh if you look at uh some of the sections and renderings, uh it is really not going to be seen. It's set several hundred feet back again with uh depending on where the road is actually the most of that site actually sits above appling hard and Harlem road. So uh no okay I know you talked about water usage and a few folks have asked about the topping off of the closed loop system. Yep. Quantify that. What what does that look like? What does it cost to fill up the system or Yeah.

Quantity to fill up the system? So, uh, the fill of a system might be eight or 10,000 gallons a day, which is again less than what we would project for an office use, right? Which is, I think we had 26 or 28,000. Uh, so it really is filling that system. And then it's just there's just a tiny bit of evaporation through the operation. Uh, it would just be a valve that would automatically fill and we're again, we're talking a few gallons a day minimally. It's not it's not a refill. Okay. Keep your comments to yourself, please. Okay,

I've got one as well. Um the the last lady that spoke referenced diesel versus backup measel. Are yards going to be diesel or natural gas? My understanding most of these are natural gas because it's just cheaper.

Yeah. So the um uh the backup generators will be diesel. Uh there will not be hundreds on site. Uh there's the the way modern data centers are done. We used to back up uh 100% of the the uh data center with diesel backup. Um, however, um, when you get to larger scale sites, you can't put that many generators on a site, there's a thing from the EPA called PSD, the prevention of significant deterioration. So, it creates too large of a pollution plume to be able to put that many generators on site. So, it's not feasible uh, from the EPA rules. The EPA sets the standards. The state then monitors those standards. So, what people have migrated to is just backing up the network portions of the building. So you might get 12 or so uh diesel generators per building just backing up the generators. Then there's battery backup on site to be able to run the cooling systems to cool down the chips in the event that you do get a power outage. But you do want to keep the network up because that's multiple days of configuration once the power does come back up. So it really is a reduced generator scheme um on these on these larger sites. Now again, hundreds of generators is not technically or uh reasonable reasonably feasible under the EPA and the state laws.

But what kind of megawatt or wattage put out is each generator? Um typically they they go in groups of four. So you put in um three megawatt generators in what's called a distributed redundant. So you put in four generators um assuming that one of them is going to fail. So then three uh three megawatt generators would set up and again you would probably put in 12 to 16 of those. So again you're just backing up the network uh portion of the uh building. Diesel generators have a failure rate of about 6 to 8% on a on a hot start when it when that they cut over. So that's why you need the the redundancy in the generators. Okay. Is this an AI facility or is this a data storage center?

Uh this will likely be an AI uh data center, not a cloud. uh cloud data centers tend to go in regions of where there's there's multiples where you need sort of three sets. Um in my past life, I've sourced those in Georgia uh in the Atlanta area and others with with Microsoft and others, but standalone sites like this in 2026 uh tend to be AI sites. And then with the generators, when I know you're talking about how often do you test them? I know you only cut the the main ones on when you got a power failure, but what's your testing?

Uh the testing tends to be uh once a month with a pre-arranged schedule. Um they get tested at the same time uh every month so the residents know when they're when they're tripping on. It reminds me, I grew up in Nebraska at 10 o'clock the first Saturday of every month, we had tornado sirens that went off. So that schedule will be set. Um they they run for about an hour to make sure that they get up to full heat, but 40 minutes to an hour once a month. Um and I believe within the uh within the zoning um it states that uh that needs to be done between uh 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. during the weekdays um excluding federal holidays. And so uh the data center would um set that schedule and maintain that that schedule for the uh the testing.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. approach. Anything else, Mr. Chairman? Just just kind of as a housekeeping thing before we let the next speaker go. This is just for this is just for just for this application. We'll hold two more public hearings, one for each of the other two. So, just if you're if you're going to speak on this one, that's fine. This is the time to do it. Um if you're going to speak on one of the other ones, there will be a public hearing for each of those coming up after this. Yeah, this is this is just the reasonzoning to DC for the uh pumpkin for the pump for the uh bird farm. Yeah, that's a pumpkin center.

No, pumpkin. Pumpkin center.

Okay, go ahead. Say your name. Name and address, please. Guy Febiger, 5206 White Oak Road, Appling, Georgia. This is a totally unprepared uh comment section. So I'm hearing the comments about a closed loop system. And if you asked him the question, can I ask him a question as well? Sure.

Closed loop system. Are we talking primarily just the chilled water side using the glycol? Is that the heating side getting dissipating the heat as well? Um I don't know procedurally how we want to do this. I'm happy to continue to answer questions. Uh the closed loop system uh utilizes um the glycol and water in a closed loop that's circulated to the chip. The chip is then the then stays in the closed loop system goes outside um where it is evaporated very similar to a residential system where the heat is rejected um outside by condenser fans. Yes sir. Not a cooling tower. Not a cooling tower. Yep. No water. Cool.

Thank you. Let's collect all the questions. Yeah. What we'll do is you if you have questions, you can a ask those questions. You we we'll bring him back at the end. Great. To answer any questions that any other member here has in opposition and we have him come back up to answer any questions.

Okay. Thank you. That was the last question I had for uh starting out earlier this evening. uh we were uh subjected to a lot of variances and a lot of the variances surrounded around the character of this county. These data centers do not meet the character of Colombia County. Is that what we want to you know project to our offspring to people that come to visit for the masters? Are we going to change our Columbia County signs to welcome to Colombia County data center of Georgia? This does not meet a strong and prosperous county greed to bring in quote unquote money. Now, I think a lot of our county neighbors think it's perfectly fine. It's out in the country. But I bet you if you changed your their variances and had it in their backyard where they were subjected to the noise and the generator starting monthly, sounding like a tornado siren that they would be objecting as well. So please, gentlemen, take this into consideration. Not just today, but the longevity of Columbia County. Technologies are going to change. And then we're going to be stuck with an Augusta Mall on a scale that you've never seen before. And we're going to be stuck with these buildings. And we're going to be stuck with this for the rest of our lives. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Hello, my name is Kelly Bailey and my

family and I live at 4238 White House Street. [clears throat] We just moved into Greenpoint last fall after graduating nursing school and we did not expect any of this. Would never have chose to move there. We moved there because it was supposed to be a good location, rural, not a lot of noise, not a lot of pollution, and a safe place for my two kids to grow up. So, please do not approve this. [applause] Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Lindsay Brantley. I live in Pumpkin Center. I grew up in Pumpkin Center and I actually moved back there and we built our forever home nine years ago when we were raising our boys there. I want to address an important ethical and civic issue with this particular land parcel. It also applies to Bird, but I'm speaking about Pumpkin Center. A recent notice was posted online on January the 8th for a special called meeting to hear public comments on the draft foundations for the future comprehensive plan. This meeting is to be held on January 29th and a final plan has not been finalized or voted on. This confirms to me that vision 2035 is still in place. It may not be legally binding or even respected by the majority of our commissioners from what I've seen, but it was put together with great care, resources, taxpayer dollars, and input from the community. It was published in 2018 and it's been revised in 2021. Question five under section C of the application of this reszone application required that Mr. Bill explain whether the zoning proposal is compatible with the purpose and intent of the vision 2035 comprehensive plan. So compliance with this vision is still an active part of our resoning consideration process according to this question on the application. Mr. Mr. Bill pulled the pieces that fit his data center plans, but he failed to mention that it disregards the agricultural and residential character land use as others have mentioned. This is likely because Mr. Prather's pud rezone already disregarded the RA land use uh back in 2020 when it was voted through unanimously. But it's not Mr. Bill or Mr. Prather's job to uphold our county's vision and land use intent. It's the job of our colle elected commissioners.

Asking our commissioners and their appointees, you all, to uphold this plan because it is the right and ethical thing to do is the only option we have right now. It is your ethical and civic duty to preserve Harlem's and Appling's dwindling dwindling rural character through basic compliance. [applause] through basic compliance with vision 2035. I have asked Chairman Duncan this important question and I would ask you to consider it as well in closing. Since vision 2035 is still our county's guiding land use document. Shouldn't data center reszoning requests that conflict with land use character be denied under the current vision 2035 or be deferred until a new comprehensive plan is adopted through public input and a hearing and final approval? Thank you.

Thank you. [applause] Hey, good evening. My name is uh Dorian Duplain. I live in Greenpoint. I've been there five years almost from the beginning. I moved there for the exact same reasons the young lady said she moved there. Peace and quiet. I'm not planning on moving. I don't want to move. I may be forced to move, but I I just want to say a couple of things. Um, I spent almost 30 years working in the IT industry. I I've been around infrastructure. I've been around applications. I've got a degree in technology as well. I've been in data centers. Couple of things on the noise. 70 dB at the property line. That's DBA. That's us talking. That's mid to high range. It is not DBC. DBC is low frequency. Think you're out driving and you hear somebody with this really loud stereo that vibrates your windows. It vibrates your chest. That's DBC. If if DBC exceeds 70 dB, we're all going to feel it. We'll feel it in our bodies. The windows are going to rattle. The walls are going to rattle. It could even be in the ground. Um, the current 70 decel limit only is talking about DBA. The study made no mention of DBC. The study looked at traffic noise. Traffic noise is intermittent. It comes and goes. That's not a problem. Um, but DBC is 24/7 365. We will hear that. We go outside, we're going to hear it. We're going to feel it. We're going to be inside. We're going to feel it. We're going to hear it. That is very disruptive to the uh the human biological system. You're not going to be able to rest and relax. So, I think the study's flawed. And no mention of DBC. Um, the pine trees aren't going to stop the sound. The DBC can pass through pine trees. The needles are useless for

stopping the sound. The pine trees are like lollipops. Up here's all the needles. They don't do anything. And the trunks aren't going to stop it. It'll blow right on through. And that data center is about 1,700 feet from the school, the Harlem Middle School. It's going to affect the middle school as well. I drove by the other day. All kinds of kids out there on the football field. What's going to happen to them with with the uh DBC, the PM2.5 and the PM10? particulate matter, pollution, air pollution. Um, a 500 foot setback is not going to be sufficient. It'll take a lot more than that to stop the DBC. You probably have to construct some serious BMS. Uh, they they do make some soundproof fencing. Um, you probably ought to be monitoring for sound as well on on the Greenpoint property line. You should be monitoring real time DBA plus DBC and that should be available to the residents to look up online and make sure they're in compliance. If this thing goes through, I am opposed. I am not in favor of this. I'm a technology guy. I like technology. I'm a geek, but this is not something I'm in favor of. I think it would be detrimental to the neighborhood. I think we're going to take a bath on property values and we can't recover. You know, what about everybody spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy houses in there? How does that help them at all? So, let me see here. Um, line of sight. I think we're going to see the buildings. They're 75 ft high. Summer Greenpoint is at a higher elevation, I think. And I think we're going to see those buildings. Let's see what else here. Um, I would call this hypers scale. Yeah, if it were a standalone facility, it's it's four buildings, but it's not standalone. You have a contiguous plan here, 29 up in White Oak, probably uh 16 to 18 over in a Bird Farm, plus another four. How How is that not a hypers scale facility? I was at the commissioner's meeting the other day and they said, "Oh, it's a standalone. It's not a hypers scale." I

say it is a hypers scale. You can't have 45 to 50 um data centers in a contiguous group and not call that not hypers scale. Uh he mentioned the generators. Okay, we got four per building. Multiply that times 50 buildings. So, see what else here? Oh, water. I see water as a problem. We're already have a drought condition at the lake. What's going to happen when all these things get built? Even if they're closed loop, they're still going to they got to prime them and they're still going to draw water down. It's a forever thing. See if there's anything else here. Um, yeah, it is inside facing that may help. He did mention that. See here. Um, oh, as far as employment goes, our data center, we never had many employees. We had a couple of guys for maintenance. You know, if something needed changed out, they went and changed out. We're not talking hundreds of people working here. Initial construction will be temporary workers. Sure. Once they go away, on-site personnel will be minimal. It's not like it's going to bring in a bunch of high-paying jobs.

Let me ask you a question. Were you in a AI data center? I was not in an AI data center. I was in a a more of what you would call a a storage facility backing up data for business applications. Okay. Yeah. I was not. Nope. Not in an AI data center. Okay. So, let's see here. And we did have a generator that ran and it ran on a regular basis and if you happen to be outside, you wouldn't want to be outside standing next to it. So, and it did carry quite a ways. Okay,

let's see. Um, that's all I have. Uh, I just I'm pro technology. I like technology. I use AI, but I don't think that putting one across the street from a middle school in a residential area, I don't think that's compatible. And I would ask that you um not approve the request for Pumpkin Center data center. Thank you. [applause]

Good evening. My name is Alexandria Rooney. I live at 4217 White House Street in the Greenpoint development, the same neighborhood that will sit directly behind this Pumpkin Center data center. Earlier this year, my family bought our home believing the vision that we were sold. A large family-friendly community in the hub of Harlem with outdoor activities and nearby shopping. We paid more than comparable homes because we believed in this promise. We were excited and we were hopeful. We bought a house that had more rooms than we needed because we planned on growing our tiny family. Today, that promise has been broken. What we invested our savings and our children's future in is being taken away. That matters because this decision fundamentally changes the health environment our children will grow up in. Today, our family's health is under threat and so is the health of every family in the area. There are zero long-term studies studying if like if living near large-scale data centers is safe for residential neighborhoods long term. This is not because they are proven safe but because placing facilities and on this scale this close to homes and schools is so new. [clears throat] The absence of evidence is not reassurance. It is a warning and we already know enough to be alarmed. The health effects of air pollution and chronic noise are amongst the most settled issues in public health. The American Lung Association, the American Heart Association, the World Health Organization, and the US Environmental Protection Agency all agree on this critical point. Fine particulate matter, PM2.5, has no safe level of exposure. The American Heart Association states that long-term exposure increases cardiovascular disease and premature death, even below current regulatory limits. The World Health Organization tightened its air quality guidelines because harm occurs at even very low

concentrations and children are at the highest risk. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns that childhood exposure due to uh to this air pollution increases asthma, permanently impairs lung development and is linked to neurodedevelopmental harm affecting learning, attention and behavior. These effects are not temporary. They follow children for life and we are putting it next to a school. The science is overwhelming. A peer-reviewed health model study published in 2024 estimates that pollution associated with US data center operations could contribute to nearly 1,300 premature deaths every year by 2030 with public health costs exceeding $20 billion annually with the greatest burden falling on communities closest to the source, communities like mine. And our region is already vulnerable. According to the American Lung Association, the Augusta area ranks amongst the worst in the nation for fine particulate pollution. Adding multiple data centers next to homes and a school does not just add risk, it compounds it with this pumpkin center one being the most egregious. Now, let's talk about noise. Not about annoyance, but about health. I appreciate the county's efforts to regulate the decibb. I really do. But decibb do not address low frequency noise, the kind that is produced by industrial cooling systems. Low frequency noise travels farther, penetrates walls, and triggers physiological stress responses even when people cannot consciously hear it. The WH and NIH has concluded that chronic environmental noise increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, sleep disturbance, and mental health disorders, as well as impairing immune function and leading to cognitive impairment, especially in children. Again, we are putting this next to a school and a densely populated neighborhood filled with children and families like mine.

When you place constant industrial noise next to a neighborhood and a school, you are not just changing the soundsscape, you are altering the biological environment in which our children will grow. Greenpoint is home to many veterans, including my husband. He suffered a traumatic brain injury during his service, resulting in severe migraines that ended his military career. Chronic noise exposure is a known trigger for these post-TBI symptoms. For families like mine, this is not an inconvenience. It is a real medical risk that threatens our stability and our health. Public health is guided by a precautionary principle. When there is a credible risk of serious harm, especially to children, lack of full scientific certainty is not a justification to proceed. That principle exists because history taught us painful lessons. Lead, asbestous, tobacco, pifas. In every case, communities were told to wait for proof while children were exposed and harmed. We should not repeat that mistake. Let us be honest about what is actually being asked of us. Families are being asked to trade their health and their children's health for revenue for the possibility of parks, lower taxes, or road improvements. As Allison Couch said earlier this week, but parks mean nothing if it isn't safe to breathe in them. Lower taxes mean nothing if our children can't sleep or can't think or focus while they're in their homes or in their schools. Better roads mean nothing if they lead to a hospital [snorts] or endless doctor's appointments due to chronic illness. I did not buy my home at the expense of my [snorts] child's health. No responsible parent would. [snorts] And I sincerely hope that this council will not do so either. When you vote tonight, remember this. You are not voting on a zoning change. You are deciding whether children's health is

negotiable and whether families are acceptable collateral for progress. You have a choice tonight. Our children [snorts] will be the ones to live with it. Please say no to the status center. Thank you. [applause] [applause]

Hello, my name is Lauren Ko and I live in Greenpoint subdivision. On December 2nd, Columbia County unanimously approved ordinance 25-07 establishing standards for data centers, including a 70 decel noise limit at the property line. 3 days later, Prather submitted an application to reszone Pumpkin Center from the existing approved PUD to a data center use. First, I'm going to talk about misrepresentation and reliance on the approved PUD. Residents purchased homes in Greenpoint in reliance on the approved master plan PUD 2020. In Mr. Mr. Prather's own resigning materials. He the approved PUD for the area in question included 240 single family homes, 50 town homes, a gas station, and 30,000 square foot of retail. This plan was marketed by the developer, the real estate agents, and approved by the county. Families purchased homes trusting that the approved PUD would be honored. The data center is materially different in character, intensity, and impact from the approved mixed-use residential and retail development. Reszoning Pumpkin Center undermines that reliance, threatens property values, and raises legitimate fears of financial hardships if residents are forced to relocate due to health and safety [snorts] concerns. Noise. Ordinance 25-07 prevents data centers from exceeding 70 dB at the exterior property line and requires compliance with Columbia County Nuisance Standards Code 34-32. Mr. [snorts] Mr. Prather's own noise study states that current ambient noise are already 65 to 75 without a data center present. How can you approve this when the site already exceeds or approaches the maximum allowable noise before a single server, cooling system or generator is operating? County code 34-32 defines a nuisance as [snorts] any excessive, unnecessary, unnatural, or unusually loud noise which is prolonged and detrimental to public health, comfort, safety, and welfare. The ordinance specifically prohibits excessive noise adjacent to schools, adjacent to places of worship, and adjacent to institutions of learning.

The extreme proximity to homes and schools is very concerning. According to Mr. Prather's own resoning application, homes are located approximately 150 ft from the proposed property line. Behind those homes is another row of homes and then another row. Those homes are in Greenpoint, which house hundreds of families and children. Harlem Middle School is approximately a third of a mile away, thus less than two laps around the football field and on a street adjacent to the site. Your ordinance prohibits noise being made adjacent to a school. Abene Baptist Church operates out of the middle school on Wednesdays and Sundays. Your ordinance pro prohibits noise from being made adjacent to a place of worship. Mr. Prather's PUD vision states Greenpoint was intended to be a place where people can live, work, and play and that it would support Harlem Middle School as a key community asset. A nearby industrial data center does not support that vision. Why this matters, and I'm speaking for the children now, [snorts] the American Academy of Pediatrics says children must rely on adults to protect them from hazardous noise. Prolonged noise exposure can cause irreversible hearing loss, ringing in the ear, and sound sensitivity. Even small degrees of hearing loss can negatively affect speech acquisition, language comprehension, communication ability, classroom learning, and social development. So you say, "We're going to make sure we keep it below the allowable rate of 70 dB." 70 dBim is not the same for a child as it is for an adult. And here are the scientific and medical reasons. The American Academy of Pediatrics says, "Research demonstrates that the auditory systems of infants and children who are still developing rapidly are different from the mature auditory systems. Compared with adults, children have unique susceptibilities to the effects of noise. Remember, [snorts] there's hundreds of homes across the street in a school less than two laps away." The American Academy of Pediatrics goes on to say that children's hearing structures and neural pathways are not fully mature, which can make them more vulnerable to damage from

prolonged new noise exposure. The Educational Aiology Association. Children perceive sound more intensely than adults at the same volume. So, greater care must be taken to limit children's exposure to noise. The World Health Organization. Environmental noise is linked to impaired cognitive development including memory and reading comprehension. The American Speech Language Hearing Association background noise interferes with speech perception and language development. Again, lastly, World Health Organization. Chronic noise increases stress hormones, sleep disruption, and behavioral problems. Sleep disturbance from environmental noise is especially harmful to children. These harms are driven not just by volume but by constant low frequency noise which travels farther, penetrates walls and has the greatest impact long-term repetitive exposure. This would be a daily lifelong exposure for the residents of Greenpoint. [snorts] Air quality and the PM2.5 risk. The American Lung Association State report ranks Augusta as the worst PM2.5 air quality in the Southeast. Not one of the worst, but the actual worst. And the county just approved another quarry. PM2.5 particles penetrate the lungs and the bloodstream. [snorts] The highest groups at risk are infants and children, pregnant women, and people with asthma, COPD, and other lung diseases. Data centers test diesel generator generators regularly, often weekly, to ensure uninterrupted operation. Each time these generators are tested or turned on for any reason, they omit PM2.5. This will further degrade the air quality in an area that is already the worst in the region. None of us should have to worry that if we let our kids outside to play at home or school that they are being exposed to excessive prolonged noise.

Ma'am, that's your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

[applause]

Hi, I'm Darren Bunyard. I live at 2432 Til Fair Lane. Uh here representing Hatrick Glenn subdivision. So thank you for the opportunity uh which subdivision to speak. Hatrick Glenn. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

So I want to begin uh stating something clearly. This conversation is not about being anti-technology or anti-progress. It's about whether progress comes at the expense of public health. Uh and are we willing to accept long-term irreversible harm to our community in exchange for short-term development gains. Uh the research is increasingly clear. Large-scale data centers carry chronic and cumulative health risks for nearby neighborhoods. These risks are not hypothetical. They're measurable, documented, and already occurring in communities across the country. Air pollution risk. The primary source of air pollution for data centers comes from two phases. On-site diesel backup generators and overhead electronic uh releasing gaseous contaminations into the part into the air. Diesel generators are routinely tested, exercised, not just during outages. These generators emit fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 and nitrogen oxide or NOx. both of which are wellestablished threats to human health. Uh PM2 2.5 particles are small enough to penetrate into the lungs and enter into the bloodstream. Long-term exposure uh can be conclusively linked to asthma, chronic lung lung disease, heart attacks, lung cancer, stroke, and premature death. Importantly, public health authorities agree there are no safe levels. Pollutants don't leave the body, they're there. There is no recovering from this exposure. Nitrogen oxide further compounds the problem. Knox causes uh irritation to the eyes, throat, nose, uh increased respiratory infection, worsening asthma contributing to uh ground level ozone. Uh communities located near data centers have documented measurable spikes and NOx levels from operation uh not years later but immediately.

The health burden is already quantified. The population is not just the pollution is not just harmful as exposure to the the human. Recent analysis uh estimates that public health damage from US data centers populations has reached approximately 6 billion in 2023 driven by increased hospital visits, medical use, loss loss productivity, and premature deaths. If current trends continue, these costs are projected to reach up to 20 billion by 2030. Those are not absurd numbers. They represent children struggling to breathe, seniors suffering from chronic events, and families bearing the long-term cost. Quality of life and noise impacts beyond air pollution. Residents near data centers consistently report severe decline in quality of life due to consistent low frequency noises. the unceasing hum of cooling systems, fans, and generators. People report migraines, sleep disruptions, the inability to use their yards, porches, or outdoor spaces. This is a nuisance. It's a health risk. Long-term exposure to low frequency noise has been linked to sleep disorders, headaches, hearing loss, elevated stress hormones, hypertension, anxiety, and an increase in cardiovascular risk. Chronic sleep disruption alone is associated with higher rates of heart disease, depression, and metabolic disorder. So, one that hasn't been spoken of now is the heat and microclimate effects from these uh from the data centers. Data centers also rel release masses amounts of wasted heat into the surrounding neighborhoods. This heat exhaust alters local microclimates leading to increased neighborhood temperatures, higher heat stress during heat wave events, increased cooling costs for nearby residents during extreme heat events. These effects are not trivial. They're compounded existing

risk particularly for the vulnerable population. And all of this has been identified as digital smog. Long-term health impacts uh when you look at the research as a whole, long-term exposure to pollution and stressors associated with data centers uh result in increased asthma, COPD, uh higher cardiovascular disease, elevated risk of stroke and heart attack, premature mortality, especially from the PM2.5. There's also cognitive learning impacts to children exposed to chronic air pollution. So the most vulnerable uh are the children, elderly residents, people with asthma, heart disease, and compromised immune systems. For the residents at risk, these aren't theoretical. They're personal. Well, the research says overall the most important conclusive from the research, these risks are chronic and cumulative. They're not acute.

They don't show us your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

[applause]

Hello, my name is Deanna Coleman. I live at 6821 Picon Road, Appling, Georgia. And I really wasn't going to speak tonight, but I have to because I'm not hearing a lot of I know it's children. I have a 38-year-old daughter with autism, Ospers to be exact, but if these are all um fluorescent lights, she'd be going crazy right now because she could hear every single little buzz in them. And to think I know we will live eight miles away, but I'm sure she'll still hear it. Um, she is going to, she is, like I said, she's disabled. She is high intelligence. She has higher IQ than mine, but she is can hear things like you cannot believe. She hears my little dog whining when it wants to get in my lap, and I can't hear it at all. But I do have a hearing aid which probably will affect me also. Um, also I have CPOD or COPD or whatever it is COPD. And um, in the years with all the construction coming out our way, which my my late mother thought I lived in the boonies. Well, not anymore. um with all the construction of houses and everything coming out our way and all the dust from the trees going and all this I'm having trouble breathing right now but um anyway my point is with her and autism there is an increase of rate of autism in children lately and I I have

no idea what it's too or whatever But I'm if their autism is like my daughter's, they're in trouble because they will just go completely bonkers. And I was as I was waiting in line, I got a a thing from my watch that says I was in a loud environment today. Well, yeah, just a little bit ago with all the clapping and it said at 10 minutes at this level um is dangerous to my ears. And and then at another level, it was 30 minutes at this level is dangerous to my hearing. Um, and I I know that I live that far away, so I can't imagine what these people that live in that area are going to go through, but I'm sure my daughter will hear it. [applause]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Jake Pard. I live on Pard's Pond Road in Appling and I share the concerns of all my neighbors been expressed tonight. But I'd like to pose a question that may not have been considered and that is what is the backup plan when the AI bubble bursts? [applause]

I'm retired now, but my last job was for a technology firm in Atlanta that provided cloud computing and data storage in data centers all across the Southeast. This huge push for more data centers is a result of AI. But Google and Elon Musk SpaceX are already proposing to launch satellites to store the data for Google's AI engine in 2027. That's only one year from now. So any of these terrestrial structures that are being proposed are going to be obsolete by the time they're completed because in space [applause] when they're in orbit, they don't have to tap into the electrical grid because they've got solar panels to provide free electricity 24/7. And they don't have to tap into the groundwater because it's already cold in space to keep the service cold. This technology is happening and it's coming fast. So my question is, what happens to all these giant concrete structures being proposed when they're no longer needed to house data? Probably not something we're going to want in our community. So I implore this committee and the county commissioners to look a little further down the road and not bank on a technology that's going to soon be outdated.

Thank you for your time. Thank you. [applause] Good evening. I'm Katie Allen from Swint Road, um, Pumpkin Center community. How many have heard of the Radium Girls or the Shining Girls? Okay. I hadn't until my oldest daughter began reading this book. They were young women who painted dials for the military equipment during World War I using radiumbased paint. As part of this job, they were trained to sh to shape the paintbrush to a point in their mouth, leading them to consume the radium paint daily. They were told that it was safe. They were paid well and praised for their work. All was well until the women began to fall ill. They developed tumors, growths, open cancers. The radium would mimic calcium, honeycombing their bones until they would literally fall apart. Many women reported seeing their bones glow through their pale skin as they became sicker and sicker. Doctors in the employer refused to diagnose the radium as poison, as doing so would bring liability to the company and make it difficult to find new girls for the jobs. The girls could not get answers and struggled to find anyone willing to represent them against this new and profitable industry. This led to a decadesl long fight for justice. And even as they finally won their case at the Supreme Court, most received little compensation for their medical bills. While this book was disturbing, perhaps the most disturbing part of all of it was the postcript. It described a scene of girls working in a factory with radium dust, laughing and painting their nails with it, watching it make their hair glow, bringing it home to their families and children. They were told

that it was safe so long as they didn't eat it. Yet, of course, the cancers and tumors and amputations came. The year was 1978, and as the author states, how quickly we forget. This pattern of harm is nothing new. Industries develop, products are released, the public is told it's safe, only to later fall ill and learn that it was the industry, scientists, and doctors who were trusted to determine safety. Anyone watch John Travolt's a civil action? It tells the story of how lawyer Jan Schlickman worked to hold companies accountable for their environmental dumping dumping in Wilbur, Massachusetts, where residents began developing cancer due to the chemicals in the water. And of course, many know of the Aaron Brochovich story holding PG& accountable in Hinckley, California for similar negligence. How quickly we forget. Industries come in for profit, safety is promised, public harm is caused, and holding anyone accountable is so impossible that when it is finally achieved, it becomes worthy of a film or worse, buried in the archives of history where no one will ever learn of it. And I won't even begin to address the multi-million dollar cleanup costs left behind for taxpayers to cover as the companies have long since disappeared when the truth comes out. So what does this have to do with data centers? While data centers are not necessarily new as a concept, the technology used within them is constantly changing. And while these industries will tell you they are safe, it seems safety is in the eye of the profit holder. I asked you before what is at stake. I've spoken about the loss of rural morals and values, but tonight I speak about the safety of the residents who find themselves near these data centers. Can anyone truly say that they are safe? Effects of chemicals in the environment can take years, if not decades, to show themselves. Is the data center industry any different at its core than the ones described above. They are burgeoning, profitable, and just as hard to pin down for information, much less future liability if things go wrong. They are not benevolent, and they

are not here for the residents of District 4. They are here for profits and if that means promising safety then that is what they'll promise. I asked before who gets to decide? Who gets to decide if they want to risk chemicals in their air, water, and environment? I think it should be District 4 residents, particularly the ones near these data centers. No one can guarantee that these data centers are safe because that would take years and even decades of studying cancer and illness trends in areas where modern data centers are being [clears throat] built. are facts regarding safety safety may differ. But mine favors the safety of families and citizens. While the data industry's facts favor their profits, mine favor local control, the data industries favor itself. So again, who gets to decide? Financially, I repeat, the starting point for negotiations is not giving taxpayers their own tax money back because it's already theirs. If property taxes are too high, then that is a spending problem and giving spenders more money to spend is not the answer.

[applause] And lastly, thank you for the work you do as a board. I know it's not easy. Um I know some of you as friends and I just ask as a fellow Columbia County resident, as a resident of District 4 citizen, um that you hear the citizens tonight and you join us in recommending disapproval for the Pumpkin Center and Bird Center zoning requests. Thank you so much. Thank [applause] you. I have a hand out for the BL hand out just to summarize what I'm [clears throat] talking about. Okay.

I'm Gregory Guido Jr. and I am from Greenpoint Subdivision. Uh my comments address whether this zoning meets the several criteria required for the planning commission review. Please correct me if I'm wrong about anything of uh for the following for the suitability with adjacent property. Vision 2035 designates this area as a mixeduse activity center meant for walkable compact mixeduse development. A 417 acre industrial data center campus with warehouses, a substation, and nearly three million square feet of buildings is not compatible with the surrounding residential, agriculture, and commercial and uh commercial properties. In addition, major residential development is already underway in this immediate area. Stanley Martin Homes is currently in phase three of five and [clears throat] Hos Creek is being built directly across the street uh right across the street from Retro Writes Barrel Road. These projects will bring hundreds of new families and school-aged children into the area. Placing a large industrial data center campus across from active residential construction is fundamentally incompatible with the development pattern already in progress that creates long-term conflicts that buffers, burns, or vegetation cannot resolve. for adverse impacts. The applicant has not demonstrated compliance with noise, storm water, fire access, environmental protection, or traffic requirements. Staff states the concept plan does not provide enough detail to verify compliance. Mitigation can be assured when the plan is in is complete is incomplete. I also want to be clear that the burns and vegetation do not satisfy section two. They are not engineered, not binding, and their effectiveness cannot be evaluated until after construction. BMS and planning only provide visual screening. They do not mitigate noise, traffic, storm water, environmental impacts, or school transportation safety. Buffers cannot make an incompatible industrial use

compatible with surrounding residential and agriculture property. Comprehensive plan conflict. The adopted vision 2035 plan does not support industrial development here. Staff relies on a future unadapted plan that has no legal standing. Our decisions must be based on a current adopted plan, not a draft. Property can be used as currently zoned. Staff confirms there are no substantiating reasons the property cannot be used as currently zoned for residential, commercial, or professional uses. That alone is grounds to deny the reszoning. Burdens on public facilities. Impacts to water, sewer, storm water, broadband, traffic, and fire safety are unknown. Staff requires a 5-year water and sewer projection, annual updates, a drought plan, G dot permits, and wetland delineations, none of which have been provided. The required national pollutant discharge elimination system permits is also missing. Without this information, we cannot determine whether public facilities can support the project. No new conditions justify reszoning. Power lines do not create a new condition that justifies industrial resoning. Staff acknowledges that property can [clears throat] be used as currently zoned and a draft plan cannot be used to justify approval. Public health and safety project uh protected noise already exceeds the 70 decel level limited by the uh the data center district. Flood plane wetlands and state waters are not delineated. Fire access cannot be verified. Storm water and traffic impacts are not modeled. Public health and safety cannot be protected without this information. School safety and public welfare. Before I close, I want to highlight a major emission. There is no analysis of impacts on a school district, school transportation, or the health and welfare of school children. Pumpkin center sits directly within established school bus corridors. Yet, there is no evaluation of how construction traffic,

heavy equipment, diesel emissions, or long-term industrial operations would affect school buses or the safety of children traveling through this area. Section 7 requires us to protect public health and safety. School children are the most vulnerable population we serve. The absence of any school related analysis is a serious procedural failure and clear reason to deny this request. In closing, for these reasons, I cannot support this resoning. I am asking the planning commission to recommend denial or deferral until the applicant provides complete engineering, environmental delineations, noise compliance, storm water modeling, G dot approvals, and a concept plan that aligns with the adopted comprehensive plan. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. [applause] Thank you. Good evening. My name is Cynthia Fe and I am here with my husband Jerry Feight who's sitting down. Our address is 867 Country Farm Way. We have lived here in Columbia County for 29 years. We have two sons and I stand here before you as a steward. Every single one of us is a steward. And there are many forms of stewardship. Uh we have stewardship with time, money, our skills, our possessions that we have. In the Bible, it says that God owns everything and we humans are the caretakers for his glory, acting faithfully and accountable. So as a steward, I am standing here to oppose this plan that they are wanting for this artificial intelligent data centers. these huge monstrosities that they are wanting to build. They are water hoarders require a lot of water even though it's a closed system. The reason why they want this particular area is because of the easy access to the water ponds, the substations and the large electrical power that is going across to the Amazon. So, it makes it easier, less costly for them. But also it's only showing the aerial view of the buildings. It does not show like a 3D image. So you can actually see the entire size of the buildings. And this corner here that they plan to build, you've already heard that they want to have four data center buildings

that are going to be 717,000 square ft, which is basically I guess maybe almost four stories tall. um two 180,000 square feet warehouses which is the equivalent of four football fields and they said that they were going to use it for storage of their equipment as they need it one office and a substation and I don't know if that's going to be like an additional substation or the substation that is already there but the point being is that it requires a lot of electricity and in the long run it will come back to us as far as cost. But the big issue is the deforestation that will occur despite the fact that they say that there's going to be a 50 foot buffer zone on one side, 125 ft on the other, and 250 ft on another side. Despite how much of a buffer zone that they would like, the pine trees only grow 80 to 100 ft tall. So no matter what, you're going to still have these towering buildings that will be staring at us taking away the beauty of our environment. And just for having data centers, we will have the additional pollution uh that we be generated because he said only once a month check but the paperwork that was submitted said that they would be doing two hours 5 days a week on weekdays only generator checks for the system. So we have that in addition to the cooling system that they use. The water runoff if it goes off into the pond the water will be warmer. Those ponds do contain fish and other wildlife. So the question is what is it going to kill? And then what new will be growing?

Will it be a good thing or a bad thing? Probably not good because of the chemicals that will be in the water. Then we have the issue of light pollution. So, it says that they're going to use special kind of lights that will cut down so that the light doesn't go up in the air and it will be deflected away from the housing, the residents, residential area. But despite that, the light does reflect off of buildings and we still will have light pollution. We already have light pollution when you look to the east from Fort Eisenhower, from Harlem. Um, we live out in a spot in which it's an open pasture and I raised my children up um in which we could actually lay down on the ground and look up at the stars, use a telescope, you can see the planets and everything. Well, now you can't even really look to the east because of the light pollution. You have to really look more south or going west. Um, I'm not going to mention about the noise study. It's already been mentioned several times. Um, and it's not a good thing. And I told you about that. Um, so in the end basically what are we going to gain from this? We will gain nothing. We will have loss of deforestation. The

that's your time time. Okay. just end it on one thing which is so as you vote tonight let it be as good stewards not as commissioners and as you ask yourself is this something that you that would please God use your good conscience. Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

Hi my name is Travis Mcome. live at uh 3027 Banic Lane. I'm sorry. That was short. Thank you. [laughter] I'm sorry. Uh Banic Lane in Green. That was 5 seconds. That was real quick. Okay, you continue.

All right. Um heard a lot of uh concerns about environmental stuff. I'm not going to talk about any of that because I think we've uh we've talked about that a lot tonight. The the the big thing that I want to talk about um I got a couple points here. The only benefit that we've been told was the possibility of losing or increasing homestead exemptions which would lower our property taxes. Um on I believe it was Monday, we talked with um it was uh District 4 commissioner Allison Couch and the county manager Scott Johnson. The question was asked to Scott Johnson about um what about the school part of the the tax and his response was hopefully they would follow suit of the mills that are included on property taxes. The school is currently 71% of that mill. So it's not going to if they do not follow suit, which they do not have to, they're hope they're hoping that they do. It will not decrease the taxes as much as what everybody thinks that it will. So, is it a benefit? Sure, they'll go down. Maybe, but probably not as much as what everybody thinks. Um, just this morning, second point, just this morning, I read an article that was in the Augusta Press, um, coming out of, uh, something from Atlanta, I'm I'm assuming, um, that state legislators are currently looking at a bipartisan bill to pause data center construction in the state of Georgia. So, [applause] um I don't know if that I don't know if that will uh sway anybody's vote on anything or if that will uh you know make any of this a point in the first place. Now, it's a pause could just be for a little while. Um and the last point is that uh when we moved in the banic, we've been there just over three years. Just like a

lot of the other people in Greenpoint have said, we were sold on a community. We I specifically looked at that plan before we purchased that house because that aligned with the ideas of where we wanted to be and I believe it was about a year ago when we had a community meeting with uh Mr. Prather and the Stanley Martin I think it was at the time and I think the exact words that came out of his mouth were this was his legacy project. That was a blatant lie. Now this is not a legacy project for him. This is only a way for him to make more money off of the land that he does not currently have or has sold. Um, and the last thing I have a question about the map here. This map that you have up right now does not show the home on there, but the sound one that you have, the sound study shows the home as being cut out of that. So, is that going to be part of that sale? because right now that that map, the other one shows that there's buildings where that home is going to be at, but that one does not.

But that's my that's my last thing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

Good evening. My name is Alexander Dixon. I live at 6160 Old Union Road, Harlem, Georgia. Um so one of the one of the biggest problems that I have with uh data center well with any industrial is that virgin to virgin territory once it's used cannot be reclaimed. So solar farms uh industrial complexes they're used they're torn down we see waste lands that where they will they cannot be used they cannot be used for farms and the amount of farmable land is decreasing. um the the population is growing while the supply of land to grow the food on is decreasing. So once you once we build data centers, once you put up a solar farm, once you put up um any major industrial uh complex, you can't get it back. You can't build more land. You can't print more me more land. Um so what I s what I think would be a good solution uh nationwide is to um create regula regulation to force data centered construction on existing um industrial complexes. So reuse reuse solar farms that still have planted solar um posts in them that that have been polluted and you can't you can't get that back. force them to reuse that. They say they want to carry the burden. Companies want to carry the burden. Carry the burden. Fix another company's problem that they are bound to cause to the the soil once they you know it could be 50 years from now, it could be 20 years from now. Um my opinion uh I worked I worked in a intelligence processing center and for national security reasons I think that data centers will be a necessity. Um

there is going to be a a eventual cold war on data processing. Um China, Russia, you name it. The question is where you going to put it? That's a good question. You can put it in space. You can put it in maybe the vast region of Alaska or Texas. um where there aren't any homes to be concerned about. Also, national security, the the the federal government could also uh protect and cooperate with f with corporations. This is this is a whole rabbit trail, but this is not the place for data centers. I know you've already heard it again and again and again. Um but thank you.

Thank you. [applause] Good evening. I'm Beverly Hill, 2401 Telefare Lane in the Hatcher Glenn subdivision. I'm going to be brief. I'm going to ask the commissioners when you leave this meeting tonight and you go home, please ask yourselves, would you want these data centers built in your neighborhoods? [applause]

Good evening. My name is Jonathan Clink. I live at 1866 Longhan Hillm Road, literally right across the street from the face of the bird facility uh that's being planned. I don't know what happened. Are we talking about that even tonight? That'll be next. Next. It'll be next. Okay. This is just this is just white oak.

So So for this for this instance then my concern uh obviously I don't want anything developed out there. Um, we bought property out there to be away from everything and now we're looking at possibly getting this. One of my major concerns and always has been with Colombia County, it's Colombia County infrastructure. I drove from my house to here. I left at 5:45 and I pulled into the parking lot at 6:15. It's 12 miles and took me 30 minutes to get here because our infrastructure, [clears throat] to be blunt, sucks. [applause] We spend more time picking weeds and watering flowers in a traffic circle than we do building roads. We already can't handle the amount of traffic that we've got and the amount of homes and stuff that exist. And though this won't have these won't have a lot of employees, the construction traffic is going to be massive. And let's be honest, it's no coincidence that there's a quarry and that my road was remarked for new water manes and all sorts of stuff last year before the hurricane came through. So none of this stuff is coincidental. It's been being planned for the better part of 10 years to my understanding and everybody knew about it except us.

[applause]

So, I don't I don't know what the infrastructure plan is. I've got I mean, don't get me wrong, if somebody came and offered me eight times fair market value for my property to get out of there, I would because I don't like the direction the county is going with this stuff. Um, it was bad enough when I mean, it's nice that Amazon is across the street so when I order something I can get it overnight. That's all great [clears throat] and everything, but what what we did with the infrastructure is reroute a road when it could have dumped straight into a traffic circle right where it was and the Amazon traffic, the club car traffic, the coach traffic where all the trucks and stuff are kept um blocks it up. It didn't We've lived there forever and we can't even get out onto 221 anymore at three times during the day. It's absolutely atrocious. Nobody seems to care. We buy mowers. We cut weeds. We build no roads. Thank you. That's all I have.

Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

Good evening. My name is Beth Connell. I live at 2538 Falling Branch Lane. Um, Evans, uh, I'm here for just a couple reasons. I'm going to be extremely brief because there's another 4,000 acres that are covered in the next two bullets on the agenda. So, I'm going to be extremely brief on this one. I do have a request from the commission and from this group. Um, it's been brought up many, many, many times. This, for everybody who's not familiar with the process, this is a two-part process. This is just planning and zoning. We already said, I believe it was February 3rd, maybe was the actual commission meeting.

That's correct. If everybody will remember this particular group and we thank you very much for it. You voted to not approve the Corey and we saw what happened at the commission [applause] meeting. So my request is for everybody that's here to be sure you show up for that meeting. Columbia County does work on whether or not you got a full room of people protesting and and against something. My request is that once again, and we've requested this before, for those planning and zoning signs that contain today's date, please change them and put the new date of the commission meeting. That has been asked over and over in planning and zoning meetings and in commission meetings. That way, you alert residents who aren't aware of the two-piece process that they have another opportunity. I also request that you deny the reasonzoning. It sounds to me like there's a whole lot of unknowns. May Mike can we'll do this study. I'm not going to go into the rest of it. I'll save it for the next two if needed. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

Okay. Um would you like to come forward and add answer any questions that were asked or you have the floor. Uh, nothing specific to add for me. Happy to answer any any questions that may have come up as as the additional end product. Say say for instance everything closes down and it it's over. There's an end project to make the land usable [snorts] again. Is that correct? Am I correct in saying that? Um well so so so a couple of things I will I will clarify and I know a lot of the residents

express concerns about the finality of plans and things like that you know the engineering of BMS and and

you know uh storm water and things. Uh this is this is a zoning hearing right? So this is about the land use what what the land can be used for. uh all of the details that the citizens are concerned about have to go through additional processes uh through the county, through the state, through through federal federal um regulations in order to get the permits uh in order to be able to move things forward. Uh the concerns about the endstate um currently there are no vacant data centers in the US. Uh the initial the initial data centers that Microsoft built in 2008 um are still in use. um they are still functioning as data centers. There's less servers in them because they're limited by the amount of power and cooling they have, but the data centers uh continue to have a useful life. So there hasn't been a large-scale data center decommissioned to even require or think about what um a decommissioning plan might look like.

Understand? Okay. Thank you. We have any more questions? No. All right. Okay. Thank you for your Thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate your consideration. Okay. I had a question for you. If the chair is still What's this question? Yes. You have Bob Anderson 409 Lewisville Road. Could you explain to us uh what this closed loop system is with waterbased or liquid base and how it operates and how effective it is? versus old technology.

What chemical? [clears throat]

Um so in terms of the old technology and what was very water consuming. Okay. Um I have run the water team at both Meta and Microsoft and I have sourced a lot of water for data centers. The technology that used to cool water that used to cool data centers uh was water-based. It was essentially um if you're familiar with a swamp cooler, you take water, you turn it into a mist, you blow air across it, you get cool air. The cool air goes into the data center. The server pulls the cold air from the fan with fans through the server and into what's called hot isle containment. And so it pushes warmer air to the back of the server. Okay? So it's a hack, hot aisle containment. The hot air is then exhausted up through um the ceiling and exhausted into the environment or it is then mixed with cooler air to get temperature to the to the or to get uh the temperature in what they call the cold aisle to the right temperature so you can continue to cool the servers. Okay, that is the technology that has historically used a significant amount of water. I have sourced sites with you know multiple millions of gallons of water uh per day. The current technology with um the chips that Nvidia and others are creating are getting to be higher density chips. And if you look at thermodynamics, you can cool more effectively with liquid than you can with air. So the current servers that are being used and the chips can no longer be cooled with that technology. Hence the reduced need for water within data centers. So what you have is you have a a this closed loop system that's filled with again the water and the glycol. Okay. Outside you have chillers that use electricity. The electricity cools the liquid. Okay. Much again like a home air conditioner does. That liquid is then pumped into the data center. It

is pumped directly to the servers. The servers have a heat exchanger on them and the servers then push the heat into that liquid. It comes into the into the heat exchanger cool and goes out hot and then gets pumped back outside to get cooled down. And so that is a completely closed loop system and that's why we use almost no water for data centers. So it's just a change in the technology and the way data centers are cooled uh that has um created this this change. The the perception that data centers use a lot of water is is true because it's rooted in old technology. But that's not how data centers designed in 2026 for the new chips that Nvidia and others are making uh are able to cool themselves.

So um the the old way was non AI correct? So now this new So I guess one of my questions would be is how long is AI data centers been started in years? six years ago, seven years ago, eight years ago. How when was I guess I'm asking when was the first AI data center that came online? Um the the first AI data centers coming online are really just coming on now. They've been around for a few years. So as you hear about as you hear about the different models from Chat GPT,

right, you'll hear about they've they've released a new the next one and the next one and the next one. um you know um uh Meta has their llama, their large language model. I think they're on version four or five now. So the early versions of AI data centers were still able to be cooled using the older technology because it's it's really about the density of the chips and the things that again like Nvidia and other chip producers are doing that are consuming more electricity per chip that are running hotter that is forcing the change in technology. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yep. Okay.

Okay. Um, we have any more questions, comments? Can I get a motion? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to recommend approval with conditions of file RZ26101. Please keep it down. Reszoning from PUD to DC for properties off Harlem, Apple, Harlem Road, Rights Road, and I20. Wow. I'll second. I have a motion on the floor and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. [cheering] Please. Okay. Please calm down.

All right. That's Why are you even here?

Add order, please. Add order. If you cannot be quiet, you you you will be escorted out. If if you cannot be quiet, you'll be escorted out. We need to go to the next item on the agenda. Okay, let's go to the next item on agenda.

File RZ2602 0102 shares request for reszoning off off Long Road and off of Nature's Way and off Gavin Road for 944.27 27 acres currently zone RA and a split zone RA and M1 plus for resounding the DC data center district for proposed data center development. Location of the property again fairly large 944 acres touches Louis Lewisville Road, Nature's Way and Lan home road. The zone of the property again primarily zone RA with it does have some split zoning on it as well. Uh to the east you have again all primarily RA as well. Also to the west there you do have some S1 and also some M1 and M2 as well. To the south again you have I20 and across that more RA as well. Here's your early view of the site showing the overall acreage we're dealing with tonight and the site itself and again the lines on the site as well and the plats. This is the bird tract, the Grand Oak Farms tract, the Crosby tracks. So, the overall concept plan is for approximately 18 um excuse me, not 18. [clears throat] 18. Yeah, actually is 18. Uh just under 5 million square feet worth of data center development. Does have a substation in the middle of it with transition area as well. And about again, each one of these buildings about 27,000,000 square feet in size. Uh you have the biggest thing with this on the south side of this there is a realignment of nature's way again that is going to be bring it towards I20 and then coming back into the original or existing alignment of nature's way uh primary access is off nature's way secondary access is shown off Lewisville there's a condition to remove that and then on longer home road there's an access for George power maintenance access only again condition on that one to make that be only for George power

maintenance access uh we talked about buffers on on previous application, uh they're showing no reduction in the buffer whatsoever with their request. They're showing a 500 footer around the perimeter of a site, 250 ft along the road as well. So again, with DC, we require a sound study. Uh this one shows some pretty different numbers. Again, you're dealing with uh you know, you're 46 and a half on the northern side, 44.2, 48 and a half, 54 on the is is the largest one on here. In terms of their sound study, they've done a little a little bit different way of going about it. uh they have shown their existing buildings and [clears throat] shown where the chillers and substations are and shown how this will impact from the inside out. Again, they are showing they're not they're not going to be above 70 uh with with this sound study. Again, helpful for a concept, but this will be you looked at if it if it is approved and constructed to actually show compliance with that, but does show you a good idea of what this could look like. Tal survey, again, they're not asking for any reduction. Uh so this is more of a you here is showing what what this can look like with different areas on the property. Again showing that they can meet it with uh existing vegetation. If there is or if there is not existing vegetation or if they have to go and remove any we have to replace that. In terms of our conditions with this again water utility has the exact same additions that we talked about before. Uh however traffic uh did have several with this one. They are requiring traffic impact study for the project as well as existing uh exist existing conditions no build and build capacity evaluations for adjacent uh roads and they're also looking to anticipate construction phase traffic volumes as well. From planning side we're looking at no access Louiswisville roads is permitted and access longer than home is for George manage access only from future landing standpoint. So again this is entirely neighborhoods in this situation. Uh however, we do have an employment center to the to the to the west there. Again, activity center does

include the existing auto park. Again, vision 20 vision 2035 actually gives you the the ability to have that grow into an adjacent an adjacent area if that is that is wanted. Again, it's one of those that this does show that our data center does meet the requirements of the employment center. So this is a use that would does give justification for the employment center to reach into this area. Again, similar to the previous one, we also have this area is demarcated as technology industrial on the proposed uh

foundations for the future draft. I'll acknowledge that. So it does show that as well. Again, savage recommends as lenated again no access Louisisville Road access long home road and also traffic conditions also utility conditions, excuse me. same ones as before and also traffic as well include staff recommendation. Thank you. Will the owner David Bird or David Bird Enterprises like to come forward? I'm the applicant. You're the applicant.

Yeah. Keith Lawrence, 247 Camila Avenue, Augusta, Georgia 30907. Um wanted to kind of go through a couple things. As Will pointed out, uh there is no more access. We we voluntarily wanted to remove that again after talking with some of the residents so that the road will not come out to Lewisville Road as it shows on there. The two secondary points I think that you know the the one on Lanigan Hume Road is just for Georgia Power. So I don't think that condition is a is a problem at all. And I think the other part of the conditions that will mentioned is it's studied both the construction traffic and in the site itself and any any uh improvements that are required are going to be this the developer's responsibility that's even if they exist now. So that that study basically will be addressing it. Uh on that side utilities um this site's been we've been working on this site for about 10 years. Um, Columbia County already has anticipated what was originally a thought of as a residential development. It's got about 6 to 800,000 gallons per day of of water that was anticipated already in their growth management plans of water utilities. Same with sewer on that side. Uh, water's there. Sewer is under construction right now. It'll actually be finished in probably about 9 to 12 months in that time frame. Um, and then I know they've talked about this, the power study, um, to determine what power is available in the system cannot be completed until a a zoning is determined on that. Um, on that side, uh, if you flip that next chart, it kind of goes into the traffic.

Before you leave that, did you say the go back the the secondary access on Lewisville Road? You're not going to have that? We are not. Okay. Okay. We asked for a condition to be placed on us. All right. Thank you. To make sure it's clear. So if you'll if you'll go past the recommendation, Keith has a presentation.

I just as I was talking I had some slides to flip back and forth through. This shows a trip generation for both a the data centers and also for what one of our thoughts when I'll be discussing that later in the um in the presentation which is a mixeduse residential community. And when you look at the the uh trips per gener trips generated on the data center, it's about 1,95 trips defined as to a location then from would be two trips on that side. And then when you compare with the residential, it's 40,194. So the data center produces about 4.7% of the traffic that you would receive if it was developed as in a residential purpose. On that side, you can flip to the sound study. Um, go one back. Sorry. U, we'll cover this pretty well. Um, on the sound study side, I think this demonstrates that most of the areas on the outskirts of the perimeter are even 65 or less. Um, there's only a few areas on there. And then, um, they've done a really good job on this model because it really shows the sound decay over distances on that side over there. Next one. All right. So, one of the things that is important, we've done this in our single family. I think it's important on this one is the reforestation portion of it. The slide on the picture on the left is where we planted pine seedlings. You can't see them. The picture on the right is seven years later where they're basically 20 to 25 foot pine trees. Um, it is proposed to do that on all of the slopes that are left as a result of the grading to close in that area, but also that, as I'll talk about in just a minute, they're probably the single greatest um, purpose in blocking the sound and causing the sound decay on that side. Um, and looking at the next slide, we'll cover this. This shows the 500 foot buffer against all the residential, the 250 against on the

roadway side. um you know and the it's a natural undisturbed buffer. So that natural undisturbed buffer you get the um you get the absorption, the deflecting and the and the diffusing through the vegetation that helps to eliminate and create the sound decay over that distance on there. I think it's really important to have that natural buffer on there. We've also talked and most of as as many of the areas as possible are going to be regrassed with Georgia native grasses. um they're drought tolerant, require less irrigation, require less maintenance, they also provide natural forage for the uh wildlife uh that's on there. And probably uh for this group, I think it's important we're also going to do wildflower meadows down the power line where possible. Um it's one of the most biodiverse um if I can talk please. Uh it's one of the most biodiverse uh ecosystems that you can plant um in that area on that side. And then the concept plan with the buffers, the green space, the grass areas is 67.7% open space. When you compare that with a residential model, it's probably in the 20 to 30% you might be able to get 37. So you're talking about twice the green space requirement that we would be able to achieve on a residential model. Um, and then I know storm water's a was a big button and it's a big button with mine as well. Um, we're proposing a top-notch storm control storm water control system. It's four steps to treat the storm water. Uh, it's basically using fauulant, which is a polymer. As the water goes across it, it it basically starts to activate and causes the silt that is that is suspended in the storm water to start to settle out. It then goes to a filter basket, which are on all the storm boxes. The filter basket has a uh a fabric lining in it. Also has something to catch hydrocarbons

which are the film that you'll see if it hasn't rained in two or three weeks in the parking lot. You see it start flowing. It treats that and then from there it goes to a sediment pond. From the sediment pond to the detention pond and then then goes the final step is with storm scepter which uses centrifugal force to spin out additional sediment as well as trash before it ever leaves and gets to the creeks. Individually, those are all used on sites all over the place, but collectively they're not. Um, part of our concern on this was it is we want as high quality storm water leaving this site as possible. So, we wrote that into the ordinance rather than being asked for it on our side. And then doing this, um, click that next slide, please. This was the residential plan. We we hired Looney Rick's Kiss out of Memphis, Tennessee um to do a plan on this. We involved the neighboring um the surrounding neighbors about this. We talked about it. We looked at it. Um their main objections were traffic that this would create um the density of the homes and how we would be changing the character of Lan excuse me Lewis Lewisville Road. Um, we basically, if you'll flip to that next slide, this slide shows when we compared those two together, we have more green space, 20 times larger buffers. The re the buffer that's required for that other the proposed residential development against um the RA is 25 ft. This is 500 20 times on that side. It creates less than 5% of the traffic that was created as a result of the residential development. creates more tax revenue and keeps the Lewisville Road corridor the same. If you can't on the far right, that last building on the top right, there's a creek. All of that stays exactly the same. There's no no plan, no access, no development, no change in character on that at all. And so, in conclusions, I'd be happy to answer any

questions that you guys may have. So, from Logan Hume, you're going to have a 750 foot buffer all the way back around to Nature's Right Way. You got a 250 foot on this is showing a 500 then a 250. No, it's just gradual. Okay. Is this right on wheel? Yeah. Are you talking about this area right here? No, back along the backside from the corner there all the way back around. You know, it's showing 250 undisturbed buffer than a 500 undisturbed buffer. The 250 is because you could reduce it to that. We're we're not reducing it. I was just showing that. That's what the ordinance shows is a 250 or a 500. I gotcha.

And we, you know, again, when you look at sound decay through vegetation, the 500 provides a much better job of reducing increasing the sound decay, right? And your main entrance is going to be off nature's way right there. Okay. Okay. We have any more questions? I don't. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Any any other person here tonight would like to speak in favor of this? Any any person here would like to speak against?

State your name and address and you have uh for the record and you have five minutes.

My name is Penelopey Walden. I live at 1887 Lteran Home Road. I've lived there for 32 years. My concern is for the reszoning of Lan Home Road and Pumpkin Center areas and I'm asking you not to recommend resoning. I realize you voted on Pumpkin Center already, so that's phone on death ears, but it's in it's in my talk. On January the 7th, I emailed district 4 commissioners stating my concerns and I copied the other four commissioners and I asked for a meeting to have my questions answered. To this date, I have gotten no response. I know there's a non-disclosure that has been signed preventing any discussion. To me, if it has to be a secret from the citizens of Columbia County, it must not be good for the citizens of Columbia County. [applause]

I know, I'm well aware that we need a data center. I'm using a phone. It needs storage. I have a computer at home. I also know we need sewage and water treatment plants. I don't want three in a fivemile radius of my home, nor do I want one in my backyard. There will be one in my backyard, as just stated by the man who was up here before me. And all entrances will now be on my road, which will double the traffic. We already have a huge data center being built behind Amazon, referred to as White Oak. Why is this 2,000 acre data center not enough for our county? White Oak alone will pull gallons and gallons of water from the river and use enormous amounts of electricity. Add two more data centers to that and the effect on our county will be horrendous. We already have 200 data centers in Georgia with 100 to 150 more to be built. There is plenty of other land away from residential areas for data centers to be built. It is a fact that data data centers use enormous amounts of water and electricity. It is a fact that people living near there have complained of the continuous noise. When the generators run, they can't even sleep at night and their lives have been made miserable. The approval of two more additional data centers within a fivemile radius will not only affect residents living close to them, but the whole county as well. People living in counties with data centers are complaining of increased water and power bills. How is Clark Hill Lake going to maintain a good level with sufficient levels with that much water being drawn during construction phases? Another concern with the number of vehicles in and out of our area for White Oak alone

is tremendous. Now, when you add two more data centers so close that it will use the same highway interchange, it's a disaster in the making. I have one question. When the generators run, is that still at a 70 decel level? Yeah. Yes. Coordinate. Is that is that correct? at the at the site boundary.

As evident by the number of people have shown up tonight, the citizens of Columbia County do not want to have three data centers. We think one data center is plenty. We don't want to have to deal with the problems that these data centers bring. Once again, I ask that you not approve the resoning. Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

[clears throat]

Good afternoon. My name is Georgia Walden and I live at 2261 Callaway Road. When presenting a well-prepared argument, there's three types of appeals. The first one is ethos, the second pathos, and the last logos. Ethos is appeal to credibility. Logos is appeal to logic. And pathos is appeal to emotional um emotional type feelings. Um I'm a graduate of Columbia County Chamber of Commerce Youth Board 2024 and I'm highly appreciative of every one of you sitting before me. I have been educated in settings such as these and I know the effort that you put in. So, thank you. I'm a senior at Harlem High School and still considered a child in the eyes of the world. Yet I ask that you not see me as such as I bring my opinion. Um 1 Timothy 4:12 says, "Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word and conduct, in love and spirit and faith in purity." I feel as though the people before me have spoken and done an amazing job um on a logical appeal as though um I cannot bring such a logical appeal because I am not educated in such. um they have exacerbated their concerns on the sound levels, the water, the health, and the lifestyle issues. Yet, circling back to an appeal to emotion and credibility, I have lived on Morris Callaway since I was in kindergarten. And when we were building, my family lived with my grandparents. That was my grandma that went just before me. Um they live off of Lergen Home Road. And my memories from the beginning of my childhood until now have taken place in both of these areas. Um where the data centers will soon be placed if approved. The place that I grew up will soon be so different and I understand that de development is inevitable and I'm sure most of this room would agree change is going to happen. Yet this is not the place for such. I remember when white oak plantation was being built. Everything changed. Traffic became a pain. Wrecks became prevalent and daily my daily commute was entirely changed. Change will happen in the future. But at what cost? Where the white oak data center

will be is place where I have hunted since I was 5 years old. When getting the call to remove all our stands because our land was being bought out, I was distraught. This land was more than an area frowning. For me, it was my childhood. This land backs up to my house and I fear the effect on my family um is something that actually haunts us every day. And I do know that that has already been improved on a earlier date, but um I'm bringing um my family um support. So, my mom has asthma. I attend Harlem High School. My brother attends Harlem Middle School. Um if these all of these data centers will be approved then my family will not be able to escape these. Um this is where our daily life um happens and change has already happened. Um I believe that I am here to stand for something I believe in. I learned that on the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce youth board. As Aaron Tippen says, you've got to stand for something or you fall for anything. Although not my um opinion is not the most logically strong, my claim is from the heart and my credibility is supported by my relation to these issues. I've witnessed the hurt then that the thought of these data centers have brought. My grandparents will be even closer to these centers than my family will be. having to be involved in conversations um as a child of having to of of my siblings of the thought of having to move um because of the closeness of it and just the fear of the unknown is not something that um me nor my siblings or my family should have to go through. Um having to simply consider it is stressful enough. So I ask, how much more hurt will you bring to my family? Let us keep Colombia County the amazing county it is and preserve the happiness of our people. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Good evening, gentlemen. My name is Lee Muns. I live at 6343 Harlem Grovetown Road. And I'd like to ask a quick question before you start me on my time on this proposal. It looks as if Nature's Way is going to be closed off at Lewisville Road. Is that correct? That's not correct. So nature's way will remain intact. Yes, sir. To Lewisville Road. Yes, sir.

Okay. Because my concern that was there, you shut it off. All the all the trucks coming from the quarry now are going to go all the way down Riceboro Road. Let me go in my prepared remarks. I want to be very clear at the outset. I understand that technology is advancing and I understand that data centers are part of our future. I also recognize that Columbia County has already approved and zoned land suitable for this type of development being the White Oak Technology Campus. My opposition tonight is not to technology as a whole, nor to its economic development in general. My opposition is in specific to this location, the Bird family farms, and the cumulative impacts that approving this resoning would create. In this area of the county, there are currently three separate data center campuses under consideration. At some point, it becomes necessary to step back and ask not whether the development should occur, but where it should occur and at what cost to surrounding communities and natural resources. The Bird family farms property is located significantly closer to existing and planned residential development. The people who live in this area already contend with substantial impacts from an existing quarry, noise, traffic, heavy equipment, and ongoing disturbance. Adding a data center campus here would compound those impacts and place yet another industrial scale use directly adjacent to where people live, raise families, and have invested their lives and savings. Data centers are not quiet neighbors, especially during construction. These facilities require large numbers of construction workers, continuous heavy equipment operation, trucking, grading, and infrastructure buildout. Much of that equipment is not subject to meaningful noise abatement requirements beyond basic backup alarms and operational standards. Even when equipment is compliant, the cumulative noise from pro prolonged construction is

disruptive, unavoidable, unavoidable, and longlasting. Beyond the immediate residential impacts, this location is also adjacent to a significant wetlands area. Those wetlands are not incidental. They are critical to environmental resources. The grading, storm water runoff, and utility trenching and long-term hardening require for a data center to create legitimate concerns about adverse and irreversible effects on these wetlands. Once those impacts occur, they cannot be undone. I also want to address the broader infrastructure implications, specifically power and natural gas. It is well known that Georgia Power has already purchased property in the area and is actively pursuing additional land. Additionally, Georgia Gas Light has proposed a new gas distribution line running from Ren's compressor station on the south side of Fort Gordon into Augusta area. As someone who works in construction and understands large-scale infrastructure logistics, I believe it is reasonable to conclude that this new gas line would provide relief to the existing natural gas distribution system that currently feeds Colombia and Richmond counties through Jefferson County. That relief would allow the power company to maintain current service levels while freeing up to capacity to support new gas fired turbine facilities. [clears throat] And we all know why that matters. Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity. They do not conserve power. They demand [clears throat] it. Industry trends show power requirements increasing by 40 to 50% compared to the previous generations of data center equipment. and with no indication that that demand will decrease. The reality is that energy consumption is going up not down. What we are witnessing is strategic incremental buildout. Property is being acquired, infrastructure is

being positioned, and the reasoning requests are coming forward one by one. If every location is approved simply because another one already has been, then planning becomes reactive instead of deliberate. By denying this reszoning quest, this commission has an opportunity to reduce cumulative environmental impact and limit additional traffic. I understand the argument of property rights and property rights are important, but property rights have always existed within the framework of zoning, land use planning, and community impact. That is not a minor or temporary use. A data center is a permanent high impact industrial facility. This commission exists to provide thoughtful oversight and to determine where growth is appropriate and where it is not. Tonight, I respectfully ask that you vote against this resoning. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. [applause] And one thing uh Mr. Chairman, I wanted to share with y'all that did not come up earlier because it was not in their um synopsis. Between Bird and White Oak, you will have 1,000 534 generators, 4,965 HVAC units. Thank you. [applause]

Good evening. My name is Dan Lanning. Uh I live at 825 Rolling Brook Lane. I will be across the street on Lewisville Road. I'm from here. I live right there. Puts it a little in perspective for you. Um I'm not the Oregon football coach, so don't worry. Um I get that once in a while, but I'm just the guy. I don't have his paycheck. If I did, I would buy this entire property and I would just leave it as is. But um sadly, I can't steal his identity tonight. Okay. Um but um I've talked to numerous people in Columbia County. I spoke with Ryan this morning. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate it. Spoke with Scott Sterling. I spoke with Scott Johnson, Allison Couch. I've been through the gamut with a lot of people. A lot of people in here have been through the gamut with a lot of people. You saw over 250 people here tonight at my best guess, probably closer to 300. I'd like to ask them a question if it's okay. If you are a Columbia County resident and you want any data centers in Columbia County, would you please stand up? other if you're standing just raise your hand. Not a single person, even those on the development authority here, even our applicant. And I'll be honest, Keith Lawrence, in a different life, I think we'd be friends. I like you, man. You're I I I do. But the only time we meet is when there's development across from my street.

Otherwise, I'd probably be calling him once a week because I like him and I actually think he does a good job. I think he tries. I think he cares. If I see him in the store, he doesn't want me to go and cuss him out or say something mean or he doesn't want to run around the corner. I appreciate that. He has come to my house. He's let me borrow his sound meter. It's a good man. This development, in my opinion, is not a good development for Columbia County. But I will say this, you let something slip through for Pumpkin Center to be approved for recommended for approval that was not even a tenth as detailed as this one is. And I can thank Keith for that. They have made attention to detail. They have listened to residents. They have tried. To my knowledge, Pumpkin Center with their development people coming out of Texas, we'll never see that guy again. Maybe on the third, but ever he's never come back to Columbia County. Keith, I'll see you in the store. You see the difference? And yet you recommended to approve the first one. Like after listening to this, I'm like, man, we my wife and kids are here. We struggled back and forth for the last two months, about month and a half with this, right? Like, well, is it good? Is it bad? Would it be okay? Would we live? Would we leave? Would we stay? You know, we've we've struggled and we've had someone to talk to. Now, I'd like to make mention tonight that the owner of this tract, Mr. David Bird, the largest owner of this tract, I know Mr. Keith owns some, a few other people are in on it, he's absent.

I'm disappointed. Another Columbia County resident trying to develop land sent someone else in hisstead. That doesn't show confidence to me. I've had neighbors try to talk to Mr. gave a bird. He doesn't want to talk.

That says something. Don't you want to develop land where your neighbor across the street can say, "Oh, yeah. We developed that. Aren't you proud?" I think Keith is trying. I really do. I I honestly genuinely believe him. When when he says he's trying because of the things that they have done here, I still don't want it. I don't think this is a a choice of this or that. I don't think we either get 1500 homes or a data center. Can't there be a third option? Can't there be nothing right now? Can he come up with another plan at some point down the road? This isn't like a oh no, we have to make a decision by February 3rd or or what? We can just not. You five were given a golden ticket tonight. Literally, you have a golden ticket. Your decision is not final. You're a recommendation to the board of commissioners. Y'all could have literally said no. Disapprove all of them and let the board have the onus on them. Y'all could have walked out here,

left this building with 250 of your residents that you're going to see in stores, at church, if you go to church, in school, and they could have said, "Man, thank you. Thank you for saying no." Even if the rest of them said yes, you guys said no. We said that for the quarry. Someone said it tonight. I was going to say it, too. Y'all disapproved a quarry, which is a fraction of this. And yet, it was four to one. Ryan, thank you for saying no to that first one. Please. Thank you. [applause] Um, though I am blown away that you four, I'd like just one more minute if that's okay. Um, can I borrow someone's one minute? Is that okay? Um, you four didn't listen to him. He lives here. He will be affected by these data centers, specifically two of them right there. And we started out with 200 acres in White Oak first. That was the first idea that I heard. Now we're expanding at almost 5,000 acres. When does this stop? I had so many more and I wish I could save them, but we're just asking for you to disapprove it. You're not the ones making the final decision. Let the board make that decision. You guys be the good guys. Stop being the bad guys with them. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

Cassandra McCoy, 523 Cranberry Circle. I was nice before. I had a whole eloquent speech prepared about why data centers are bad. And you were up here listening to people tell you how bad they actually are. How they're going to pollute the air, poison the water, damage the soil. and you still went and just said, "Okay, no, no problem." A woman was concerned about the school's vicinity to this data center and her children's future health, and you said, "Okay, no, we'll still do it. It's fine. Whatever. Data centers are bad." As plainly as I can put it, no good will come of this. It is a depletion on our natural resources for Columbia County and our aquifer. Nothing. Why would you want to do this? It is going to be a heat sink, its own tiny little city. What good would come of this? Aside from, oh, what what was it? 102 million for revenue for Columbia County to put in roads that can't handle the neighborhoods that we have already, that can't support the neighborhoods we have already. And we're going to go and put in this monstrosity. We're going to displace these animals. We're going to poison the ground. We're going to poison the sky. You won't be able to look at the sky out at the pumpkin center. You'll be able to see stars like that other woman said. Um the one girl where where is she? She can't go hunting anymore because of it. And right next to a school of all things that should have appealed to you like hey we don't want to hurt kids. But no, you want to hurt kids. You want to poison the air and their ears and their lungs. And that's okay by you. For what reason? Oh, that that's it.

Money. So, that used car salesman in a plaid suit convinced all of you that this was a good idea. [applause] My name is Cassandra and with that comes a curse. I'm either always right or pleasantly surprised. And this time I'm right. It is a bad idea to put a data center anywhere near your cities. Just Google it. AI it right now and ask, "Are data centers a good idea?" Your AI will say, "No, it's not. It's terrible." And the AI is literally speaking against itself. So, thank you for your time, but I told you so.

Thank you.

Thank you. [applause] Good evening. I have a prepared statement. Some of the things I'm going to skip over because people have already addressed them about health issues and other things, but I'm going to give some facts. But first of all, my name is Tom Stevenson. I live at 477 Lewisville Road. My wife and I built our home in 1992. We've been there for 34 years. It was part of a development Bob and Bill Cooper started called Boulder Oaks Estates with lots ranging from 2 and a half to 5.6 acres with restrictions for minimum size homes, square footage that and and allowed for other types of uh development on the property. the uh this this construction of Lewisville Road data center in the nature's way um it affects our home prices. Okay, it affects home prices. It affects our our health. It affects um the cost that we incur yearly. First, when I want to talk about property values, depending on what studies you review, there are mixed results concerning property values. But in my case, I can say they do impact property resale values. I have two small tracks on Lewisville Road in front of the locks my home and my barn are located on. They're 2 and a half and 2.6 acres. I've heard rumors of the data center reszoning on Nature's Way since last October. At that time, I had people call or email me about purchasing those two pieces, and that's been going on for for over 15 years. Since the reasoning signs have been posted, the inquiries have stopped. As a citizen of Columbia County, I support property owners developing their

property as long as it doesn't impact neighboring property negatively, which in this case, I believe the reasonzoning application does impact property values and others negatively. My house, if you look on this map, is right there. Okay? Right there. We talk about sound. I want to talk a little bit about noise levels. 70 dB uh at the property line is too loud. Typical residential areas are around 55 dB during the daytime and 45 dB in the night time. In US range in the US, ranges go from 40 to 55 dB depending on regions and time of the day. Currently standing in my backyard near the property line, the noise level is 45 dB depending on the time of the day and weather. Sunday after Christmas, it was 55 dB due to heavy holiday traffic on I20. I have several recordings on my property and the surrounding areas and the highest level I have recorded is 65 dB standing next to Lewis for road with cars passing by. To give a comparison example of noise levels, your home AC condenser outside, stand beside it. 70 dB. Uh a pool pump like some people have 55 dB. Um decel sound reduces six dB per 100 foot. You look at the buildings, they're 108 dB with the chillers. Okay, you're 500t away. That's 78 dB at the property line. 78 dB. You know, if you want to have another

comparison, I work for a paper company. Stand 500 foot in the parking lot from a building that the equipment is operating in is 65 dB. You can't hear yourself talk hardly. There are all kind of health implications by data centers and I'm not going to go through that. But EPA and HUD uses a 55 decel rating for exterior goals, for exterior activities, and for being outside. This the third thing, cost. The only reason data centers have to pay for utility upgrades is because the Georgia Public Service Commission passed regulations in 2025 stating that taxpayers will not foot the bill for data centers consuming more than 100 megawatts of power. Okay. So any anything any data center is over 100 megawatts of power. That one is definitely over 100 megawatts of power. To give you example how much a 100 megawatts of power would compare to it'd be the it would be this the amount of uh electricity that a paper mill consumes daily or a chemical plant or 16,400 homes. Plant Vogle has four nuclear generating units around 4600 megawws. Newly constructed hypers scale data centers require power capacity of 100 megawws of at least 100 megawws. an interview with Georgia Power on September 30th of 2024, Georgia Power stated the total pipeline of economic development projects expected through the mid 2030 has increased by 12,200 megawws to 36,500 megawws with large-scale facilities accounting for 36,400 megawws. All 25 of the committed large-scale projects are expected to be in service

by the end of 2028 or sooner. According to the company's quarterly reports, 13 have broke ground and 12 are pending. Sir, your time's up. Okay. My request is I have one request. Lower the decibel level to 55 at the property line.

Thank you. Thank you. [applause] It's me again. I know I'm a pain. Um, so the the buffer zone at Lonergen Helm Road. My house I know is barely 90 ft from the center line of the road. My neighbor's house is maybe 10 ft further back than that. Why do we only get 250 ft and where the power lines are get 500 feet where those major transmission lines already are? It doesn't make sense to me. Again, it's an infrastructure issue and the residents that are remaining there, maybe not for long, but those of us that are remaining there or deciding what we're going to do um seem to get the least free space when there's plenty of it available. according to this great plan. Um, Nature's Ways been rerouted once already. We lived through that. That wasn't great. It looks like it's being rerouted again. Is that correct?

So, the nightmare that created that didn't help anything to begin with is going to happen again at the other end. As soon as I saw the signs on the uh south side of Nature's Way, I was like, I bet they're going to try and close this road off completely. There's no plan for that at all. Right. It's not going to be closed. No plan now. But I I I tell you, it seems like a lot of plans change as things go on and and we don't and we don't know it. You know, the intention is the intention is the intention is this way a county road. Yeah.

Yeah. The way it's laid out is basically the road will remain open while the new road is being built and then it ties back in.

That was going to be my next point because they did that on Columbia Road when that bridge by the church was being I I tell you I don't know why it takes 10 years to widen the road when they literally built the bridge bypass in two months and then it took them a year and a half to build the bridge or maybe it was maybe it was nine months or something. Um, but this I tell you, I I will beat up on infrastructure. It doesn't seem like it should take that long. Get the things moving and be done with it. I bring a crew from Singapore in here because they can they can build a city in six months. I mean, seriously, they do it. Um,

if they don't have G DOT or US Corps of Engineers and all the other hoops we got to run through for get the first tree cut down.

There are there are places that bring crews from Singapore to do the building once it's once everything's approved. I'm not saying I want Singaporeans here. That's not what I'm saying. What I want is I mean if if this gets approved and historically um it doesn't seem like uh what we bring up what our concerns are doesn't see it doesn't appear that that holds a lot of water with anybody. Um but can we be smart about it? um [clears throat] why it has to take so much. Um I mean it's it's burdensome on anybody that still lives there. No kidding. The farm that's there right now, nobody can control it. You can't control it. I had no control over it. And it seems petty. My mailbox was ripped down four times by the trucks going in and out of there. Guess who got to bear the expense of that? Me. Can I prove it was them? No. But I've never hit my mailbox. I mean, let's be honest here. So, I don't know. I don't like the idea. I don't think any of us like the idea. If it can be made invisible, fine. if it can be made. I mean, you know, really, realistically, and truly, what is the environmental impact of just leveling everything? I understand we've got we've got 400 times more trees on Earth right now than we did during the days of the Civil War. I'm not I'm not debating that. However, just clearcutting something. Drive down I 20 past Bair Road. But what do you feel even on a calm day? Huge gusts of wind coming across there because we've

created a wind tunnel. Same thing's going to happen here. There's going to be tunnels of wind created. And right now we're we're pretty lucky on uh Lonergen Hume where like during the hurricane we didn't suffer we didn't suffer mass amounts of damage to our property to our structures because that forestry is there. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you sir. [applause] Hi, my name is William Bailey. I live on 4238 White House Street. And I realize this is pretty much an exercise in futility after watching the last vote. You guys are going to You guys have already decided how this is going to go. I'm not sure why we spend as much time as we do trying to convince you otherwise when you guys have made up your minds. I also don't understand why we started with one data center and we can't figure out how much that's going to affect our electricity and our water before we have to go and have three data centers before what happens if all these promises that have been made that it won't affect the electricity, it won't affect the water. It's not true. Now you've got three instead of just one that you've got to deal with. But that doesn't seem to matter either. So, I applaud these people for coming up here and trying to talk to you. I know you guys have already made up your minds. That's just kind of the way it is. You guys have a nice night.

Thank you. [applause] Susan Warren 5129 North Tubman and Road Appling. Um, one of these new applications for data centers was not very clear and that was the pumpkin center one. Why were no DRI filed for these centers? When were the applications submitted? Were they rushed to the planning commission to get them in process by January first prior to the new guidelines for DRRI going into effect? There are wetlands shown on both the bird farms and pumpkin center maps. And I've been told that when Colombia County sold the land to uh Connecticut for the um White Oak Center that they pretty much carved out all of the wetlands and the county is stuck with us, all these wetlands. We're going to pay the price for that if that's the truth. when the floods come and come they will with the heavier rains we are seeing in the largest data center district and permeable surface area of any US data centers while the county emphasizes the square foot of the data center buildings themselves they don't talk about how much more is actually where the trees used to protect us from this heavy runoff yeah wide oak has 8 million 4,000 square feet of data center buildings but there's an additional 870,000 square ft of substation and administration building. Bird Farms at 4 thou 4,956,800

square ft also has a substation warehouse building 640,000 square ft. That's a total of 5,596,800 square ft. Pumpkin Center is 2,870,400 square feet with an additional 992,500 of substation, warehouse, and office. That brings their total to 3,762,900. That makes your 15,831,200 square feet jumped to 18,356,200 square feet and there's no parking zone on any of these three sites. Could that be because they don't have many employees? That's what I think. And the plans for Pumpkin Center were so basic there was no information on how they planned to power and cool those four huge buildings. Additionally, on White Oak and Bird Farms, there are listed as 540 generators that have to be figured in the square footage of these two sites. The only thing that was said about these and that is that it is assumed they will have weatherproof enclosures. So, we can't even me measure their footprints. You know, all of these things require concrete structures. That's impermeable. The water's not going to go through that when we get a 3-in rain. It's not going to go through that. It's going to be running off. And where does it run off? It runs off into the wetlands. It runs off into the creeks. It runs off into the streams and down to the Savannah River. So, the ballpark estimate for these all

these extras not mentioned probably pushed the total square footage to at least 20 million. And guess what? The county said none of these imper impermeable services are required to sp pay pay a storm water fee like we residents do. No. No storm water fees. There isn't unless he lied to me. Did he lie to me?

There aren't there isn't any mention at all of emergency generators on the pumpkin center site. So, PL I don't understand how the county could have done noise testing without knowing. And the 4,935 rooftop chillers for the white oak and bird farm sites are estimated to operate when they're at 100% load of 105 dBA. That's a lot more than 70. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. [applause] My name is Crystal Parton. I live at 3171 Doure Road, Appling, Georgia. It really is Winfield, thank God. Um, so I am kind of far away from what's happening right now. Um, but if I don't get up here and talk about it and it comes out my way, then I haven't done what I need to do for um, my friends. [applause] I am an educator. I taught history and government and now I'm an educational leader. I'm a mother of kids who go to Harlem Middle School and Harlem High School. I am the previous planning commissioner for District 4. My family has been here for 200 years. I'm educated as are most of us out here. We are not bumpkins. We're not rednecks. And we are not uninformed. In fact, this group is the only group that has provided hard research and data that support our opposition. Planning commissioners, county commissioners, staff, there's no there's no data, no evidence, no scientific research to support um approving these data centers. None. And y'all had plenty of chances to show us. Tonight, I'm going to focus on some procedural issues because everybody's covered all the rest. Unlike the statement from the pumpkin center data man, this is not just about what the property can be used for. This is about use as well as the fit with the community and can certainly be denied on a variety of basis. I mean, staff has denied recommending garages and storage units based on how it impacts neighbors in neighborhoods in Evans. a garage because it impacts their neighbor

because it's five feet away from their property line. You can and you should have discussion before moving forward with a vote of this magnitude. [applause] Mr. Ko, thank you for your vote. As our representative, you have the right and the responsibility to request discussion before any vote that does not reflect the interests, desires, and quality of life of the district that you represent.

Public comment exists to inform the commissioner's decision-making. When public concerns are heard, but never acknowledged or discussed, the process becomes performative, and it is not participatory. Unless y'all all talked beforehand, which is not allowed. How do y'all know why Mr. Ko voted no? How do you know why they voted yes and why didn't you discuss it? [applause]

The commission also has procedural tools available such as tableabling or continuing an item to allow time for proper review and meaningful constituent input. Choosing not to use those tools, especially under these circumstances, is a deliberate choice. The official record of this meeting will reflect whether these concerns were engaged with or dismissed without discussion. That record matters to the citizens you serve and to the public trust in this body and not just from citizens of District 4. I have plenty of friends, family across this county who are disgusted with how these things are moving right now. without proper discussion, with seemingly disinterest in the feelings in large community outpourings. The level of turnout here tonight should signal that this issue warrants greater deliberation, not less. High public participation calls for restraint, transparency, and discussion before a vote. And it was motion one, motion two. All in favor? I.

That is unacceptable.

And it wouldn't happen on a garage in a neighborhood in [applause] Evans. So, it's disrespectful. Finally, commissioners are elected and appoint you to represent their districts, not simply to vote with a majority. Representation means speaking up when a vote conflicts with district interests. I was told recently that our District 4 commissioner represents all of Colombia County and has to vote with everybody in mind. Well, with that reasoning, all of you should be voting with us in mind, too. Right now, none of this is happening and Columbia County deserves better. Effective represent representative government requires listening, discussion, and accountability, especially when decisions directly affect the community's quality of life. And right now, it feels like representative government in this county is a sham.

Thank you. [cheering] [applause]

Hello. How are you? Uh, my name is Lori Patterson and I um live at Faircloth Commons now. I used to have a house out in Eping. Um, and it killed me to sell it to move out of that area. My father was ill. Um, so I had to come into town. But are all of you employees of Columbia County? I'm not familiar with all of you. Are you are you Columbia County employees? No. Okay. Um, because I'm trying to figure out I've never been so disheartened in my whole life as what I am after sitting here for what, four hours? um listening to all of these people pour their hearts out and give you factual reasons why these data centers are not a good idea and you basically spit in their face

that you didn't give it 30 seconds of thought. But I feel sorry for each of you because you have to live amongst all of these people. And I'm sure you will lose many friends because of decisions you have just made. But at the same time, I feel sorry for all of these people. I feel sorry for these people here. Um because all of these people don't understand you have to vote that way. The lady that was just up here said she didn't understand how you could unless you spoke ahead of time. Well, the county God spoke ahead of time.

There is one person in charge of this whole county. He's running it into the ground. And this was his idea 10 years ago. And when Ron Cross went out and they wrote Doug Duncan, who had no political aspirations at all, um, and had probably never even been to a council meeting into running against Pam Tucker. [laughter] Um, that was the end of Columbia County. Scott Johnson is running this county into the ground and you all are allowing it. [applause] I will also say that that's why I I pity all of you because I know I understand there is nothing any of you can do. you tried with the quarry and I'll bet you all heard about that and that's probably why you didn't even have to discuss tonight's answer because you weren't going to do it again because I know him how he works. A few of these people know how he works and he will bully you into making the right decision. And that is exactly what he has done with every commissioner and all of you, all of department heads. I mean, I've I've seen it for years. All of you all have seen it for years. Um 10 years ago we had a nationally recognized EMA department. I know because my father built it and Scott Johnson single-handedly

[clears throat] squashed a nationally recognized EMA department because of his um I don't know just because of the way he is and he bullied her into leaving and I'm Sure, if one of you all would step out of line, he would bully you into being gone. Also, um these people have lived out in this area, most of them, for generations, and now it's not one data center over here in White Oak, you know, kind of tucked away. Now they're everywhere. Thousands of acres for what?

For what? For any of you. Surely none of you all are profiting off of this. I don't think any of these people out here are going to profit off of it either. Except maybe these right here. No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and money. Amen. That's Matthew. [applause] Thank you.

I hope when you go home you all think about what you've done. Um I will keep you in my prayers and I understand that you had no choice because um Scott Johnson has already said this is what [clears throat] we're going to do. We're going to get a data center 10 years ago. He's going to make up whatever departments he needs to make up. Uh he's going to hire whoever he needs to hire. You know, them, the commission overriding what you all sat and had debates about the quarry, them overwriting it. I'm sorry. It I'm It made all of you look foolish. I know.

Thank you, ma'am. But that's just how how he is. He doesn't care. Thank you. I appreciate you. I'm sorry. [applause] Thank you.

Thank you for your time. [applause] Hello again. Guy Febiger, 5206 White Oak Road, Appling, Georgia. So, the White Oak Technology Center passed and just like the young woman that was just up here that left. I'm speaking up because while not directly impacted, I was close enough that I was worried about my neighbors. I'm probably maybe two miles from I20. White Oak doesn't just come up next to my property. there's a subdivision or a line of homes behind mine. So, I'm not directly impacted. These people are definitely impacted. Now, the developer that is doing the green space, commendable. You're going to plant wild flowers. I don't know what animals are going to be around those wild flowers with the noise, but that's commendable. the buffer area where you're 200 feet away from the data centers. I'm 300 feet from White Oak Road. I see traffic passing through the pine trees. I hear the traffic from I20. Now, that being said, I stuck around here after the first meeting and my wife left in disgust after 300 or so people sat here, stood here, and more or less admonished you and begged you, don't let this happen. This is not the future for Columbia County. I stuck around to say for four of y'all, shame on you.

Shame on you. [applause] do the right thing, prove me wrong, and vote no on this next one and the one after and the one after that because like the young lady said, I can't help but feel that these were all back room plans. This is happening too fast.

Stop. When I talked to to Miss Couch about the white oak program, she said, "This is the first one. We're going to see how this goes." And the next thing you know, you guys are balls to the walls on trying to get these developed right down our throats. Stop. What is the rush? Like the other man said, please have a conscience. [applause]

I'm Eli Davis. I'm 2197 Morris Callaway Road. So, the White Oak data center will be in my backyard. Um, I graduated from Harlem High School in 2022, and a month ago, I graduated from Augusta University with a bachelor's in cell and molecular biology. I would speak on the health implications and the other biological topics that others have spoke on tonight, but I'm not going to waste my breath. I would like to point out the ecological efforts that this data center has proposed. The intention, the care, and the effort is noticeable. My only concern are the pine trees that are planned to be planted. For those who don't know, pine trees start the forest. Whenever you clear land, the first trees you see are pine trees. They grow fast. That is part of the reason they are a part of our lumber industry. These pine trees have very shallow roots. They also don't house many species. Old growth forest that we are cutting down like the one in my backyard harbor are rare and more sensitive species. I would like to point out our bard owls. Few months ago I had to have a talk in front of my um ecology class. As these bard owls are leaving our states, fleeing through Canada and going to Washington, we are destroying their habitats. And so these species that are native here are having to find other areas to live. So while I am against these data centers, I would like to commend this proposal for the effort they have put in to help with the environment. And that's

all they're doing. They're destroying habitat and putting in work, unnecessary work to resurrect a land as we could just leave it and maybe create a preserve. Instead of creating a data center, make this land a preserve to where data centers are going to pop up, but leave this land intact so that species can harbor there, grow there, and maybe spread. So my proposal is for these pine trees. Yes, they're good. They grow fast. That is why you're planting pine trees, but maybe two, three years later, start planting our oaks, our hickories with deeper roots that will grow taller and support our wildlife. And we approved the last one with no real ecological implications or efforts. And while it seems inevitable that these data centers are going to pop up, I think it could be y'all's job to make this a standard, make these ecological efforts improve. Like I would say this is the bare minimum. Why is not every data center proposing these ecological efforts? And like at SRS, SRS has biologist, ecolog um e ecologists. They're there on site, taking data, doing research. No scientists are proposed to be on the the sites. It's just buildings and maintenance workers. Um that's really all I have to say. I just wanted to point out that these ecological efforts should be the standard. And I think that y'all could make them the standard whether or not the data centers go up to y'all. But thank you.

Thank you. [applause] [clears throat]

Good evening again, Vin Mueller, Pecan Road and Appling. I prepared to talk to you about the water earlier. I wasn't prepared for anything else, but there were some things that have come up that I took some issue with and I want to just clarify the traffic data that was just recently reviewed for this project is one of those instances of cherrypicking your data. the proposed um description the the the data center traffic study is based on after construction full buildout minimal employees. It says nothing about three data centers being constructed at the same time over a 5 to 20year buildout and having 2,000 to 4,000 temporary construction workers in and out of that those facilities every single day. That is what they really should be looking at. What are we going to look at for the next 10 years? At a minimum, the housing ex explanation that was put forth is for after full buildout once this whole area has been turned into another pud and all of those homes have been sold and the realators and the land owners are thrilled. So, don't cherrypick the data. If you're going to pick the best, pick the best of both. If you're going to pick the worst, pick the worst of both and be open and honest about it. Earlier, someone was talking about the issues with what happens when the bubble bursts and these buildings are no longer needed. What do we do about site reclamation? When this first came up in

the review of the data center uh standard, I proposed that we put in there that every project requires a multi-million dollar bond that is held to restore the property when the unit shuts down and that you clarify what show what constitutes a session of operations. One security light keeps electricity running and right now no power for a 12-month period is the only criteria you have. That's not s sufficient. Um when this thing comes in, it will have very few long-term jobs on the site reclamation. I got I lost my place for a second. This project doesn't need to be where it is. It just makes land owners happy who make a lot of money on it. Why don't you take it and move it to some place where we need site reclamation, the Regency Mall. Richmond County would be thrilled. Richmond County is a partner in the joint development authority with Colombia County. Share the wealth. If this is so blasted good for us, share it with our neighbor because we're going to try and steal their water next year. One of the other people that was up a little bit ago said that when we use these NDAs, you the county used the NDAs to cover the tracks of everything that was being done and that when it's secret, it's bad. Many people have made biblical references and the Bible will tell you if you have to keep it in the dark, it's not a good thing. So, one of the questions I have had from the beginning of this, and it's a moot point now because this is all as far along as it is, but we will have more of

this coming at us in time. Why doesn't the county have the guts to put a non-binding referendum on the ballot like Richmond County did for uses of the Regency Mall to get the opinions of the commoners who elected you, who elected the commissioners, who appointed you, get our opinion on what to do with our land because it's not the counties. [applause] Thank you. Thank you. Good evening again. Beth Connell, 2538 Falling Branch Lane, Evans. Um, I'm also not directly impacted. I had a lot to say, but the young lady back here said it much better than I ever could. But my challenge here is the fact that number one, that was a really quick vote and there was a room full of people and I wish we had asked the question of how many people in here supported this because it's the exception of the developers, I haven't heard one person speak in favor of any of this. Public participation is a part of a county's process, which means we have a say in what happens. And that quick vote said you didn't care about anything that was said in here. These decisions were made a long time ago. I've been a resident of this county since 1980. So in those 45 years, I've heard about the good old boy system and our commission and everything else that's going on. The commission at the time that I was in high school was basically uh the Blanchards, the Calhouns, every developer that you can look around now sat on there. and they ran this county. There was no vision. There was no desire. This county could have been incredibly beautiful and incredibly

welllaid out. And I look at many times I've stood up in front of this meeting and I've brought evidence against the vision 2035 plan to say that it did not support the reasonzoning and every time it got shot down. Well, when this group can say that every single development plan conforms to the vision 2035 plan, you don't have a plan and you don't have a vision because it is so broad. Everything fits into it. [applause] I'm asking that you stop this resoning. I also am totally overwhelmed the fact that this started as one data center. Now we're up to four. We're 4,000 acres into this. It kind of reminds me of the Parker gas station. you know, Parkers came in here and we didn't just put one Parkers in the county to see if they were really going to be a good county citizen. What do we end up with? Seven, six. I mean, why can't we have a little bit of planning? And I mean, the fact that we are just throwing these out at everyone and nobody's listening to what the citizens have to say. This room full was packed. 300 people, nobody supported it. I have yet to hear the first person come up here and support it. So, please, I realize you guys are in a bad position. I realize there are a lot of people above you that are telling you guys what to do, but you need to vote the way the people are talking in here and vote what's best for the county. The only thing that is needed for evil to succeed is for good to do nothing and just stand. So, please [applause] do not approve this. If nothing else, stand in solidarity. You've already approved one. There's already there's one that had already been previously approved. Stand with every person that was in this room and say no on this one and the next one. Thank you.

Thank you. [applause]

[clears throat]

Hi, I'm Bob Anderson, 409 Lewisville Road, Grovetown, Georgia. You guys got a tough job and you're probably glad to see me because I'm near the end of the discussion tonight, I guess. Uh, you know, I grew up on Columbia Road. It was a dirt road when I was a kid. My grandfather lived and I live now on Lewisville Road when it was a dirt road. So when I say I moved back here 15 years ago after having moved seven times in five different states because I wanted to come back to the country. I didn't think I was coming back to dirt roads because our dad used to take us to Uchi Creek when the creek was up and we'd wash the car and I didn't want to go there. But, you know, and I've been happy back here. This was our dream home. This is where we wanted to come back to. But, you know, it's changed. And I never thought in a million years I would have to be standing up in front of a group that's going to make a decision whether or not I have a data center or 18 data centers in my backyard. There's my pond. I probably have more property right up against that barrier and in Bird Farms than any other person in Columbia County.

I didn't think I would ever have to be doing this. This area right here, that's a development that this same group put in several years ago with 13 houses proposed in it. I don't know how those f folks feel about it. I only have two neighbors there, by the way. I don't know how they feel about it. I haven't talked to them. But I'll have to say that that was 20some houses. And to his credit, Keith Lawrence worked with us to make a lot of improvements to that area. So it made it more neighborhood friendly. Keith has been a good person to work with. I think he and the group he's working with has done a commendable job putting together a plan for this whole data center. As I as as one of my neighbors said, he and Keith are friends. I'm friends with Keith. We don't always agree. And this is one of the areas we don't agree on cuz I want to see this stay if not agricultural. I thought with a water plant behind my house depending on a aquifer that I was pretty safe. But things change. I talked to David Bird a number of times. He talked about this being his legacy and how he wanted to maintain the nature of the land.

18 months ago, this group proposed to us, a number of my neighbors and myself at a barbecue dinner, great plans of how this was going to be developed into a residential kind of mixeduse neighborhood. I wasn't looking you I wasn't looking forward to the additional traffic but you know maintaining the ponds and the landscape and the trees and all of that. I kind of got my mind around it with their walking trails and said, "Hey, this could be all right." Vision 2035. I have been to many meetings since it was first formed or put together. I have marked up numerous maps. Everything on the west side of Aen Harlem has always been by anyone I've ever seen mark on that map, including our own district 4 county commissioner as keep rural agricultural. And all of a sudden, we now have a new plan which shows that as being development land. Hey, I got one thing else I got to say. And this has to do with noise. Because in the back field of my property at 65 dB, I'm talking right now at about 60 dB. I would have to be yelling to have a conversation. You talk about a person's use of their property and doing what they want to

with it. Maybe that's okay. But that goes into my property. That goes into my ability for my grandson to build a house back there.

That is not fair. And I ask you to look at fairies. Now, there's one other thing. Technology. A pumpkin center guy, data guy said that it's a closed loop system. Da da da. You know what? Technology is evolving every day. And it is continuing to evolve. And the technology has evolved to the point where last week, not six months ago, but last week, Nevada introduced a chip which was much more efficient than existing chips. If you put that chip with a liquid cooling system and you eliminate reduce a number of chillers and fans and use acoustic management, you can reduce the db and oh by the way this comes from AI. There were several other releases but it was came from AI. You can reduce that noise level to less than 50 dB. Less than 50.

Okay, sir. You're you're out of you're out of I would ask I would ask Keith and I would ask his counterpart and Pumpkin Center. Why can't we do that? Why can't the commissioner say 50? because there's nothing's going to be put in there that's going to make it less than 70 unless they need to. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] So, I'd ask Keith to respond to that question.

Good evening, gentlemen and ladies. I'm Jackie Stevens. I live at 1808 Longhan Hill, right about here. [snorts] So I will be caught should this go through not only between facing a data center but the land behind me having been purchased by Georgia Power for substations along with neighbors my daughter and many other neighbors in that remaining strip of in between on Lanigan home. We will be caught in between the two. Nobody wants our land after that. We've had a one of our neighbors has had a commissioner visit that told, "Oh, yes, your land value will go down, but you can have it reszone commercial and sell it." Well, I just purchased this land in October, came before the planning commission, October of 2023, October 5th, the land was zoned M1. I was planning to build my forever home next to my daughter and asked for it to be reszoned residential and it was why if you had plans for this area to be commercial all along just deny my request. But now we will be the ones suffering all of us in that strip along with pumpkin center area. This was not neither of these data center properties are presented by the majority property owner for the benefit of Columbia County. The only benefit is their

pocketbook. Yeah, I I I'll agree that maybe there is more effort put into this one than the other one. But ladies and gentlemen, we have been shown tonight and in this long journey the true game of the good old boy system.

It still lives. We thought we had progressed, but we have not. It's who you know, what you have, where you come from. I've retired as the administrative executive administrative assistant to one of the former presidents of Augusta University. I worked with the current president. It's good old voice system. that prop that system that works with the government and the the middleman, the little man, the blueco collar workers. Okay, we can run over them. No, we're not going to put any of this over in the Riverwood area or any of the high dollar areas. There's too many people that are kings in those systems we can't mess with. Okay, fine. Why us? Why are we not as important as the other areas? It's just a shame that and I I'm we're sitting here preaching to the choir. I'm sure underneath many of of the facades that you have to put up, you got your hands slapped last time when you voted against the rock quarry and you you certainly were warned not to do it again. So I commend you for all the work that you have tried to do, but you are playing with a lot of people's lives. And just like everyone else has stated, money's not money's not what it's all about. We're supposed to support one another, be each other's brothers and sisters, look out for each other. We're not supposed to be run over by someone else

just because they have more money than we do. And if you really want to put good trees around an area, if you're going to be a good old boy system, do the fuga trees like they do at Augusta Nashville. And you can't you know, you can't see through that barrier. And they grow pretty fast, too. So, thank you for your time. And thank you [applause] I'll have one I'll have one more speaker. One more speaker. I'm about to call a vote. You can come up and speak if you'd like. One more speaker and I'm gonna call for a vote.

My name is Kim Kaine. My husband Raymond's here with me. We live on Gavin Road [clears throat] which will be sitting between the bird farm data centers. Our dirt road, the back property which will border nature's way is the back of our property. So there'll be data centers in our backyard and across the dirt road in our front yard to the left there will be data centers. So we're going to be sandwiched between two data two data centers. We've been there since 1983 when we married. We've um worked hard to build a home, 7 acre homestead, uh pay it off. We're in our mid60s. We were looking uh to settle there. Retirement, children, grandchildren is home. Have not heard from David Bird. Can't get in touch with him. We uh I do want to commend Keith and I need to talk to you afterwards. Keith, you need to come see us. We've not heard a word from anybody, and we're sandwiched between two data centers. David said his legacy was creating this community with homes. We finally bought into that and then we haven't been told a thing. And we find out all of this through the grape vine. My heart is still about to bust out of my chest because of the way you public servants voted when people poured their hearts out. And Mr. Moody, you opened us up with a prayer to Jesus and were praying for about our neighbors. your neighbors who are the constituents that you're to be a voice for poured their hearts out and you

prayed and ended that prayer in the name of Jesus and y'all raised your hand and and voted completely against the heart of the people. I'm [snorts] very disappointed. We really don't have a voice in Columbia County. It's a facade.

Yes, it is. It is a facade. [applause] I'm not interested in wildflower fields that run along the uh power lines. We are rural because it's in our DNA and we had settled to this. They did a great job planning this community we were going to have as a housing development. So to tell me that we're going to have wild flowersowers, but where are the animals going to be? We're going to be affected our health. We're going to have to listen to noise. All that you heard everybody else say, we're going to be affected by that. I don't care how much green space they're trying to preserve. I appreciate that. But we're still sandwiched between two data centers that have all these negative effects and that our our commissioners and and uh the planning commissioners here are not being the voice for the constituents. You're lying in your pockets or something. But I want to encourage each one of you to call the attorney general because something is a miss with the way they have slipped in all these data center so fast. The way they slipped in this um rock quarry. We need to go to the state level because Columbia County has gotten corrupt to the poor. Call your lieutenant governor who by the way is selling property for a data center. Call Brian Kemp and get on the phone with our senator and our House of Representatives. But it's time for the attorney general to investigate Columbia County's government.

Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

Did you you want to answer his question? I got a couple. I'll just take a second. Um,

I know the first lady that came up was talking about the access. You know, we clearly show the access is off of Nature's Way. The secondary access for Georgia Powers is off of Lon and Hume. Um, I know there's a lady there's a lady that was concerned about the wetlands. Uh, we had the US Army Corps of Engineers verify our wetlands. Those were located and are designated on our plan. We've actually got the four-step storm water quality plan that will protect those wetlands. On that side, um, the gentleman that was talking about the sound decay, it does he is he is close on that. It's just that it takes it's different through a wooded area. That's the difference. It drops it down by about another six or eight on the sound study. And on the road right here, we just show the required 250. But if you see the area to the side, it actually probably is 500T buffer on there. It's just actually just designating the 500 I mean the 250 or the 500 on that side. Let's see one other thing. And then lady, I was talking about the impervious area. The plan, this is quick, u but it's uh the plan of the residential is 6.5 million square feet with the homes and the retail commercial just to compare it on that side. And then um the gentleman that was talking about that there that's the only way to compare the two things on the traffic study is is the stabilized but I did mention in my presentation that the traffic study will include specifically the construction traffic addressing on that issue on that side. And then on Bob's, um, two things. I've already reached out to Bob and we're going to do a 12oot B, uh, Burm on that back side to catch it because it's running up the field with planted pines on that side. And then Bob, about your question about the noise, I'd have to ask a little bit more detail on that one. I would imagine if there's a chip that's out there that uses less energy and was more efficient that it would definitely be consideration

about 50 55 on. Yeah, I I'd have to check on that. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Do I have a motion? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to recommend approval with conditions of RZ260102 reszoning from RA to M1 to DC for properties of Logger Home Road, Nature's Way, and Gavin Road. I'll second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. No discussion. Motion carries. Really? Next item on the agenda RZ26-01-03.

Will sheriff's request for quite a few parcels off of Catalyst Drive and off of Progress Drive and off Harlem Road, off Morris Cal Road, and off I20 about 3,140 acres. currently zoned S1, M2, RA, and split zone RA and M1. And the request to reszone to DC data center district for proposed data center development. Shows location of the property. Again, quite a few parcels extends all the way from uh Aen Harlem Road out to Morris Callaway. Shows the current zoning of the property. Again, we're dealing with uh again the water technology park that's here that was zoned S1 and also more property being added to it on this side and also over here as well within the Wad business park.

Hey Will, can we stop until they clear out? We we we have a we have a meeting going on. Please uh curtail all conversations.

I'm sorry. I should have spoke up Okay, go ahead, Will. Thank you. Yeah, sure. Shows area the site

and the site itself on Morris Callaway. I believe [snorts] also on Morris Callaway on Apple Harlem Road and within the Wad Business Park also within what business park and the plat of the property again the existing S1 zoning here and then plat for Wad Business Park and also along I 20 and also along Callaway or Morris Callaway Road, excuse me. Just overall concept plan. Again, uh we're still dealing with about 8 million square feet of of data centers on this project. It has kind of spread out if you want to view it that way. Um it does include again this new section here. Then also there is emergency access access off of Morris Callaway Road and also the the biggest change though is the primary access off of Appan Harlem on this end over here. Also emergency access uh wars Callaway and at the bottom there again sound studies we're looking at again these are a little less because again we're deal a lot more property further away from things that makes some noise on top side we're deal with 36.8 eight.

It goes to a max of 46.9 on Bill Dorne. And again, with the sound study that that they've proposed, they're looking at it from you the inside out with this. And again, it does show uh they are likely not going to exceed the 70 uh at the property line with this. And again, no reduction in the buffer on this project either. uh but they have provided a visual survey uh showing how the these buildings should not be visible from adjacent properties in the future development side of things. So when we did the original S1 here uh we discussed fact is that this thing is within three different uh carriage areas on vision vision 2035 we discussed with that with the employment center is the ability for it to basically move into a new area as it grows. uh it did that in our opinion with um with the original Wipe Technology Park. Again, we're kind of doing the same thing here where you have again it would go into this area here as well. And again, this is already uh zoned for uh industrial development. Terms of the draft plan, again, we're still dealing with the industrial industrial and technology uh future character area. Again, it does include the entirety of this development. Again, this does show there's some validity with with with vision vision 2035 and also with the roads draft. Again, with this, we do have conditions. U one of them is is clarifying with the access point Morris Cali Road and Bill Dorne should be for mercy access only and designed as such. That was in the S1. This is just kind of carrying that over to make sure that stays the same way. uh traffic engineering. There was a traffic study uh with the original resoning from June 2025 that had several road roadway improvements to accommodate development related traffic and that will be designed and extracted by the developer. And lastly, the same conditions from water and sewer in regards to that side of the development includes staff recommendation.

Thank you. will with the owners are applicant of the uh development authority uh green jacket like to come forward and speak. Good evening. Thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. Um just as Will said, we already have part of the site zoned as S1 which can allow for data centers. Um, we are just asking for some of these adjacent properties to be brought under the new DC uh zoning designation as well as bringing the S1 site up to the DC zoning designation as well. Okay, thank you. We have any questions? Name and address. Oh. Oh, name and address, please.

Cheney Eldridge with the development authority. We're at 1000 Business Boulevard. Okay. Thank you. I know who you are. Yeah, I'm sorry. Thank you. Yeah, we don't have any questions. Any other member here would like to speak in uh in favor of this? Any member would like to speak in opposition. Blaine Carter. I live in Dearwood Acres, Dearwood Circle. Um may I ask that couple a question? Did you say you are green jacket or you're the Columbia County Development Authority?

I'm the executive director of the development authority. Green Jacket is the name of the site or the name of the project for the site.

Thank you. That's it. Yeah. Just just wanted to clarify that. So, it's my understanding that um this zoning was developed just a couple meetings ago because I confronted Mr. will about who's going to enforce the standards of this variance um I'm sorry of this zoning and so what I've discovered in the meantime is the first property that was proposed for a data center was bought from Apollard for about $9 million by Vic Mills it was then sold to the development authority for about 28 million or $29 million they turned around and sold it to um a company Traml Crow I Um, and then they at basically the same closing table turned around and sold that same land for $475 million. And so I said to Will at that meeting that it's laughable that you guys have this zoning and that you're going to tell a $475 million land purchaser no based on a a sound ordinance or other factors of this zoning that they can't enter the property after it's completed with several hundred more million dollars invested is a joke. It's my tax dollars that allows the development authority to do what they did. They actually borrowed the money to buy the land in the first place, which is questionable according to this Georgia Constitution. And so what I would say to you guys, you've already approved two reszonings of the land for additional data centers. That additional land that started out at 1,600 acres is now 3,100 acres. It's it's disgusting that it's our tax

dollars that pay you and you spit on the dis the the opinions of people that fund it. It's it's just pathetic. And um you know I I just I just have to tell you the the ACCG has a handbook that gives the commissioners guidelines and recommendations and it's based on the Georgia Constitution. And there's a section in there that I would highly recommend you guys go online and read on liabilities of county employees and elected and appointed officials because it clearly states that based on the Georgia Constitution that every decision you make, you are liable personally beyond your bonded indebted your bondedness with the county. And it and I won't be surprised. It won't be me because I don't have the financial wherewithal, but I won't be surprised if somebody in the near future doesn't come up with a litigation and lawsuit against an individual because they do not follow the Constitution and represent the people who put them there

and you're appointed by those people. [applause] Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Hello again, Chloe Helenroy, 4403 Summerland Drive, Evans, Georgia. I have lived in Columbia County basically my entire life and I have run my business in Columbia County for just about the past 5 years. I'm a massage therapist, so I get to take care of our community on a very personal level. The noise levels for these data centers have been tackled. Um, we've heard that from a lot of people tonight. We know that the higher frequency noises should be contained, but my issue is with the lower frequency sounds. These lower frequency sounds are not stopped by trees. They're not stopped by walls and can travel between 2.5 to even three miles away from the data center that produces these sounds. These sounds can cause things like chronic headaches, chronic migraines, chronic sleep disturbance, which we all know is no good. And I would be the one who gets to have some of these people come in my door with issues that I won't be able to get rid of. Whiplash from a car crash, that's a one-time thing. Once that's gone, it's gone. It doesn't come back. But these chronic problems will persist. I could get rid of it. It'll be back the next month when you come back again. And it pains me to know that I might actually end up profiting off of this. um it it's sick because these people will come in seeking help and all I will be able to do is give them a band-aid solution. Uh so please consider the the health impact on our surrounding communities. Uh thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Carrie Davis. I am at 2197 Morris Callaway Road. So, when I first heard about all this, it was like, "Oh, it's not going to affect me." Got to pulling up the property lines, looking at the maps, and I'm like, "Oh, yeah, that's my neighbors. This ain't going to affect me." The more I looked at it, and the more I studied this, oh, it's really going to affect me because guess where my property sits? I'm in the bottom of Morris Callaway because guess how that land runs? It runs down. One of the slides, and I don't know how to do it, but one of the first slides showing Morris Callaway Road, you see a creek. Two years ago, I think maybe three. That concrete that holds up Morris Callaway Road from falling into the creek. Guess what? It fell because our school bus goes down the road and has to turn around there because Bill Dorne didn't have any kids on it. So, they wouldn't go down Bill Dorne to hit White Oak. they make that turn. So erosion has taken place. I bought my property on Morris Callaway back I don't know I'm going to say 2002 2003. We built our house in 2006. Moved in. I've raised all four of my kids there. Moved to Columbia County because I'm from a small county in Florida and this is where I wanted my kids to be raised. I wanted them to go to Columbia County Schools because it was the best. It has turned out to be the worst. I have moved to or excuse me, just purchased land in a county that I would have never thought about moving to. Guess what? They're getting a data center too on the same road I just purchased. Yeah, that my thought. Do you guys live in Harlem? Any of y'all? I'm assuming you do since you're voting against it. But again, you've heard all of these

people vote against it. The only ones that are for it are the ones that are profiting from it. We've not profited anything. This has already taken place. My question is, and what I'm up here is, if you look, and I'm trying to find Morris Callaway on this map, but there's a why. Okay, right here. This right here, and now you can't see it, but there's a why. That fort, that storm water, that creek, that that's my property. The water comes under Morris Callaway, runs in a Y, splits all through my property. Well, guess what? When I bought my property from Ro Robert Pard, I bought it because I had three labs who loved running through that property. My kid spoke a while ago. We moved there when he was two years old. He would get lost in the woods playing in the ravine which is 15 foot deep. So guess what? If there's water in there, he's gone. My neighbors has called me. Hey, have you seen my dog? Yeah, they're in the bottom of my ravine, but there's no water in it unless it rains. But when it rains, it's all on my property because the road runs down. Back in 2008, my neighbor cut all his trees down. He wanted a BMX track out there. So, he clearcut his nine acres of land. Guess what happened to my property. It washed away. We had to call the county. Hey, we got to have a ditch. We got to do something because my house is washing away. So, they come out, they put a ditch up. What do y'all think's going to happen when y'all start cutting down all these trees and changing the um geographic topical of this? So, is the county going to come back and rebuild my house when it's gone? Because I don't plan on selling my house because that was just like everybody out

here, my forever home. I wanted to raise my kids there, which I have. 21 and 19 is the last two I have at home, but I don't want them to have to move because our home got washed away. You know, these are the things when you see all this red line, that's flood. That's water. It's going to get filled up. Erosion's going to happen. So, I understand we're trying to do a DC zoning, but in that zoning, we need to be protected by them, not by the county, because the county's already not doing anything about it. They got $475 million to spend on 3,100 acres. Make them fix this erosion. Because at the end of the day, when you put all that concrete, like somebody said earlier, we get three inches of rain, it ain't going to soak through the concrete. It's running off. Where's it going to run to? Where is the maps that show the land elevation and where I had somebody ask me the other day, I got one one thing to say. They said that they had a survey come in and they told them how many acres of water ran through their land. Well, I'm not educated like that. I bought my land living in the country. I want to know how many acres of water run through this red line stuff. And when you start clearing all of those trees, that is stopping a lot of this water and slowing it down. What's the effects going to be?

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Bob Anderson, 409 Lewisville Road, Gtown, Georgia. uh the two two conditions for approval. If you would consider this one, a DBC study of the data center from a noise level point of view. A lot has come out about DBC versus DBA and the impact of DBC on the body and on the overall health of an individual. And then secondly, use utilizing technology and mitigation of noise to require at the property lines a 50 no 50 dB noise level rather than a 70. Thank you.

Thank you. [applause]

Beth Connell, 2538 falling branch lane. Evans. Um, this is probably the definition of insanity to come back up here and say things again and expect a different result, but I am the eternal optimist. But I will say one thing tonight. I don't think I've ever been so ashamed to be a Columbia County resident as what I've seen [applause] here. The total disregard for anybody's public opinion is appalling through this whole process. I get money speaks and it seems like right now this whole room reeks of either profits or something to find out that we're reszoning because the Columbia County Development Authority, they purchased this land and sold it again and sold it again. Well, my question is where did that first money come from? I'm a taxpaying citizen. So, did my money get dirtied up in this whole process? I mean that's, you know, it's a pretty much a done deal because if that much money has been invested, the chances of this not going through are slim to none. But it is ridiculous that the fact that all these data centers come in here in the final hour and it's just being rushed through and the impacts to the citizens. Each one of you have a responsibility to your citizens. This room was packed. I walked in here tonight thinking, "Hey, we actually might have a chance." Because that's how Columbia County politics normally works. If you can't pack the room, you will never get what you're asking for. We have the room packed and we still didn't get anywhere with any of this. I I really am speechless. Like I said, maybe y'all don't care, but this is not a proud moment for this county. And every single one of us, whether we're citizens, whether you're sitting in here in this committee, or whether there's a commissioner that's hopefully going hopefully going to listen and hear this, we should all be ashamed of this. I am going to ask again,

make the final one be your shining moment and deny this resoning request. There has been too much stuff that's been offered up here. So, please listen to the people that have spoken. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

Good evening again. Dan Lanning, 825 Rolling Brook Lane, Grovetown. Still not the coach of Oregon. Still poor. Still in opposition to this. If I could buy it, I would. Okay. Um, I think there are a couple things that concern me and uh, again, appreciate y'all staying here. Appreciate many of you residents still staying here. I think we'd stay till 2:00 in the morning, 3 in the morning tomorrow if we had to, if it would make a difference. I honestly think so. Um, my concern here is that what we started out was with 200 acres originally and it's grown to 3,100 here and then we just added 1500 potentially if the board commissioners decides to approve it. Um, almost 5,000 acres. Um, we're wrapping in about a, if if I'm reading this correctly, someone I'm happy for someone to correct me. About 1,900 is is already reszoned as S1. Correct. And then we're wrapping in another thousand acres. No big deal. Just another thousand acres that a lot of it's not anything other than residential agricultural. Some of it might be M1 on the interstate. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm happy to be proven wrong. This is getting jumped in here. Even though they're not expanding necessarily the data centers right now, it's still the same 8 million square feet. Um about 1100 acres I think unless I read things wrong is being added to this proposal from what was the S1 that was approved a long time ago. So we need to be careful because tonight we I think most of us figured the S1 would go to DC. It's probably actually safer, probably better to have those restrictions to be reszoned as a DC. But not only did we do the 1900, we have the chance to do the 3100. And then in addition, we said, "Hey, let's go ahead and do the other two potentially." I'd like to run a couple numbers by you. I was told by the deputy director of Columbia County

that it takes about $20 million to give homestead properties, again, correct me if I'm wrong, uh, to remove their property bills completely. $20 million, that's it. So, we're proposed 118 million. Only 20 million of that is going back to us to reduce or eliminate property taxes for homesteads. Can anyone deny that? So, about a sixth of what this first property was going to do is actually going to come back to homeowners. The rest of it stays with the county. Hopefully, we become a pretty place with better roads, no potholes, great parks, you know, schools, all the infrastructure things that we could want that we could have. But then if we had two more right now, we're talking 300 million plus. Well, the homeowners don't receive any more of that money. It's still at that 20 million. We're still stuck there. And I know that um the deputy director is [snorts] going through the state legislation with Gary Richardson. are trying to make this thing legal so that we get the relief and not the data centers. That hasn't gone through. How long will that take? These data centers, I was told 18 months to two years, that 20 million could be there and we could see that back to us. But if it's not legal, if it's not even through the legal system yet, then how can we guarantee that? Guarantee that, excuse me. Um, I think those are things that you should ask. We should know these answers. These should be public answers. It should be easy for us to to find these answers from anyone who's on a Columbia County staff or who's been dealing with these um documents and and things. We've spent all kinds of time investigating them and I hope you have as well. Hours, countless hours. One last thing. um with about 16 million square feet of buildings once these are

built out. It's a lot of space. I would like to let you know that a Lowe's home improvement store is about 175,000 square feet. Um so that would be like building 108 Lowe's in these three properties. 108. We're lucky to have two in Columbia County. Um, if you wanna if you don't shop at Lowe's, excuse me, Lowe's is like 150,000 square feet, give or take. Uh, Super Walmart, right? 275,000 square feet. So, we could build 58 Super Walmarts in these three [clears throat] properties with with the land that's there. Okay. Maybe you don't go to Walmart. I don't go to Walmart. Um, maybe you go to Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A is about 6,000 square feet. It's Jesus chicken, right? Who doesn't go to Chick-fil-A? 6,000 square feet give or take. You want how many Chick-fil-As we could put in these three properties? 2,700 Chick-fil-As's. [clears throat] Y'all, when you look at these squares, it's not just a home. These are massive buildings. Incredibly huge buildings. We can't conceptualize 717,000 square feet. We can't. It's just impossible. So,

hey, thank you. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you for staying here and letting us speak. Thank you. Okay, we'll have two more speakers, please. Excuse me, Mr. Chairman. I believe we have three people here that have been standing here. Can you go? I understand that. I see that now. That'll be fine. Three more and that's it. I'm going to call vote. Go ahead.

Start the clock. Okay. My name is Janice Mhler. I live at 6849 Pecan Road in Appling. Um, first question has not I've not heard it at any of these meetings that I've been going to is where are the thousands of contract construction workers going to be living? Will there be trailer parks and [laughter] RV parks? And if so, where they're going to be located? This just adds more scars upon this land. Now, what I came to talk to you about, I went on to your website and you have very very clear in multiple places instructions for the applications of zoning request. And it says all signatures must be on all applications whether you are the applicant andor the owner. And if you are the owner and the applicant, you must complete and execute both signature lines. No application will be accepted or processed if not completed in full. So I went through all of that. Unless you have changed what you posted on your website, all of these zonings, which I pulled off your site for this meeting, what I have found is 11 of the applications have the department, the de development authorities as the applicant and TC as the owner. Yet, they have not been signed by the development authority. Six of the applications are owned by private citizens with the development authority identified as the applicant. These also have not been signed by the development authority. Three of the applications have just the

owners listed, but the area for the applicant is blank. At the very least, according to your rules, the owner should identify themselves as the applicant and include their signature. Now, I want to point out something on your site summary. A couple of things. Property ID 028026E is listed as 4.13 acres and actuality is 41 41.22 acres according to the application and according to your GIS map. On the development summary, you have acreage amounts listed for each individual partial. Yet several of these acreage amounts do not match what is listed on the zoning application nor the GIS map. Some are extremely close in reported acreage. Others are off by as much as 37 acres on your summary list that you have up there. lot uh 028027 and 028027M are attached in your packet for resoning, but these are not listed on that site development summary. Feels like they got slipped in. According to your rules, no application will be accepted or processed if not completed in full. Therefore, according to the rules available from your own department, only two of the zoning applications can be approved at this time. They would be 018006 for 1,624.5 acres and 019003 for 311.72 acres. I don't agree with this property being reszoned.

but it needs to be reszoned from an S1 to the to the DC now that this property is owned by Kinetic. However flaw this ordinance is, those two need to be passed. Based on your documented procedures, you cannot move forward on the remaining applications until all of these errors are corrected and the appropriate signatures are obtained. In summary, it just seems to me that this county has continued to push too hard and fast and take shortcuts for these data centers and mistakes are being made. It was bad enough that creating the DC ordinance was an afterthought, but the county is in such a rush that they make these types of clerical errors. How can I be assured that the county isn't making even bigger mistakes with water and sewer calculations, environmental protection plans, flooding mita mitigation, environmental sustainability, noise management, and lighting and other health impacts and all of the other critical impacts surrounding the area. I might not be able to change any of your decisions, but at least I can possibly slow you down.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. [applause]

Hi again, Georgia Walden, 2261 Morris Callaway Road. Um, I do have a question. I don't know if y'all can answer for me or for the developers. Circling back to the two conditions y'all were talking about. Um, considering Bill Dorne and Morris Callaway being used only for emergency exits, will that take place after all the construction is done or will they be using um Morris Callaway and Bill Dorne to build now construction will not will not use that road. It is only for emergency egress uh for fire and rescue. Everything will be coming either through uh the White Oak data uh uh industrial park or through the main entry off of uh Appling.

Okay. Thank you. That's for both roads. Yes. Thanks. I think it was also noted earlier that that was going to be gated as well. Correct. The main entrance. Yes. The emergency access gated emergency vehicles on Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you.

Crystal Parton, Doer Road, Appling, Georgia. All right. So, no discussion. nothing [clears throat] actually done in public for us to see how the decision was made. So, I'm going to speak directly to y'all and the citizens who are paying attention. Georgia's sunshine law or the open records law does not just require you to vote publicly. It requires public decisionmaking. And what we saw here tonight, it was not public decisionmaking. Not close. What may be three major data centers may be approved in one night with over 300 residents showing up and many speaking out against them. And you said nothing. You said nothing. You didn't ask any questions. You didn't try to talk about it. You didn't try to explain to us, hey, you know, I'm going to vote yes or I'm going to vote no. And here's why. Because that is your job. And this kind of silence does not happen by accident. It happens when outcomes are already decided. And we know that that's what happened. The development authority is a public body. It bought the land, resold it for these data centers before reszoning, before the public was ever told. There's even an email describing this project as highly confidential and showing that commissioners were aware of the details before any public hearing ever took place. That means the land use was predetermined. The public process came after it, not before it, not adjacent to it. And under Georgia law, that's not bad. It's it is bad

governance and it's actionable by each and every person who came here tonight and others. Georgia law allows civil action not only against a public body but against individual officials who knowingly violate Sunshine and open records laws and based on what is already documented. the confidential treatment of these projects, the advanced knowledge of commissioners and planning commissioners, the total silence on the record, which is the biggest thing. This isn't going to be difficult to prove. It's not about being for or against data centers at this point. It's about if the rule of law and o open records laws, sunshine laws mean anything in this county or in the state of Georgia. So for us as the public, if we want accountability, we need to act together. We can pull our resources because, yeah, none of us are rich enough to do what all of these other people have done. If we pull resources, work with the citizens for open governance or others, we can file a Sunshine Law complaint, and if necessary, bring civil action against individual bodies involved in this process. And I think we should. [applause]

And if there is law in this county and in this state of Georgia, something will be done. The truth always comes to light and you guys are going to be in trouble.

Thank you. [applause] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate you opening your number to three. [clears throat] I did have prepared statements for this, but after I have watched the events tonight, I'm just going to wing it and hope I can do well. As an 18-year-old, I moved to Columbia County and I raised my children in Columbia County. The first house I lived in was a two-bedroom, one bath house sitting right where Academy Sports sits right now. I paid $150 a month rent. I went on to buy another house and then another house. My kids all graduated. They went to college. They all are very successful. If I ever need a couch to live on, they've got they've got theirs. So, mine's not for them. Mr. KO when I served on the school board many times I was a 4 to one vote but people knew exactly why I voted no because I opened my mouth

and I had an opinion and I had reasons why I took the stance that I did. When I served on the Columbia County Board of Education, we ended up selling the old Evans High School to the same gentleman who just did the de the process with the development authority. But it was a good thing. Progress had to come. Home Depot's there now. Many other businesses are there. When I grew up where I mean, when I lived where I lived, Mr. Mullins had the property across the way that is Mullins Crossing. Boy, that's some good fishing in that pond over there. I could come home from work, go over there and catch a bucket full of crappy in an evening. But progress does come. But progress must come with respect. And as Miss Parton talked about tonight, if it ever does come about that people did things that were illegal, there are laws in Georgia that say if certain people sign certain documents, it's a felony. You're going to go to jail. You're going to lose your state licenses if you have one. Folks, this this is not fun and games. This is not rolling dice. This is about a community. And what we have seen here tonight is good people. They aren't rich people. I talked to a gentleman out in the hallway afterwards. Everybody's buying up everything around him. Oh, million dollars here, million dollars there. He said, ' Lee, but it looks like I ain't going to get nothing. Mr. Butler, when you first presented this back in May of last year, you were all giddy. This is going to be massive. That told me right then, you were excited, buddy. And now we got to build all these facilities and we got to get all the support together for this. We got all the construction jobs that are

going to come in here. Let me tell you something, Mr. Butler. You have no idea what you just unleashed. And kiss commissioners, y'all have no idea what you have participated in. But the folks that live out where I live, we're going to deal with it. And people have asked me why I come to these meetings. Well, I live on two acres in the city limits of Harle, but there's a lady who owns 300 acres behind me, and we've talked and I know one day she's going to develop it. But I hope and I know that she's going to follow the guidelines and the vision that's out there, but all y'all done tonight is just kick people where it hurts. And I feel sorry for you.

Thank you. [applause] [cheering] Okay. We have any more questions? I got I got Okay. I'd like to call a vote, please. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to recommend approval with conditions of file RZ260103 reszoning from S1 M2 RA and M1 to DC for properties off Apple Harlem Road, Mars Callaway Road, Catalyst Drive, Progressive Drive, Progress Drive, and I20. I'll second.

I have a motion on the floor and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. We have no legal matters this evening. No staff or commissioner comments. Can I get a recommendation for any public comment? No public comment participation. Can I get a a motion to adjourn, please? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we adjourn tonight's meeting. Second. All in favor raise your right hand. Motion carries. We are journal.