County Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Dear God, thank you for the opportunity to gather today. We ask for your wisdom and guidance as we discuss the business of our county. Please bless all of us with patience, spirit, and discernment and a spirit of unity. Help us to work together to serve our community and to make decisions that benefit everyone. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Now for the Pledge of Allegiance.

We have a few more seats over this way, over this way.

We have two in the second row if anyone wants to sit there.

And there we have an applicant, so the applicant needs to have a seat up here.

An applicant sits up front.

One back there? Okay. All right. OK, so there's someone sitting in those two. OK, there's one seat open over here. All right. OK.

Are we ready? We have one seat.

There's one seat over here. No, there's not. And there's over two over there. I think someone's sitting there, right? No, no. Okay. All right. One seat is open over here. All right.

I'll now call roll call. Please present when your name is called and remember to speak directly into the microphone so those viewing our live stream can also hear you. Roll call myself. John Lee Peterson, Jr. I'm here. Melissa Yancey.

Here.

Ernestine Stavall-Goolsby.

Here.

Angela Ingram present Danny Forrester here okay a quorum is present the next item is the approval of the agenda

Mr. Chairman, if you don't mind for a moment, I would like to propose some amendments to your agenda tonight and members of the Planning Commission. So if we could ask to move items R5 and R6 to the beginning of your agenda, which would become 5.1. And let me read what those items are. Item R5 would be for a preliminary plat. and the applicant is here tonight. Also, R6 would be the election of the planning commission chair and vice chair. I think it would be in the best interest of everyone here if you took up those items first, and then we could clear seats, and then here are the remaining items on your agenda.

Okay, so are we now moving R5 to R1 and R6 to R2?

So I would keep the R5 and R6 the way that they're titled, but I would amend your agenda to hear those items right after the rules and procedure for public hearing play. And I will also jump back in and remind the commission when we get to that time on the agenda. And then there is one other amendment I'd like to propose. and I'll be more than happy to say this again when we get ready to vote. Please do. There is a scrivener's error on item R5 that states the applicant is county staff. The applicant is Mark Walton.

Walton?

Walton, that's correct.

Okay. Okay.

So if we could call for a motion and a vote on the amendments proposed to your agenda tonight, that would include to move items R5 and R6 to 5.1, which would follow the rules of procedure, as well as amending the Scrivener's error on item R5 to state the applicant is Mark Walden.

OK. OK, we need a motion to amend. A motion to amend the items to move items five and item six on the agenda so that we can discuss those first and also to amend the agenda for item R5 from county staff applicant two, Mark Walton.

That is correct.

Okay, we need a motion.

Mr. Chairman, I move that we move R5 and R6 to the beginning of the agenda. Also in R5 that we correct the applicant from county staff to Mark Walton and everything else remains the same.

Okay, do I have a second? Second. Okay, all in favor vote by saying aye. Aye. All opposed nay. The motion carries to amend the agenda for items five and six, and also for the item five and item six. Thank you.

Okay, now you're on to approval of the minutes.

Okay. So, the next item is approval of the minutes for June 11th and June 18th. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes as presented?

I make a motion to approve amends for June 11th, 2026, separately from June 18th because I wasn't present. So I make a motion to approve that for June 11th, 2026, as written.

Okay.

Second.

Okay. All in favor state by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed nay. Motion carries. Okay.

I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, to interrupt. Then you would need to approve the minutes for June 18th as well. Okay. I'm going to make a motion to do that.

I move to approve minutes from June 18th, 2026.

Second. Okay. All in favor, state by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. Motion carries. Okay. The staff will play the public hearing procedures recording.

To the appropriate zoning case sheet and fill out a public comment card to register your intent to speak prior to the start of this meeting. Each item of business shall be handled in order that it appears on the agenda, unless upon motion of the planning commission, the order is changed. A member of the planning staff will present each item to the Planning Commission and will further provide recommendation upon each item of business. The zoning applicant or the agent will state their name and address at the podium and will have 10 minutes in which to make his or her presentation. Any portion of their 10 minutes may be reserved for rebuttal following the opposition to the application. After the applicant's presentation, all registered speakers who wish to speak in favor of the application will then be heard. Prior to speaking upon the item, each registered speaker will state their name and address at the podium. They will also be limited to a total of 10 minutes. Once the applicant has made his or her presentation and the speakers in favor of the application have been heard, The secretary will then call upon the registered speakers in opposition of the application. The opposition shall likewise be limited to a total of 10 minutes. Once the public hearing portion is closed, no other speakers will be heard. As a reminder, speakers are to address the planning commission, not the applicant or the audience, and are expected to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner. The use of abusive or profane language shall not be allowed. No debate or argument between speakers shall be permitted. After all public comments have been heard, the Planning Commission may elect to hold general discussion. The Planning Commission will vote upon a recommendation that will continue forward to the Rockdale County Board of Commissioners public hearings. Each speaker

Okay, Mr. Chairman. So now that will take us to item R5. R5, yes. The preliminary plat. And Director White, are you going to take that first or the applicant? Yes, ma'am. Okay.

All right, good evening, everybody.

Good evening.

All right, so this preliminary plat is for approval or denial of the Shepherds Crossing preliminary plat. So just a quick zoning history. The subject properties were rezoned from R1 to CRS in September of 2025. They were ultimately approved by the Board of Commissioners with 16 conditions. This is the concept plan that was a part of the rezoning application from last year. This is the proposed preliminary plan. It's been reviewed by various county departments for regulatory compliance. I'll walk you through a few of the highlights of it. So this would be the northern, northwest side of the development to the west of the creek. And then here, south of the creek, so the two access points approved for the project, so there'll be one Smyrna, it'll be a right in, right out only. And also on Flat Shoals Road, it'll be a right in, right out only per condition number 16 of the rezoning. So the subdivision is approved for 87 lots, single-family detached homes will be constructed there. Community amenities would include a ball field, a dog park, community garden, five-foot sidewalks with pedestrian paths with inter-parcel connectivity, and pickleball courts. Water and sewer utilities will be provided by Rockdale, electricity by Snapping Shoals. The project through the zoning district, the CRS zoning district, conserves about 17 and a half acres, be it sensitive areas, there's a 50 foot perimeter buffer around the development site, and then obviously 75 foot stream buffer that comes through the center of the property. So this is the overall preliminary plat. So once again, in the lower right, you'll see the two access points, one on Smyrna, one on Flat Shoals. So traffic will be able to turn into the subdivision, make left turns into the subdivision. There will be no left turns out of the subdivision. So it'll be right in, right out for both entrances. Dog Park, you see to the west, The rec field, somewhere in the center near the stream buffer, pickleball court. Community garden on the north and pedestrian path that leads over to the church property. It's in the upper or the north side of the property as well. So as I mentioned, all the regulatory reviews for the preliminary platen have been completed. Transportation, water, sewer, stormwater, they have all been approved by the various entities that oversee those particular areas. So with that, staff recommends approval of the preliminary platen. Any questions? And the applicant is present if you have any detailed questions.

OK. Good evening, Chairman, Commissioners. I'm Mark Walton with Patrick & Associates. Director Wright pretty much summed up everything. And staff had some really splashy details that they added to the preliminary plat. So thank you for whoever did that. Director White pretty much explained all the ins and outs of the project, so I am here just to answer any questions that you all might have.

We don't have any questions. Okay, thank y'all.

So as a reminder, a preliminary plat would require a vote of approval or denial from the Planning Commission, so we would ask that you deliver it.

Yeah. Okay. Okay, everyone's fine with the approval? Okay. So we need to open it up for public hearing.

So no one signed up for public comment on this item, but the commission would need to either vote to approve it or to deny it.

Okay, so there's no public. Okay.

All right. So I'd like to make a motion to approve this preliminary plan. Okay. For item, I'm sorry, that is item R6.

r5 item r5 pp26-0198 yes i second okay all in favor state by saying aye of the approval aye those opposed nay the motion carries that the item r5 pp26-0198 motion carries for approval okay so we'll move to the next item on the agenda which is item R6 which is the election of the chair and the vice chair of commission the floor is now open for nominations for the office of chair I'd like to nominate miss Angela Ingram as chair second okay any more nominations okay since there is only one nomination is there a motion to approve We just vote on that.

You'll vote on a chair tonight and a vice chair.

So they're separate.

I would take them separately.

Okay. So we will vote. Since there's only one nomination, we'll move to a vote on this item.

Sure. Just to confirm, John, do you want the position or do you still want to be?

I would love to give it to someone else. Okay. and we get a break. Okay. So I thank you. Thank you all. Okay, all in favor for the approval of Angela.

So, Mr. Chairman, I apologize. Did we get a motion to nominate?

We did have a motion.

I thought I heard a nomination. Not to be too mean, but we need a motion, a second, and a vote.

Okay, so we now would go for a motion. I need a motion for approval of Chairman. of Angela Ingram Oh motion okay second okay all in favor state by saying aye those opposed nay motion carries for a Ms. Angela Ingram to be the chair.

And so Mr. Post Chair, since Chair Ingram has now been elected chair, are you ready to preside over the meeting?

I will do my utmost best. All right.

We're going to take up the vice chair then. Congratulations. So at this time we'll take nominations for the vice chair position.

so the floor is open I make a motion to nominate Danny Forrester as vice-chair second all right so are there any other nominations

Okay. All right. With that being said, I will take a motion to approve Danny Forrester as vice chair.

So, Madam Chair, you have a motion and a second on the floor. You could probably call for the vote. Okay. Looks like that might be unanimous. Okay. All right.

All right. So, since there's only one nominee... I will call for the vote. So everyone in favor of Danny Forrester as the Vice Chair of the Planning Commission? Stay aye. Aye. Nay if you oppose. The ayes have it.

All right, congratulations to the new officers.

Thank you, I guess. Well, come on up here. Don't stay seated. All right, one more. So Danny, you need to move.

So are you going to move? Okay. And then Melissa will move.

Come on down, Melissa.

All right.

You got it. Yes, thank you. All right.

All right. Well, Madam Chair, just to keep us on track, that brings us back to item R1. I am there. All right.

So that takes us to our unfinished business. So items, we will cover items R1 through R4. They will be heard together as they correspond to the same project, but will be voted on separately. These cases are REZ 2025-08, FLUM 2025-03, REZ 2025-11, and FLUM 2025-05. I'll ask the staff to present the staff report. All right.

And so this request first is a future land use request of the subject properties from residential and moderate residential to technology park. And then there's also a request for rezoning of those properties from collaborative residential subdivision and R1 single family residential to M2 general industrial. Total acreage for the subject properties, total 282 acres. Here is an aerial map.

I apologize to interrupt, Director. Yes, ma'am. We are getting, like, the microphone isn't coming through. So maybe just.

It's closer.

Hold up. Okay. And maybe just as a reminder to everybody tonight, I think we have to speak directly into the microphone for people to hear at home. Thanks.

All right. Mic check one, two. Yeah. Mic check one, two.

Yeah.

My quiet stone voice. So we have here the aerial map. So the subject properties are identified by the red stars, four properties in total. So when this process began, this was the initial site plan that was presented to staff at the time and also was a part of the development of regional impact review by the Atlanta Regional Commission as well as our Georgia Regional Transportation Authority. And so it began with eight proposed buildings, a substation, other accessory structures, stormwater features were in the initial proposal. The two colorful lines that you see, they are streams. They flow through the property from northeast to southwest on both sides. The site plan has been revised since that time. One less building on the site. So right now the proposal includes seven data center facility buildings, two substation sites on the property. And then you also see the larger square there is just a stormwater feature on the subject property. So this is the latest site plan from February of 2026. Just to zoom in a little closer so folks can see it. So here is the current future land use map for the subject properties. So the yellow, the bright yellow, low density residential. Everything that you see in tan, it's medium density residential. The black to the bottom right are properties in the city of Conyers. The gray that you see towards the bottom of the screen, mostly along Sigmund Road, the gray is light industrial, the orange being high density residential, and the blue is office institutional future land use. And so these are the review standards that apply to future land use amendment requests. And so if you look at your staff report, we responded to each of the criteria in there for this particular application. And so I won't read all of that, but I'll refer to a few things and I'll summarize at the end. But these are the applicable review standards. Here is the zoning map. Once again, the subject properties are identified by the red star. Here are the application review standards by which the board, by the planning commission, and staff make our recommendations and determinations on the application.

I think they're all on this one. Yeah, they're all on this one. Okay.

All right. So just a couple updates before I wrap things up. We did receive an email regarding the application earlier in the week. We forwarded that to you all for review. It will be included in the packet as the case moves forward through the process. Okay. Also, the Fire and Rescue Department submitted some proposed conditions of approval for your consideration as well. You've got an email on that. Once again, we'll update the packets as we move through the process. Water Resources also provided some technical comments. We have a representative here from Water Resources who will speak to water and sewer here when I wrap up. And then we also received from the applicant a request for an additional condition of approval that we got earlier this week. We forwarded that to you as well. So we have not considered that condition at this time, so we'll take it into consideration. You all can take it into consideration as part of your recommendations on the hearing tonight. So overall, we've reviewed the application and So the references to the future land use proposed change, the zoning change, the relationship between the two is in flux. And so as we review the comprehensive plan, we review the zoning map, we take a look at the activity going on in the area, There's a lot of activity. There are land use conflicts in that area that haven't been addressed by the comprehensive plan. There are references to land uses, but they don't necessarily include this. So as an emerging technology, a different use that wasn't a part of our conversations in 2022, 2023, the comp plan doesn't account for data centers and light industrial activities like this one. And so there's very little guidance from the comprehensive plan on this particular request. In addition to, like I said, the land use conflicts in the area, newer development in the area, the kind of changes along the landscape in that area. Additionally, we found the application was insufficient as it relates to details regarding impacts, regarding usage, energy consumption, water consumption based on the proposed use. So that informed and impacted our ability to give a full analysis of the request. When we look at also you have in your packets comments from the DRI review from last fall, early part of this year. The comments in there as it relates to transportation, impact on the transportation network, which the expectation is minimal impact on the overall network. uh there are recommendations on site improvements uh and transportation pedestrian facilities that are recommended that may enhance the the functionality of the site so you have that in your packets from greta you also have some analysis from the arc regarding natural resources environmental concerns land use and various impacts from their perspective, from a regional perspective, and where Rockdale fits in in that conversation. So that's there for your consideration as well. So they list some concerns based on that original plan from 2025. So that's what they responded to. And so with that, staff does not have a recommendation on the application at this time, just based on everything that I've just discussed. But we would like to bring up Mr. Cotton, who represents our Water Resources Department. And so he'll address a few of the things related to water and sewer. So their comments came in after we completed the staff reports. So he's here. He'll give some information. And then we'll circle back.

Mr. Cotton.

Good evening. Again, my name is Tim Cotton on behalf of Rockdale Water Resources. So we did do a preliminary review on the application. Typically on the preliminary review, we're reviewing for availability. If there's water and sewer available in that area. There is water in the area, but sewer they would have to either pump to or have to have gravity fed lines to get to the available sewer. But in these types of developments, you know, just large commercial development, we require certain evaluations that have to be performed. And these evaluations include water analysis, water flow, fire flow tests. As far as sewer, we do a downstream sewer analysis. And with these analysis they determine what the effect would be downstream, right? So if there need to be any improvements, it would be addressing these analysis. We need modeling. the applicant will have to submit all this to us. We do not have this in this review. Normally, these evaluation comes in typically when, you know, prior to the land disturbance permits so we can have a better understanding. And with these evaluations and these improvements, it is understood that the applicant is responsible for all improvements. If they have to increase the water main sizes, that's on them. We have pump stations that's downstream that may affect them. They will be responsible for improving those conditions. With that being said, the application is insufficient, so we will need more of these evaluations brought in to submit it to us, and we will have a better understanding on their proposed development.

I have a question. Yes, ma'am. So the was any information provided about the anticipated demand for water?

Yes, ma'am. So on the initial submittal, the demand is not submitted to us. The only thing requested is there water and sewer available. So we provide the maps that show that, yes, there's a water line there, but it doesn't determine if it's going to meet their requirements. Thank you. Any other questions?

I have a question. When you speak of pump stations... Yes, ma'am. So if they had to create a pump station, how long would that take if they had to go in and put one on the site? I mean, is that years? Is it months? Or what, you know, what kind of?

Yes, ma'am. So typically, it's probably a month. It doesn't take long to put a pump station on a property. Now, they will have to run force main from their pump station to get to a manhole to, you know, better get down to the gravity fair line. But like I said, they're in this system i think they're in the quigg and our quigg branch there are additional pump stations that are downstream of them okay so we would have we use those evaluations to determine if pumping from that that site would affect those those pump stations and that's information you don't have on that's correct so these evaluations the uh the downstream sewer analysis the modeling for for water those will provide those information for us okay

I'm so sorry to interrupt again, but we have to speak into the microphone and they're not they can't hear you just in terms of You speak of force mains and existing lines. If they didn't have to expand the size, would they have to go and take their cameras and kind of look and see if there's anything that would be jeopardized at a connection point, like anything that would crack downstream, those type modeling?

Right. No, ma'am. So in those cases. So from there, from the evaluation, let's say the sewer evaluation from the sewer evaluation, the model will present present data that say that we probably have some surcharges in some certain areas. So with that information, we able to take it to a Rockdale County staff member to go out to TV those lines.

Gotcha.

Mm hmm.

Okay. I got a question. Do they tell you how much water they anticipate using?

Yes, so that's part of, so there's two types of water that they're going to use. So the first one is the average daily water demand and their peak flow, right? So the average daily demand may be just an average day, just, you know, but then peak flow, some may come offline and they have to surcharge their, you know, water to their line, so that wouldn't be included in their peak. So there's two types of flows that they would have to submit.

And so if they used much more than they said they were going to use, they would just be charged more? Is there a limit to where you say, hey, you just got too much, you can't keep doing this?

So they will be charged. So everything will be metered.

Okay, but is there a limit?

Probably not, but I don't know. I really can't answer that, sir.

All right, thank you.

Okay, so point of clarity. So that's sort of like the same question I asked. So in the application, did they include anticipated demand when it comes to water? No, ma'am. Water usage. They did not? No, ma'am. Okay, thanks.

So since they didn't do that, I guess my question would be and the concern would be the impact that that would have on the water use for everyone else. So that would be my concern there with that as far as how it would impact.

Right. And like I said, once these evaluations come in, then we are able to have a better understanding on how it would affect our system. So, you know, we can have just, you know, you can just give me an arbitrary number. Right. But that doesn't let me know what happened downstream.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Sir, I got another question for you. I've just been doing this for a minute. There's been a lot of discussion about water demand and water supply in Rockdale County. And... just in prior discussion it said that we utilize water from Gwinnett County is that a true statement no it's not it's not a true statement we don't utilize water from another county no ma'am okay so we all have we have our own water supply that's correct ever since we built the reservoir we do not have to buy water from any other county or city okay so we want to keep it that way though right

Amen.

Okay, any other questions? No. Okay, Director White. Thank you.

And so to conclude, just to give the commission some guidance, so you have the option, obviously, with every case, this case is no different, to approve. You can approve with conditions. If you choose to approve with conditions, we have produced some conditions for consideration. They're included in your packets. You also have the option to, well, your recommendation, let me emphasize this. So everything that you do is a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners. So you can recommend approval. You can recommend approval with conditions. You can also recommend approval of the application with less intense districts applied. So right now they came in, the request is for M2. That's the most intense zoning district that we have. So you can change that request or recommend changing the request to something that's less intense. That could be light industrial, M1. We probably want to keep it there. But just in theory so you understand what I'm saying. It could be a less intense zoning district than the one that's requested. That's an option. With this particular application, the future land use designation and the zoning go hand in hand. So we have to make sure that the future land use designation aligns with the zoning request. So that's the connection between the UDO and the comprehensive plan. So we do have to maintain that as part of the process. You have the option to deny. the application as well and then I would simply mention as we included in the report in our analysis if you wanted to recommend to the board that either the project be studied further or that the use be studied further or that there'd be some consideration to the comprehensive plan whether we need to update amend the comprehensive plan or we wait and address the comprehensive plan and address this later all those things are within the realm of possibilities for your recommendation and your guidance to the Board of Commissioners so with that any questions

All right, thank you, Director White. Yes, ma'am. Okay, so at this time, I will call all those who are in favor of the applicant. Actually, Ms.

Chair, the applicant would probably like to speak first. Oh, I'm sorry. And that would be considered in support of, but yes.

And how long do I have? Because we have four applications.

So we have four applications. You have 40 minutes per side to begin with unless the planning chair decides to offer equal time to both sides.

I promise I will not take 40 minutes. My name is Michelle Battle. I'm with Battle Law. I'm here representing Grind Capital with regard to this project. Before we get started, I feel forced to kind of deviate from what my original presentation was going to be, so I'm going to switch a little bit. First of all, I welcome Mr. White. We have a history in DeKalb County together, so I am very familiar with Mr. White, Director White, and welcome him into Rockdale County along with the rest of the staff and appreciate being here this morning, this evening. I will say, however, I'm a bit disappointed. We have been working on this project for a while and I know that There have been recent changes within the planning department and we've had a number of meetings to discuss this project and quite honestly today was the first day that I'm hearing that there were deficiencies in the application. We put in the application what the code requires us to put in the application in addition to some additional information that we provided. The fact that we are standing here today and I'm now hearing uh... things about water capacity or not capacity but water usage uh... all of those are things that we have a actually have answers to and we would've been more than happy to give those answers to staff prior uh... to today and so the fact that i'm hearing about it uh... and i've been on this case for a while uh... and not hearing about into today is a bit disturbing to me uh... we know that this is a very controversial matter uh... we know that there's a lot i'm gonna ask everybody to be as hard for me to hear

Yes, so if we'll just make sure that we give the speaker some respect when they're speaking. Thank you.

We have, we know that this is a very controversial matter. We know that it is challenging in particular because there's a moratorium on and so some people may say well why are we even doing this now? And that is because this application was actually filed prior to the moratorium being put in place and so that is why we're here. And we have been holding up our application quite honestly for a while and staff was also aware of that. because we were waiting to see what the proposed regulations were going to be for data centers. We know that you all have been working on that for a while. However, we have now been told that it looks like there's no new regulations coming in. In fact, that maybe data centers are being even taken out of the ordinance as a permitted use. We have been waiting. In the term and time of that wait, we certainly could have addressed any outstanding issues. My clients have been doing yeoman's effort to try and make sure that they're being very transparent being responsive to the issues that have been raised by the community and so with that we will be submitting any information and we'll give you information here today but we want staff to be able to review the application in it thoroughly and to make sure that the county has information that it needs with that said i think it is a bit unfair to state and suggest that there was information that we were supposed to give There was information that the application requires and we gave the information that the application requires. So we are in conformance with what the application required. The additional information that they are asking for was not a part of the application. I want that to be clear. And so when the water and sewer individual came up and spoke, a lot of the information that he is requesting is typically given. And I think he kind of alluded to this, but I want this to be very clear to everybody in here. What he is asking for is no different than what is asked for on any other project that comes in through the LDP process. And that is typically when that information is provided. In this instance, I can understand why maybe more information would be helpful, but a lot of that information is information that is typically gathered after a rezoning. There is a cost associated with everything that we do, and we know that in the end, um there's a lot of information that the county wants and again as long as we know what that is and we can provide it in a timely manner we are happy to do so so we will go back and make sure again that all of the information is provided to staff that they need And we will try and address some of those issues tonight during our presentation. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and ask for our video to play first because there's some technical issues with it. And so we'll let that play first, and then I'll come back up for our PowerPoint presentation. Thank you.

Thank you.

Rockdale County sits at the intersection of growing communities and infrastructure that helps keep Georgia moving. Much like roads, power lines, and water systems support physical communities, digital infrastructure continues expanding to support online services people rely on every day. Data centers are simply large buildings that house computers supporting those services. We understand that residents have raised understandable questions about data centers, including water usage, sound, lighting, traffic, and long-term compatibility with the surrounding community. The Rock Forge Data Center project is being designed around

So it's buffering. Is this a problem you've been having with the buffering?

Modern operational standards intended to reduce environmental impacts and contribute through employment, tax revenue, infrastructure investment, and long-term economic growth in Rockdale County. The site was selected for its direct access to an existing high-voltage transmission corridor and natural tree cover. Large areas of exhibit... Existing trees are planned to remain in place to help reduce visibility from nearby roads and neighboring properties In addition to preserving trees and Incorporating setbacks the project is planned with operational design standards including dark sky compliant lighting sound mitigation walls and optimal equipment orientation, and limited generator testing schedules. During normal operations, lighting and sound levels will operate within enforceable limits with projected sound levels at surrounding properties remaining comparable to nearby roadway conditions. Through modern closed-loop cooling technology, Operational water is recirculated within a contained system designed to significantly reduce ongoing water demand, with current estimates placing annual water demand per building at levels comparable to only a small number of homes. Alongside responsible site planning, the project is expected to provide long-term community benefits through construction employment, developer funded infrastructure improvements, and the growth of the tax base through additional revenue that helps support county services and property tax relief initiatives for residents and seniors. Georgia utility rules require projects like this to pay for the power infrastructure they need, preventing those costs from being passed on to residential customers. In fact, Georgia Power has frozen residential rates through 2028 due to increased revenue from data center projects. As Rockdale County continues planning for long-term growth, projects are increasingly evaluated by how responsibly they fit into the surrounding community. Unlike many large-scale residential developments planned on similar sites, projects like this operate with lower day-to-day traffic volumes and reduced ongoing demand on schools and residential services while still contributing significantly to the county tax base. The goal of Project Rockforge is straightforward, modern infrastructure operating with lower impacts while supporting the future growth of Rockdale County.

I'd ask for my PowerPoint.

Check this out. I'm going to show you how I afforded this card.

That was the problem we were having.

If I can...

understand how to use this, we'll be OK. There you go. All right. So as staff has already indicated, this property has over 282 acres on it. We plan on making an investment of over $5 billion on the project. Oh, sorry. I'm up to the mic. I'm kind of loud anyway, but I understand. 282 acres, $5 billion in investment, along with saving 54% of this site for green space and buffers. We know that this project will represent the largest commercial tax base addition in Rockdale County history. When we look at the site plan, and as Director White indicated, we did make modifications based on the comments that we received back from the community. In fact, we had three meetings over the course of the last month where over 100 people attended, where there was discussion about the project. A couple of them were sponsored by us. Another one was sponsored by a resident. And we had the opportunity to really try and whittle down some of the questions and concerns that had been raised by the community. And some of the changes that we made to the site plan included increasing the undisturbed natural buffer to 125 feet. to adjacent residential properties. There is an additional 100 feet of additional building setback. The original site plan that you saw presented by staff, I think you can see that we reduced the number of buildings. We did by one, but we also changed the configuration, and that allowed us to save 54% of the site for green space and old-growth forest, which we think is a real benefit. Additionally, one of the conditions that I believe was sent to you indicated that we also will do a 100-foot buffer adjacent to the streams. Right now, the requirement for stream buffer is 75 feet, and we have agreed to respond to one of the questions and issues raised by the community to increase that to 100 feet. When we look at what happens if we zone or don't zone, what we know is that residential homes could be developed on this site. And based on what we believe the current code would allow, we would be looking upwards to somewhere around 400 homes that could be structured on this site what we know is that that would put an additional strain on the school system it would increase daily traffic there would be more strain on emergency services infrastructure it would not help the commercial tax base but it would put more burden because the more homes you have the more homes you have to surface Service and we know that homes do not pay a hundred percent of property taxes We all love the homestead exemption to give some relief But that also means that there is less money which means that there is less money going into the pot and that this county is um is looking to balance its roles and so we believe that this type of project um as we've already indicated will contribute greatly um to the tax revenue that is generated and needed in order to run and operate this county Data centers, on the other hand, have fewer residents and students that will be moving in, minimal daily traffic, no strain on schools or emergency services. We're looking at the setbacks being increased to the 225 total with the additional green space and an annual tax revenue of $57 million. Myths and facts. What we know is that when new technology comes, it comes with both glee for some and fear for others. We saw that when, I remember when cell phones came. And when cell phones came, many of you may remember how people were very afraid of what cell phones would do, that it was going to fry your brain. I remember when Attorney Cochran died. He was on the OJ case. And I remember when he died, there were people who said that he died from a tumor that was the shape of his ear. the headset that he would wear on his ear. Everybody thought that that was the reason why he died because he had always had that on his ear and was using his cell phone. So we know that technology often brings fear with it. We know that back then cell towers, that was the fear. They were going to be problematic for everybody. We couldn't live near them. We didn't want our kids near them. But the reality is cell phones are here and they're here to stay. A lot of people think that AI is pushing this. It's not just AI. I tell people all the time, the cloud is not in the sky. The cloud is in those data centers. That is where your data is going, whether it is for AI, which is now integrated in just about everything that we do these days, whether we like it or not. Our doctors are using it. The government is using it. Hospitals are using it. Everybody is using it. There are, even if you just go on Google now, you don't just get regular Google now, you get Google with Gemini. And so what we know is that this is here to stay despite the fact that some say it's not. The question is what are we going to do and how are we going to monitor it Are there opportunities to put guardrails around it so that it services us better? But the reality is it's not leaving. And if it did, that means everybody in here would be putting their cell phones and everything else, all your Netflix and all your other things that you're utilizing at home to make life easier and better, your cell phones, your your security systems, everything, would need to go in the box. And we can go back to the old days, but I don't think anybody is really trying to go back there. So we look at the myths that we have versus the facts. And so data centers are extremely noisy. In this one you saw in our video that we are looking at acoustical enclosures, sound barriers, landscaping buffers. We are more than happy to be held to that standard and to have that as a part of the conditions. Constant traffic congestions. Data centers don't generate that much traffic. Will the construction generate traffic? Yes, I won't sit here and lie to you. That will have some congestion as the trucks are coming in and out in order to build the data center. But once they get on site, they're on site. And once built, they will generate far less daily traffic than other manufacturing warehouse and other retail. and certainly less traffic than a single family subdivision would of 400 units or even 300 units. Water use. We will be using a closed loop system. This is the same system when I was up here talking about DC Block and when we did strategic partners. It is the same type of closed loop system. That closed loop system, we know that once all the water is put in, we know that it will generate no more than 4,000 gallons per day. total. That may sound like a lot but if you had a 400 unit subdivision that would be over 108,000 gallons a day and that would be endless forever and so what we know is the amount of water that this will use will be less and we're more than happy to give that data and information to the water and sewer department. As far as sewer, and I'm going to throw this in because I need to throw this in. We know that when DC Block built their facility and they're building it now, that they were bringing water into this area along Sigmund Road and at the intersection with farmers. We know that they were in Lester, I think it was, they were bringing sewer into the area that would allow others to be able to connect in. And that was a part of what they knew they were going to have to do in order to bring it in. GRIND also knows that it will have to extend sewer. There's no fear about doing that to the extent that there's any type of pump station that's needed. We try to avoid that with gravity sewer, but if there is a pump station needed, then they will be responsible for putting that in. They will also be responsible for making the extension of that sewer line to be able to access to the building. But what we also know is it's using a lot less sewer than, again, if there was a residential subdivision built there. With regards to jobs created, there will be thousands of construction jobs over the period of time that this will be built out and that there will be technology people who will be working there and who may choose to live within this area as well. And when we talk about the project itself, I do want to talk a little bit about phasing because that was one of the issues that staff raised. Construction is planned to begin in, if this were approved, in the second quarter of 2029 because we have to get through all of the permitting process and the like. One of the other issues that was raised was whether or not we would have any information from Georgia Power. Georgia Power is now taking a position that it is no longer giving out any of the information on their power grid and other than the information that we've provided to staff up to date. until they know if a rezoning is going to be approved. If the rezoning is approved, then they will start doing the intense work that they have to do to make sure that we are not in any way having a negative impact on the surrounding community. That is not allowed under the way that they proceed, and that is no different, again, than what was approved when we went through the DC block matter. In terms of tax revenue, we are looking at $56.9 million in annual return. That's 37% increase to the Rockdale Tax Digest. We saw in Covington, I think the mayor of Covington recently put out that she was asking the state legislature if they could in fact get rid of their property taxes for homeowners because of the anticipated income coming in from the data center they have. So what we know is that data centers add to the tax rolls. It will help to balance the role, so to speak, and to allow the county to do many of the things that the county might wish to do that they need more money to do. But it also, I would hope, would one day bring relief to the residents by reducing the property taxes on those landowners that are throughout the county, but certainly in the areas surrounding. We know that over a 10-year period that would put over $500 million of revenue into the county. For schools, that would equate during a year at $30 million of additional monies. And we have been talking with the school system about ways that this project could be supportive. of the students. I know that jobs in this area are now becoming more and more prevalent. My own nephew decided not to be a welder and couldn't get a job after he got out of Clark University and decided to go into working at a data center. And so he actually works at a data center now. He was able to get the certification because It allowed him to basically make more money. That's at the end of the day. He wanted something that was less taxing on his body and something that would generate more revenue for him. So we know that there are jobs available and we have been trying to work with the school board to see ways that we can allow for students to come over, visit the site, have areas. We even talked about that during the DC block and strategic partners matter where we were going to have some hardscaping and some things that would allow for students to come over and learn more about data centers, about technology, and be able to obtain jobs within that space. So we are still working on that. We know that the county will get another $25 million a year at full operation that will cover things like public safety and emergency services, something that I think everybody wants more of, roads and infrastructure improvements, parks and community services, and long-term fiscal stability. So our commitment to Rockdale County is for green space preservation at 54%, something that we don't believe would be achieved if this were a residential subdivision, noise mitigation, minimal traffic, residential buffers, efficient water use, and scale back the plan that we originally had on this site. Data centers have to pay their own way. When we look again at the power issue, that's another big issue. Again, Georgia Power has provides the data centers have to pay the total cost before adding any new infrastructure. The Public Services Commission has ordered a freeze on Georgia Power base rates through 2028. And Georgia Power backstop its risk that if a data center contracts fall short, Georgia Power, not the rate payers, absorbs the total cost and so we believe that we are going to provide if allowed a facility that will benefit the overall county that we will be able to do it in a way that is very of the surrounding community and that it is done in an area that we believe is suitable. What we know is that we've already approved a couple of data centers in this area. It is an area that has a significant amount of industrial use that this property would allow for kind of a bit of an extension of that, but we believe that this is in the right place. We don't believe that there's really any other place within the county that is suitable for data centers. We think that this is the right spot, the right place, and the right time for it. And so with that, we are here to answer any questions that you may have. We know that there will be plenty to stand up and talk this evening. I won't take up any more of your time. I do have representatives from GRIND here with me this evening, and they will be here to also respond to questions as we go through the evening. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Okay, so any questions? I do. I have a couple questions. I'm not sure who's going to speak to them.

I'll stand up and then I'll just wave them over when I can't answer something. How about that?

All right, so you mentioned a phasing plan. So the phasing plan was not included with the application?

No, I don't believe so.

Okay, and who are the anticipated users?

So we don't have, we do have actually, I'll let Justin come up and respond to that. Justin Goldshire.

Yes, ma'am. So the way it typically works with these projects is it's hard to sign a lease with a project until you're closer to the timeline of the delivery of the project. But the ultimate end user that will be leasing the project will be one of the major names that you've heard before. It could be Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, Meta. Those types of groups would be the ultimate end users of the project.

Are they responsible for their own racking and stacking or will you do that for them?

Are they responsible for what, ma'am?

They're all racking and stacking in the data center, putting all the servers up and all of that. Is that independent to the lease or is that something you guys do for them?

Yeah, that's a great question. There's two types of leases that can typically be signed. You can have just like a shell building and then the end user would come in and they would provide all of their own equipment. And then you have another lease that's called a turnkey lease, where basically it would be the responsibility of the developer to bring all that equipment in there. And then the lease would be signed based on the value of all that versus, if that makes sense, based on the value of all the equipment. So there's two ways that you can structure that. In most cases, you're not doing a turnkey lease. A lot of the end users, they want to bring their own equipment and kind of control that process.

so many questions I'm sorry you want to go ahead and finish Angela just in terms of just that piece I know we're looking at we talked about the decrease in traffic things like that because of the center so How are you planning on breaking up the leasing? Is it two people per building? How does that work? Because they have to be staffing to run those, to watch the servers and make sure they're cool and all of that. In the last data set I've seen, there's been two people on each end, and then those that run in between. So it could be 20 employees in one particular space area.

Yeah, I mean, for this project, we would anticipate a few hundred jobs for the project, and they're high-paying jobs as well.

So how is that different from the few hundred cars that could be in a residential area of two to three hundred if you're going to have that many employees coming in with the same car space? Do you have the same parking? Is this the same time of day? I mean, it's all that same type of traffic flow. To me, it's the same.

Yeah, I mean, so with a residential project, I mean, you would, you know, typically, let's say, you know, we have a family that has a household. A lot of families, you know, would generally have maybe two cars, possibly if they're, you know, if they're married or they may have a, you know, an elder person. So you're looking at a little bit more cars with a 400 unit subdivision. I mean, I would assume you're probably looking at 600 to 800 cars. um you know probably cars uh for and and then also your traffic daily traffic is very different with with homeowners because people are maybe going to run for 100 per building there was six six building units that i saw there so is that overall no no i'm saying for the overall project right and that would and there it's also going to be there's different people working at different times of the day as well right because you're going to have security that may be working late at night so it's not like you're going to have all that traffic throughout the day And also, per the site plan, we have two access roads going into the site, so you can distribute that. But the traffic flows are going to be totally different for a project like this than they would be for a residential subdivision. And we're happy to work closely with Rockdale County's Department of Transportation with regards to all that information.

And one last question, I promise I'll leave you alone. With your phased approach, is it getting one center up and running while you're still building the next few? So there's traffic flow coming in while there's still construction crews coming in all at the same time.

Yes, each building is going to be phased approximately six months, you know, so you deliver one building and then six months.

So you're waiting on stability and then start the next one from beginning? Or do they all have a common build and then the focus is on completing one and then a phase to do the others? I'm just trying to understand how the building phases and the traffic flow is going to all work with the construction crew.

Yeah, so, you know, generally... The contractor is going to be phasing the construction over time. And so, for example, you may start on a slab on one property and then you move to the next level and the next level. And then those crews that are working on the slab are going to go over to the next building and start developing and moving over to the other building. So generally speaking, you're going to be... six month time intervals from the completion of each building as those crews are moving from you know this pad to the second pad to the third pad etc gotcha thank you

So just to piggyback off that, so you do actually have a phasing plan. It just wasn't included with that.

Yeah, and that's exactly what Ms. Battle was mentioning earlier. We filled out the application. We provided it to the planning staff, and we were equally surprised today to see to find out like hey you guys didn't provide this information we provided a full complete application and at no time did the planning staff say hey do you have this do you have that so we just were not informed that we needed to provide some of these things but we're you know we started to provide that information in this session we've also provided that information in our community meetings as well because people have asked us those questions about phasing and we've shared that information with with folks in the community a lot of the community members are here today who have been in those meetings and have asked those questions specifically about water as well, because I know that came up as well about water. You know, this is a closed loop system. We're using a fraction of the water that you would use for a 400 unit, a 400 house subdivision. And then with regards to sewer, you know, we're talking about a multibillion dollar investment. So if we're talking about bringing sewer to the site, i mean we're talking about a very very small amount of capital to bring sewer to the project and and just like the power on this project is paid for up front by the developer um sewer water any of those tie-ins that we would need to do the project would all be paid by us no the county's not paying for any of that one more water question i'm sorry i know it's on a closed loop right yes ma'am at what point do you purge and refill So that's probably done rarely. Right. It's like your car. You know, do you have a radiator? We all have radiators in our car. And so that just keeps circulating around. Right. And so just like a car, eventually, you know, you may have an issue with your radiator. You've got to purge it. But it's rare that you have to do that over like a five to 10 year period. And any of that discharge that would come out from that, that's not going into the sewer system. That's all going to be taken out of there. And the other thing I would say about that, there's a lot of misinformation. But the glycol in there, in a lot of things, even the glycol that you have, I've heard it's actually edible, right? Because it's safe to eat. It's safe to drink. No, I'm serious. I know a lot of people may not think that, but do some research on it and understand about glycol and the system. I'm serious. Do some research.

I think you answered what you were alluding to, and I'm understanding that any sediment is there. The water... is purged, released, and the sediment is pulled out.

Yes, ma'am, that's correct. And that will not be discharged into any of the wastewater. But it's important for everyone to understand that not every data center is like the data centers were 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago. There's so much technological innovation that's happened. And people are, despite what folks may think, everyone is really trying to do things the right way. They're trying to be sustainable. with the practices. They're listening to community concerns. They're trying to do things the right way. So I just wanted to let you guys know that it's very important for us to be aligned with that to do a sustainable data center that's using all of the best practices. And as you guys will see from staff conditions, all those conditions are the guardrails that are going to ensure that this project meets all those sustainability requirements. You know, we can't we can't deviate from that because of those. Those are the conditions and those that's what the code requires. And it's the responsibility of the county to enforce that code. So I just wanted to make that clear as well.

I have a question. Is there another question before before I start?

You can go ahead with yours because it may answer that.

Okay. I'm glad you brought that up. You said data centers today are different than data centers five or ten years ago.

Yes, ma'am.

And my concern is that data centers in the future will be different than what you're trying to plan today. So why would you saturate a market, a saturated area with four or five data centers if that is going to change? And I'm quite sure it will. It won't take 7,292 acres to come into a residential neighborhood and develop because data centers are going to change. There's already one data center within the area, and one of my concerns is we have no idea of what kind of federal regulations are going to come up, state regulations. We're just working right here from knowledge of a local level.

Understood.

No kind of federal ordinances, no state ordinances. So why would you propose saturating the market? Is it an area of less opposition?

No, ma'am, that's not it at all. So let me be very clear to you on how the process works from a site selection perspective. When people are looking for where to locate a data center project, the number one thing they're looking at is utility infrastructure. Right? So where are the large transmission power lines located? And that's important because you have to tie that project in that requires a lot of power into the grid. So it just so happens that this particular property has a very high transmission line that's running through it. It's got substations across the street. That's where the Georgia Power substations are across the street. And it just so happens that that's where it's located, right? And so that's the number one thing that people are looking at is, hey, where can we get the power? Where are the transmission lines running?

But these residents in Rockdale County are looking at, I've invested in Rockdale County. I've developed in Rockdale County. I brought my family to Rockdale County. And there is going to be a negative impact. You say construction workers are coming in. That's 1,000 construction workers coming in. But that's temporary. And there's no fact to say how many construction workers will be employed from the Rockdale area. And I just, I worked with Ms. Battle on another, I worked with Ms. Battle and I spoke with her on another development that she had. And I can clearly recall we asked them, how many employees do you plan to hire? And it was stated it would be less than 100 people. But your development may be different. But in no sense did they say we were going to permanently

hire 1,000 individuals and they will be located within the Rockdale area. That's a great point. We actually have a community benefits agreement. We've been working with the community to have specific targets and objectives to hire locally. The HVAC contractor for this project is located in Conyers with local employees are being hired from this location.

so we're working with the community on all of that we want the community to benefit you know and i don't want to get sidetracked and i know this is planning this is personally speaking of changing and rezoning right but it's it's it's it's disheartening to me that 292 acres could exist for as long as rockdale is in now we want to develop and and we have blast and we are considered rockdale And just to hear the people coming here and speak to how their houses, with this particular existing data centers, they're blasting the rock and it's destroying the structure of their homes that they actually live in. And so I'm quite sure this is going to continue. And I was actually reading, it was reading, and it's the contingency funds with some current data centers where they're putting in contingency funds for homeowners as far as structural damage to their homes. Those are the things that I want to think outside the blocks. Another article that I was reading when I came to this meeting to prepare for it, they spoke to how temperature is 16 degrees hotter around the data center because of the heat that they put off. These are actual facts. And, you know, this is MSNBC. And, sir, I'm not stating, and that's who I speak to. I'm not knowledgeable enough, and the federal government hasn't stepped in and provided guidelines. State government hasn't stepped in and provided guidelines. We're working on a local environment to regulate our life and to trust in you to come in and say what you're going to do as a developer. And right now, if I could ask any one of you guys, do you reside in Rockdale? It would be concerning.

Ma'am, I do not reside in Rockdale.

You're absolutely right. But, you know, I'm from Augusta originally. Where's your office located? My office is located in DeKalb County. Okay. And, you know, I've driven past I-20, past this corridor.

And this is quite a metropolitan area. And I don't mean to cut you off, but these are just a lot of questions. This is going to impact this area. And it's going to negatively impact this area. Ma'am.

With all due respect, we've been spending a lot of time with the community to do this the right way. Not all data centers are the same. I know you mentioned the example of one data center that emits heat. I don't know what the specific situation is of that data center and what's going on with that one that it's emitting heat. Maybe they have some gas plants running or something.

These are articles that our individuals are reading. This is what data information is coming out.

Yes.

These are questions that I'm just asking.

Understood. And they are questions that you're not the only one that's asking. And one of the things that I said, and that's why I said what I did about even the cell towers and the cell phones back in the day, there's a lot of information that we don't know. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that we know everything there is to know about data centers and what the impact will be 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now. I can't say what that is. I can only tell you about what we know today.

So let's slow the road.

But you've got to give me a chance to answer the questions because you shot out about 15 things that you wanted an answer to, but I would like to try and respond to those.

But hold on that question. You said we don't know what. It's the same thing. You know what this reminds me of? And I could be wrong. Walmart came in, and they dropped in an Airstream. I'm sorry to interrupt. I'm sorry.

I really am sorry to interrupt. There's a lot of talk going on in the audience, and others can't hear. So I think if we could try to keep it down where everyone else is talking right now, then... Planning Commission has the floor. You're asking questions, right? Yeah. Okay.

Because this reminds me of Walmart. A Walmart dropped in at every corner of every store, and now they're closed box stores. We went online shopping. Now we have distribution centers. So why saturate an area and we don't know the future? That's one question.

Okay. Okay. I'm going to answer if I can. So one of the questions, I'll start with the last question that you asked, why so many? Because there's a demand. Right now, there's a demand. If there was no demand, we wouldn't be here. The demand and the usage of data is requiring more data centers We as a society are using an exponential amount of data every day and it's getting more and more and more. And so the more data you use, the more data centers you use to put the machines in that allow for the people to be able to continue to use the data that they need. And so, as Justin has already indicated, what makes this particular area somewhat unique is because of the power lines and the infrastructure that is already here. And it appeared, and maybe the county has changed its mind, we shall see, that the data centers that have already been approved within that area those that are coming that this was an appropriate area to have them in so that is why we are back in this particular area we didn't go over to the you know the northeast side of the county we didn't go down to the south side of the county. We went to the area where there was already data centers approved. It is in more of an industrial related area. We cannot say that there is no industrial component here because there is. We're on the border of that industrial park. We had already indicated when we came in for the other ones that this was a technology centered area and that we were moving in that direction and that appeared to be where the county was directing that this type of development go. If there's been a change of that, we shall find that out. But what we know is, right now, this is the area in which data centers make the most sense. When we talk about, for example, you mentioned blasting, well, I'm doing a project down off of Pleasant Hill. And the issues that you all have with blasting here are the same issues that the folks in Lithonia have, that the folks off of Rock Chapel have, because there's rock. It's called Rockdale for a reason, because there's rock everywhere. everywhere around here and to get most of the subdivisions that have been built there has to be blasting in most situations so even if I put a residential community on this property I would also be blasting blasting is going to happen regardless of who is coming but there are ways to do blasting there are ways to do blasting that can reduce the impact On homes, there are regulations, state regulations around that, and we would have to abide by those regulations.

So as a commissioner here, I'm asking these residents to, it's contingency funds. They've got to think outside the box. I think we're ignoring our environment. We're ignoring the concern.

Understood.

We're moving forward. And like two years ago when you came, I was here.

I know.

I remember you. We also said then. We don't want this to be, this is like, was like, okay, let's consider this. They didn't want, and the neighborhood came out and they spoke loudly against, we don't want a saturated area. They spoke against this. But this move, boy, and now you're back again.

Yes, ma'am.

And that's the opposition of less resistance, what I'm talking about. You come in, you keep going, and that's the concern.

Understood.

Yes.

Yes. Another concern that I have too, I lived in that area. And I want to tell you as a resident, and not only in the concern of that, this area is a single family residential zone. And there are residential, there are homes over there. And I can tell you from those residents, from the subdivision that I used to live in, the industrial parks and the areas that have formulated around that area, I wouldn't live there because it is negatively impact. The data center have come there already. Those existing residential areas there, I haven't heard any. I've read, I've done research. And I have yet to hear concrete on what the environmental effects are going to have on those residential areas. Those people that live there, that invest their homes in those areas, what is the impact, not only for environmental, as far as their resale values of those homes and all of that. So when we're talking about... The impact, the financial impact, the economical impact, when we're talking about the environmental impact, there's a whole lot here that these data centers can come and be gone in 10 years. We're going to have to live here until we die and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And the last thing I want to say is this. We can look at buffers, we can look at noise, and we can look at impacts on sewer, water, and all of this stuff. But in that particular area that's already data centers are coming in there, I think as residents over in that area, I hate to see what's happening there.

I don't know if there was something for me to respond to that it was just a state.

I think is making a statement.

OK.

Thank you. Any other questions? OK. Thank you, Ms. Battle. All right. So we'll now call for all those applicants who want to speak in favor of this application. If there are any. Any cards for in favor? OK. Thank you. Okay, so it looks like Johannes would like to speak in favor. So when you come to the mic, speak directly into it. Give us your name and tell us where you live, please.

My name is Johannes Vanderspeck. I live here in Rockdale County. I live right off of 212-138. I want to actually go out of order what I was going to speak about. Data centers have existed since 1965 in the private sector. Some of your richest neighborhoods around Atlanta have AT&T data centers that are still in operation. If you drive through some of the major areas of Atlanta, there are multi-story buildings that are actually data centers. So we do have history. And it's very telling that there is not a lot of public commentary about adverse effects when we've had so many of them, there's almost 200 around Atlanta proper now, both in the city and in the suburbs of Atlanta. The unfortunate part for all of us in this meeting is that between local, federal, state regulations, there is a demand being created by data centers. Some of us in this room are not spring chickens. We walk into the doctor's office. There is a federal mandate that doctor make electronic records. You have no choice. This meeting is courtesy of data centers going to the general public right now. So that's what we have. And that's an open meeting law that requires this to be so. So perhaps there's some information missing that has raised the questions. I understand it completely. There's a lot of hype on the left and on the right of both of this equation. There's a lot of people talking a lot of things. The noise conversation is an interesting one, and I have pointed out to people, if you want to hear what the noise is like, drive out to Farmer Road, do it late at night. You won't hear the data center. The decibel level of a tree frog is higher by almost 30% than decibel level that you have put in on the conditions on the data center of 55 decibels. So there's a lot of things that you've put in place that work to the advantage of the data center. I'm looking at it from an economic perspective. I know we would love to have lots of people in Rockdale, but the infrastructure in Rockdale can't support the people. The tax base needs to be adjusted and this is an opportunity that is still open due to the old UDI and due to the regulations you've put in to take that tax base and right-size it back to the favor of the public. Right now, like it or not, everybody in this room that owns a residence got a tax bill. And I would ask anybody who's happy with their tax bill to raise their hand. And I'll put 20 bucks on the table that says that there's not more than two. Oh, yeah. I don't think they're taxed if they go to the right programs. They don't. The challenge is that the tax bill keeps going up. It has gone up 150% for some people in less than 10 years. It is on a glide path to continue doing that. One of the people that I've talked to here has a neighbor who has sold everything out of her home to pay last year's taxes and is now struggling to deal with this year's taxes. So all of you are in an awkward position. All of us are in an awkward position. Rockdale, if it continues to stay the residential sleepy town, inflation will drive everybody out. If Rockdale adds more houses, the billions needed to reconstruct the water system, the sewage system, where's it going to come from? It's not going to come from the residents. They don't have it. So you have to find a way to manage this issue. And unfortunately, this is the easiest way to do it with the least amount of impact on the infrastructure. I'm on the Transportation Committee. We're trying to figure out how to put the roads back together so that people don't need a front end alignment every time they go to work. We just don't get enough money. This data center, just in the SPLOST funds alone, is going to click off somewhere around $5 million extra into the fund for a year. That's two or three roads that we need to fix. That's the issue that's coming up. The area that is in question is already not favorable for habitation. It is a main transportation corridor for trucks. It is becoming a bigger and bigger transportation card for trucks. There are two issues with trucks. There is noise you hear, and then there is the effect of the vibration of trucks. So it's not a favorable place to live. Add in the fact that there is high power lines running through that property, and there is a lot of concerns about electric and electric fields around power lines, and it becomes an even less favorable piece of property for residential development. Industry doesn't care because industry is going to be in there. I've looked at the conditions that were put on this project. Noise restrictions. Again, Free Frog is 80 decibels. You're held at 55 decibels. I applaud them, whoever put those in, because it works. The buffer area. The ask I have is make them put the security fence inside the buffer next to the building. I don't want to look at a gulag. I don't think anybody else wants to look at a large fence.

I'm sorry. Can I take a point of privilege and just interrupt for a second? We have a total of seven speakers. We have nine minutes left. So let's just sort of, if you can, sort of summarize it so we can get as many of these in as possible.

Thank you. Not a problem. I will cut it to that point. There is history on data centers. There's almost 60 years of history on data centers, and the government had them before that. So I thank you for the time.

Thank you. Leslie Lambert.

just a reminder to speak into the microphone please thank you and we have nine minutes and 46 seconds good evening chairman and members of the Planning Commission my name is Leslie Lambert I live at 1870 Irwin Bridge Road I touched this What has impressed me most throughout this process is not simply the project itself, but the willingness of Grand Capital to listen to the community and make meaningful changes in response to concerns. I've been talking to these guys for a year. They have committed to preserving 54% approximately as old growth floors. They've increased setbacks by remaining approximately 700 feet from Irwin Bridge Road, 1,500 feet from Farmer Road, and 400 feet from Rena Court. These are significant sensations that demonstrate they have heard the concerns of nearby residents, have worked to reduce the project's impact. They have also invested time in educating the community through social media outreach and public information sessions. They brought in sound engineers to explain their noise mitigation plans and water engineers to explain the closed-loop water system. And if people didn't partake, it's not because they didn't try. They have committed to enclosing generators with sound reducing structures and concrete barriers to minimize noise during required testing. Rather than dismissing concerns, they address them with facts, transparency, and engineering solutions. This project also represents a substantial investment in Rockdale County. It is projected to approximately add $5 million to the tax digest within five years and they won't even be done with the buildup. Those additional revenues could help provide property tax relief. My property taxes are over $10,000. If I don't get relief, I'm out. I can go to Newton and pay $2,500. on the same amount of land. I don't want to leave. I love this place. Those additional revenues could help provide property tax relief, including including removing stale school tax for Rockdale County residents age 65 and older, while also helping reduce pressure to increase millage rates for all taxpayers. Grime Capital is also committed to working with our school system to introduce students to careers in the growing data center industry, creating awareness of future job opportunities right here in our community. Finally, it is important to remember that this property is currently zoned for approximately 400 homes. residential development in that size would require significantly more water place greater demands on roads schools and emergency services and increase the burden on the existing infrastructure this data center will have its own electrical substation because of its closed cooling system will have a much different infrastructure impact than a large residential subdivision For all of those reasons, the company's willingness to listen, its commitment to preserving the environment, its investment in our community, and the long-term benefits it offers Rockdale County, I respectfully ask you to support this application. I have one more thing to say. I was pretty amazed by the county coming out and saying they didn't get the information they needed. because I know these guys and they have been willing to talk all they had to do was ask them for what they wanted and they would have provided it so I think that was a misstep not holding against anybody but I believe that was a misstep because everything I have asked them for they have listened to me and I have been I didn't come from here but I'm a 30-year resident so thanks for your time and consideration

Thank you. Corliss Turner.

Corliss, I don't see her here.

I don't see her either, but. Okay. Harvey Sproul. We have five minutes, 24 seconds. Speak into the microphone, please. Take your name and tell us where you live.

I actually live in Stone Mountain. My family all works in Rockdale. I've been in Rockdale for about 10, 15 years. So I would be representative of one who wants to move to Rockdale. But I also own a technology infrastructure company. I build data centers. I do what you would call what you said, the shell of the building, or said the shell, the inside. I do the inside. I'm the one that puts the servers in. I'm the one that puts the cable in. I'm the one that builds everything. What I'm here to tell you, basically, because she spoke so eloquently about what is a data center, because I think the misconception is, a lot of misconceptions around what is it. Actually, you already have had data centers in before DC Blocks. I worked at the Sigmund Road AT&T Center. I was a tech there. That is a data center. has been since they built it. It's just a closed data center for AT&T. AT&T servers, which are immense. I heard someone speak about towers and cell towers and so on. That is true. At one point, microwave towers, everybody thought it was going to fry your brain. I'm going to answer your question about where is data centers going. They're not going anywhere. The technology is only going to get better. Meaning, just like with your cell phone, when they started out with the flip phone, then it went to the Blackberry, now they go to these smartphones. It's going to get better. It's only going to get bigger. Now, I'm not going to speak long. I had a lot, but it kind of stole my thunder about some of the old stuff. I've been building since 2015. I'm gonna give you a success story. In Virginia right now, and this is gonna be a trend, Rockdale has a chance to get in on the front of something that is not going away. In Virginia, they're building a data center alley. They've already started. It's already there. They've already invested $7.8 billion into this place, into this park. I remember it was kind of like Silicon Valley when that started. They're going to invest another $6 billion now. They're ramping it up. They took their tax rate. They cut their tax rate on the first one by 30%. So by 30%, they cut. Now they're moving to where they don't even want the residents to pay taxes. Because it's bringing it so much. I want to talk about this. Last thing. Data centers, the one you said they give off heat, listen, you have distribution centers that want to move in, you have data centers, you have big gas stations like Bucky's, all looking for places to build. Out of all of these places, I would rather live next to a data center. Why? Because it's a closed environment. The one you talked about with the heat, I don't understand how that happens, because heat destroys. Anytime you talk about technology, heat destroys technology. The actual... The actual thing to do is to cool everything. This is a fact. You want to cool the building. You want to cool everything around it. The only thing that would be a factor would be the generators. You people have control over that. You have control over what is put in, how it's put in, what it's supposed to do. You have control over it. The reason why this stuff failed in the past and the stuff you read is bad is because of the people who were in charge of making sure that it was done right didn't do a good job. It wasn't because the data center itself was bad. This is a way to bring what we call in the business mailbox money to Rockdale County. This money's gonna come in regardless. It's going to come in no matter what you do. It's not seasonal. It's not based on traffic. It's not based on any of those things. If you do it right, it will work. Thank you.

Thank you. Chris Kern. this may be our last applicant in favor we have one minute and eighteen seconds

Chris Curran, 2985 Ebenezer Road. Good evening. Many of you know me from my past opposition to development here in Conyers. Some of you may even be surprised to find me on the same side as Ms. Battle. I hope that tells you how carefully I've looked at this project. The conversation around data centers has turned into hysteria, but a good story is not a good analysis. The facilities the media and others point to are worst-case examples of what not to do. A modern facility with closed-loop cooling does not drink millions of gallons of water a year. A properly engineered facility does not rumble. Meanwhile, this county needs revenue. One of our officials described Rockdale as a family living in a big, fancy house with 10 credit cards all maxed out. There are exactly three ways out of that. Raise taxes, cut services, or grow the commercial tax base. County officials say this project moves our tax digest from roughly a 70-30 split to a 46-54 split. That is a structural change in who pays for this county, and it shifts the burden off the homeowners sitting in this room. It also projected to bring a few hundred high-paying jobs, careers for electricians, technicians, and engineers that will let people who grew up in Rockdale afford to stay in Rockdale. I'm not here to tell you data centers are harmless. I'm here to tell you that we can make this one good. Few more seconds.

Few more seconds, please.

If you approve it with conditions written into the record, closed loop cooling with enforceable limits on water usage, sound standards modeled after the cabs which test for low frequency noise, the sound that travels into people's homes, ongoing compliance testing, not one measurement of ribbon cutting data,

continuous published monitoring for the life of the facility a standard that is never tested is not a standard rockdale families have carried this county on their backs long enough let's not let scary story talk out of a good decision thank you all right unfortunately that's all the time we have for those who are in favor i'm sorry ma'am but we don't take questions from the audience i'm sorry um if um so next what i'm going to do is we're going to go to those who are in opposition And here again, we have 40 minutes for all the speakers. So you are just being cognizant of that fact as you're speaking. It looks like we have 13 speakers. Okay, so Kenya, Anderson.

Oh, I shared, right? Okay, that was understood.

Thank you.

Hi, thank you. Good evening, everybody.

I'm Kenya Anderson.

I've lived in Rockdale since January 2018. And the first thing I want to say is I'm going to go as quickly as I can because I really want Fletcher Sams to speak from Riverkeepers. But the other thing I want to say is that when I purchased my home, I did not purchase it with the expectation that I would ever live next to an industrial site at all. I was very, very particular and critical in how I researched. And if I ever thought I would be next to a data center, I would have gone to another city, another area. I just want to say that. In my opinion, it is not time to approve this zoning. There are too many issues that have not been addressed clearly and succinctly. And you can hear that today. We're still waiting to hear about water consumption. I'm still waiting to hear about water toxicity. I still have not gotten an approved answer or an acceptable answer about how is that going to affect me as I'm living there in my home, especially since I have a will. On that map, I am the corner home. When you're looking at the data center complex, I am the one on the corner of Irwin Bridge and Farmer. So that means I'm on 8.77 acres. It would directly be 125 feet behind my property line. So it's so interesting to hear people support this, and you're not living next to it. OK? I'm actually not against data centers. I know data centers have been around for many, many years. I know it's been a big thing in the media, social media, because people who are living next to the centers have complaints. They have issues. They're real. They're not making them up. They're things that have not been addressed. I will say that I do understand that Grind Capital and MMM are trying to listen to the community. I appreciate that, and I'm going to recognize that. And with that, I say there is still not enough information to move this zoning forward now, especially not now. There's just too much that has to be addressed and dealt with. So let me say this very quickly so I can go away. If you do, the reason why I don't think it's time to push this zoning forward are because the following issues have not yet been addressed to my satisfaction. And this is as someone who lives, is going to be living right there in front of it. We have not addressed whether or not compensation for citizens whose homes, wells, I have a well, so do many of my neighbors, and other surrounding structures are harmed by blasting, drilling, and digging. I spent a lot of money to repair that well. The person I purchased a home for spent a lot of money to put that well in. It's potable water for me, not only for my garden, but for bathing and for drinking. It's a part of my household, along with the Rockdale County water. I'm proud of that. Another issue, have we discussed whether or not the data center should provide complete and comprehensive funds to those citizens who will need to upgrade and retrofit their homes to counter the effects of the heat that will radiate within an approximately six mile radius. Where did I get six miles from? I'm reading and I'm researching and I'm listening to other people who are living next to these centers. I talk to them. I reach out on social media. I reach out directly. How is this affecting you? Because I'm trying not to be spastic about this i didn't want to be here i have many things to do and i said i want to be a part of this but i have to because you're right behind my house so i actually did do the research and i'm still researching and i'm not comfortable with what i have heard and what i see This will include upgrading heating and air systems and advanced air filtration systems inside our homes and outside of our homes so that when I step outside of my home to garden, I'm not choking on air because other people are in other parts of the country. Another issue, homes with wells. I keep saying that, it's so important, because water is a commodity around here, it's a premium. Homes with wells need to be compensated for the loss of their wells. Whether or not my well goes away because of the drilling, or if the water becomes too toxic even through filtration for me to drink. Wells could be destroyed from the blasting. Any wells that survive the blasting will then need to be protected and or compensated for the runoff from ethylene glycol, which I don't want to ingest, or diesel that will occur from the blasting and wastewater created by cooling. Our wells, and I'm talking on behalf of my neighbors also, our wells are used for gardening, bathing, and drinking. The wells will lose their potable use. If water needs to be shipped in for those of us who will lose our wells, should the data center pay for that water? Will they? Okay, it is important to note that taking these measures on behalf of Rockdale County citizens may prevent future individual and class action lawsuits against Rockdale County, Rockdale County citizens, and the data centers. Your original comprehensive plan designated that land behind my house as something to be protected. It's a beautiful resource. Absolutely gorgeous back there. I love riding by and looking at the trees. I have walked through there. It's a gorgeous place back there. All I want to say, and I'm going to let someone else get up here, is say that I think I do understand what you're saying about the need for AI. You're right, everybody's using it. A lot of that has been forced on us. Many of us didn't want to use it. I hate seeing Gemini pop up on my computer when I'm trying to research, but you're forcing this on me, so I don't want to be accused of using it, and therefore I'm the reason we're bringing this in. No, we're not. No, we're not. I said this before about a month and a half, two months ago, not all money is good money. I do understand that we need more tax revenue. I'm one of the ones whose taxes doubled. Went up 150, 175%. I was just in shock. Like, what? And I understand that. And I know why they went up. I know all the details behind the scenes about why they went up. And I understand this would be a great financial boom for the area. But... Not enough has been discussed about how this will affect us negatively. Not enough has been resolved about how you will deal with those people. I wanted them around the edge of this and farther out. We're very concerned. But I made a decision that since I did purchase this property as my forever home, I'm not moving. I'm going to stay and fight until we do this the correct way. There's not enough. There has not been enough real decision-making to bring this in. And I like your point, Ernestine Goosby. I like your point when you said we already have one. Let's see what this one does. How is it going to affect our water? How is it going to affect our air? What's going to happen with the one that we have now? So you're going to bring more in without knowing the long-term effects? We don't have to do that right now. That's my opinion. Thank you.

Thank you. So it looks like we have two people that are coming up together, I think. So Sarah Kennedy and Lilman Beatty. Lil Mar Bailey, sorry about that.

Hi, Maureen. I'm Sarah Kennedy, but I'm speaking on behalf of Lil Mar Bailey. He was unable to come tonight. He's a local business owner, and he had other things he had to do. So he wrote a statement that I'm going to read on his behalf. Congratulations on your seats. Hi, everybody. Yeah.

Yeah. Hello.

Sarah Kennedy. And I've been a resident here for, I think, 19 years now. I'm from Fairfield County, Connecticut. So I can speak firsthand before I read to Lamar's statement that people who live in Fairfield County are the ones who build data centers. They don't live next to them. So when we're talking about communities of least opposition, I know that for a fact, because it's where I'm from. People who build data centers live where I grew up. They don't live here. So just getting that on the map. OK. So Lilmar Bailey, he lives five houses down from Sunshine, Kenya, who just spoke. And he's lived here all his life. So this is his statement. I'll be reading on his behalf. Good evening, my name is Lilmar Allen Bailey. I have lived here in Rockdale County for 36 years, my entire life. I currently live at 2375 Farmer Road in Conyers with my wife and our eight beautiful children. My children attend Rockdale County Public Schools. I'm a 10 plus year local business owner and this application to request to rezone the land directly behind and up against my home will ruin my family's life and quality of life. first off my property line is directly up against this proposed mm property line i was never notified by anyone about this project or proposal on my property line and neither were any of my neighbors on farmer road they told no one the county the company no one told any of us what they were doing or what was going on The way that we found out was when they broke ground and started clearing down across the street for the battery site. Just that failure to notify us is a clear violation of my rights as a citizen and a landowner here in Rockdale. And I've been here all my life. I attended meetings immediately to find out what was going on, and I was brushed off, ignored, and was never given any answers to my questions. I was given the runaround, and everyone I spoke to were treated the same. Like we didn't matter, like we didn't exist, we were numbers on a page. Right now, we can already always feel the jackhammering and blasting in our homes from the DC block site and battery site up the street, the site that we didn't even know was going in until they broke ground. How could you do this to us, to our families, to our children? This is our town. If this is what it's like with just that small DC block site, which is what, three buildings all the way on the far end of that road, how horrific is it gonna be right outside my door? Right outside all of their doors with all of that granite. I bought this land and this home with the clear understanding that the only thing that could ever be built on the land behind me was residential. Sorry, this is so irritating. I bought my dream land and home with peace and quiet in mind for my family in the town that I grew up in and invested in my whole life, knowing that that zoning against my property line could never allow anything but homes on it. The land had and has legal protections, which is why I bought it. I would have never bought this land or this home from my family forever home if that zoning had not been exactly that, CRS and residential. I'm in construction and trucking. And I made sure of the zoning of that land and the ordinances related to it before I bought my home for my family. I was going to state the UDO section, but I don't think I need to do that. The 300 acres is zoned CRS, Collaborative Residential Subdivision and Residential, as is all of the land around it. This is a residential area for homes, neighborhoods, and families only. That zoning is in all of the lawful county documents meant to stay exactly that, by our county laws, UDO, and comprehensive plan in perpetuity, meaning forever. Residential only forever. Heavy industrial, light industrial, technology park, which is not defined yet, by the way. Office industrial, none of these zoning types are allowed by our laws and our residential CRS zone. They are prohibited by all of our county documents. This is why I bought my home and land where I bought it. Because something like this, MM&M, Project Rock Forge, could never legally happen. It was an impossibility according to our laws. It clearly violates my rights in every single one of our county legal protections and laws, not to mention that the state document and study, the DRI report, says it violates our environmental laws and policies and does not fit our county in any way. Just because some outsider corporate interest looking to exploit our town and residents wants to make a quick buck off of us, You're going to consider ripping up every single legal protection for that land, for our county, for our families, just because they asked you to? That's all they had to do was ask? This is a violation of all of our rights, and we insist respectfully that you must deny this unlawful and immoral rezoning request.

Lomar Bailey, thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Fletcher Sam's.

My name is Fletcher Sams. I'm the executive director of Altamaha Riverkeeper. We're an organization that advocates for swimmable, drinkable, and fishable water in the Altamaha watershed, which includes all of Rockdale County in the South and Yellow Rivers as tributaries to the larger Okmulgee Basin, which is our largest tributary. Inside the Old Mulgee Basin, this would be the 32nd data center that we have coming in campus-wise. It's a problem. We're concerned that the variance request in front of the board tonight is asking you to ignore important protections that are included in both your UDO and your comprehensive plan for both residents and water resources in Rockdale County. The Rockdale County Comprehensive Plan lists six community goals on page six of the executive summary. One of those goals is to protect the county's water, air, and soil, to curtail pollution, preserve the water supply, and minimize land disturbance in sensitive areas. The parcels in the rezoning quest before you tonight are classified as collaborative residential subdivision in section 206.5 of the Rockdale County Ordinance. The comprehensive plan ordinance called for this zoning to apply to areas where sensitive natural resources are to be preserved, to protect streams, creeks, lakes, groundwater, floodplains, and wetlands. protect water quality of these areas, and protect these areas by reducing the amount of infrastructure, including impervious surfaces and utility easements. The parcels in question have exposed granite that will require blasting, inventory on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Wetland Map, and adjacent landowners drinking well water. Large-scale clearing, blasting, and associated runoff will impact adjacent landowners and the natural environment that both your comprehensive plan and your UDO require you to protect. Allowing the variances before you deny would fly in the face of a legislative long-term planning that residents depend on, and we ask that you recommend denial to the variances of the board. Thank you for your time.

Mr. Samuels, where do you live? Do you live in Rockdale?

No, Brunswick.

Brunswick, Georgia?

Yeah, that's her.

All right, thank you. Don Bankston?

Good evening members of the Rockdale County Planning Board. My name is Dawn Bankston and I live at 26 Presidential Conyers, Georgia in Lakeview Estates directly across from the intended building site. I am here tonight to represent my family, my friends, my neighbors. There are over 2,000 of us. Over 2,000 in our little community. Many of the residents are upset at the lack of transparency when it comes to the proposed data center. We knew nothing. We want to know why we're not being considered when we live literal feet the width of a street away from this proposed site. We want to know what are the consequences this data center will bring for our health, both mental and physical, our children and our seniors. We are concerned about our water supply, our air quality, the noise, traffic, environmental impacts, as well as failing property values. There are those of us who can already hear and feel the rock hammers at the best site at the opposite end of Farmer Road. Standing in a closed house with the air on and all you hear is ding, ding, ding in the background. Imagine that daily and being directly across the street. There are those of, I'm sorry, we truly feel that rezoning these parcels of land to allow a data center of any size to be built is unsafe for those that live nearby and completely irresponsible of you and the rest of the Board of Commissioners for even considering it. Please remember the people when you make your decision. We could easily be your family, your friends, your neighbors. As a community, my community, we ask that you please deny the zoning request. Their proposed use of this land goes heavily against our current UDO. And if you wouldn't want to have this next to your home, why would you put it next to ours? Thank you.

Thank you. All right, I'm going to mess this name up. The last name looked like Blanchford. Is it Christy? All right, Christy. Sorry about that.

My name is Christy Blanchford. I've lived here for over 30 years. 4921 West Lake Drive, Conyers, South Rockdale. I came here because Rockdale fostered an environment to raise a family. I didn't come here because it was going to be a heavy industrial municipality. As a physician, I have a lot of patients who live within the vicinity of this future data site. And I have been reading about infrasound pollution and its health effects. And I am worried about the infrasound pollution that may be emitted from this site. I'm very impressed, actually, by Grind Capital's environmental stewardship with the closed loop direct chip liquid cooling system. But when I asked their acoustics persons about infrasound at their PR program, they didn't seem to know what that was. And I think if we can, anyway, so like I said, as a physician, I am worried about that. I know we need AI, but we need to do it with very good guardrails. And I don't know if all the guardrails are there for the current development. And I think we need to postpone this at the moment. And that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you. And set.

Good evening. My name is Ann Sapp, and I'm here to express my strong opposition to these industrial rezoning requests in the middle of our residentially zoned areas. I'm a 26-year resident of the Paces Landing subdivision, but because our house backs up to Lake Sorrento, we're also fortunate to be part of the Lake Capri community. It's a peaceful neighborhood where we raised our son, enjoy the wildlife, the beauty of nature, and a strong sense of community. This is why people move here, not to live in the shadow of an industrial hyperscale facility. Approving rezoning for a 263-acre industrial complex in the middle of a residentially zoned area violates the text and intent of the comprehensive plan to prioritize the preservation of established residential neighborhoods and poses several threats to our quality of life. First, they say their closed-loop system doesn't use much water, but it will use massive amounts of power for cooling, maintaining a continuous draw on our water basin to generate said power. Our water basin is already strained due to all the planned data centers in Georgia and a drought, and our river keeper has expressed concerns it won't be able to keep up with the demand. The blasting from construction threatens to destroy the wells of nearby residents, and as we learned from the bio lab incident, our county struggles with industrial environmental containment. Adding a 2 million square foot facility near streams and the Yellow River introduces catastrophic vulnerability. All of this violates the comprehensive plan promise to preserve our natural resources. Second, they say they will mitigate the audible noise from the facility, but when asked at a community meeting about inaudible infrasound below 20 hertz that's produced by hyperscale data centers, they could provide no answers for mitigation. Infrasound can't be heard but affects the body and can cause tinnitus, vertigo, nausea, headaches, insomnia, anxiety, and depression and will silently undermine the surrounding resident's health and mental well-being. Third, they claim their 125-foot dense vegetation buffer will ensure no heat is released into neighborhoods. However, large data center cooling infrastructure pushes hot air upward. A typical forest buffer peaks at 40 to 60 feet high. The hot thermal plume will simply blow right over the top of the canopy and bypass the tree's cooling microclimate entirely. A recent scientific study published in a CNN report found data center heat islands can raise temperatures from 3.6 degrees to as much as 16 degrees and stretch up to 6 miles. This will increase our cooling bills despite their promise that our electric bills won't go up due to their power usage. I am not against technological advancement. I rely and appreciate the digital innovations that drive our world forward. I am firmly against placing massive industrial data center complexes directly adjacent to residential neighborhoods. Progress should not come at the cost of our community's well-being. Please deny this resounding request. Thank you.

Thank you. Jesus Lopez.

y'all hear me okay yes awesome good evening members of the Planning Commission my name is Jesus Lopez I am a lifelong resident of Rockdale County and the fourth generation of my family to call this county home I speak to you tonight on behalf of the residents of Lakeview Estates a community of more than 2,500 people mostly Hispanic separated by only a single street from the pro side of Project Rock Forge owned by MMM Acquisitions Grind Capital. Alongside other volunteers, I have spent the past several weeks engaging with the residents of Lakeview Estates to inform them of the proposed data center. Using surveys, we gathered their opinions directly and the results speak for themselves. Of the 22 residents we surveyed, 6 told us that they did not know about the proposed data center at all. 19 told us they believed the community did not receive enough information about this project. when we asked about specific concerns the numbers were just as clear twenty were concerned about the water supply twenty one about the noise twenty one about the air quality eighteen about their property values and fourteen about the lack of information they had received Residents also asked, have you looked at the communities that have been negatively affected by data centers elsewhere? Why place a data center in a residential area at all? So on behalf of the residents I speak for tonight, I ask you, ladies and gentlemen, If the residents believe the county and the property owner failed to adequately inform about the proposed data center at its current size, what exactly would change if you recommend approval of its expansion? Thank you.

Thank you. Amanda Proklin.

Thank you.

I printed out a copy of like the comprehensive plans character map as well as my name is Amanda Kirkland I'm a Rockdale County resident I've printed out copies of some some things from our from the comprehensive plan as well as the current UEO?

You can just give them to me. Yeah, just give them to me. I'll go and distribute it.

Okay. Thank you. All right, thank you. A lot of what I had to say has already been said by a lot of the residents here, but my name is Amanda Kirkland, and I'm a Rockdale County resident. The discussion today isn't only about the specifics of this particular project. It's about whether the county should be allowed to zone a large island of land surrounded by homes and families that have been there for decades. The comprehensive plan isn't just a suggestion. It is, and I'm quoting, the county's principle guiding framework designed to formulate a coordinated long-term planning program to maintain and enhance the health and viability of the jurisdiction. Now, while this site plan displayed today increases the buffers, if allowed to rezone, they could be able to expand, just like D.C. Blocks did. When they applied for rezoning, they came with a site plan that had one little building on it. Now, if you drive past there, that's not one little quiet building. In fact, they say that one's operational. Now, it's important to note that site, that particular building is only 10 megawatts. Every other building on that site is 45 megawatts. Along with all the fans and noise that come along with it to cool them. Some of you were here to see that. They also mentioned the data centers built in Virginia's Data Center Alley, which I and two other residents plan to visit next week to see firsthand for ourselves. But just two days ago, Prince William County, their supervisors denied another one to be built. Their residents have had enough. The applicant has stated that building homes would be some scary negative thing. However, Rockdale County's comprehensive plan says that, let's see, the county's total population is growing by over 34% since 2000 and anticipating another 30% surge as the population approaches 100,000. Sounds like we need more housing. They talk about how homes will use more daily water than this closed-loop system, but when water goes down my drain after washing my dishes, it gets treated and is returned back to the system to be used again. This water is going to be contaminated and will not return to the system for us to use again. The applicant talks about phasing, which they say is which they say they're showing to the public at their meetings, but conveniently decided not to show you here today. And what that means is with that phasing, what that means is years of construction that all these residents are gonna have to live next to. They talk about it coming to this area because of the infrastructure that already exists. Well, they do that because it would be more expensive to put it somewhere else for them. And it just so happens that the reason that those power lines exist there, you know why? It's because our families live there. Approval of this rezoning would irreparably harm the quality of life, wells, property values of the surrounding properties. Many homeowners today have said that they bought their homes for that reason, that it was protected. That CRS zoning, which I included in those packets, it's 20 pages of regulations and environmental protections. People bought their homes because of that. And if you ignore them, it opens the county up to more litigation than they're already facing.

Thank you. Thank you. Rochelle Dixie-Hall.

Good evening, members of the board. My name is Rochelle Dixie-Hall. I live in Rockdale County, 26-3 Lake Rockaway Road. Been here for 24 years. My husband has lived here all his life. I'm here tonight to voice my opposition to the rezoning request for the proposed data center campus. As I'm sure you're fully aware, the Rockdale County Board of Commissioners extended a strict countywide moratorium on data center applications through September 8th of 2026. precisely so our planning and development department could responsibly update our UDO to carefully study the infrastructure limit and community impacts. Granting a rezoning before those new environmental and infrastructure safety standards are officially coded is premature. rockdale county is already absorbing the infrastructure demands on the nearby dc block facility not to mention that we now have to deal with the best battery center which the board of commissioners said they didn't vote on however they did vote to rezone so we still have it The developer claims that their advanced closed loop system will minimize overall water consumption, but on a campus encompassing over four million square feet of data center space. The word minimize is incredibly misleading. Minimized consumption on a mega campus of this scale is still a massive drain. Even closed loop systems require vast amounts of municipal water, millions of gallons, just to initially charge the loops and maintain daily operations. Furthermore, these facilities rely on giant backup cooling towers that evaporate millions of gallons of water during peak heat Georgia summer days. We must look to the bigger picture and the lasting damage on this specific corner of Rockdale County. County planning should distribute industrial burdens equally across the entire municipality. One side of town should not be forced to host a cluster of massive resource heavy facilities while the other areas remain completely untouched. Your recommendation to the Board of Commissioners should be zoning laws exist to protect communities from incompatible uses. Industrial data centers do not belong directly next to neighborhood schools and families. Our town's comprehensive master plan designated this area for residential growth. Overturning our shared vision just to accommodate a corporate entity destroys public trust and sets a dangerous precedent for every homeowner in this county.

i urge this commission to deny the rezoning request thank you thank you paul stalkum i'm paul stalkup i live in lake capri i've been here for 20 years uh The one underlying issue I think that needs to concern everybody is the lack of notice of the hearing and the changes in the proposed UDO. And I believe it violates Title 36 of the Georgia Code and the Constitution of the state of Georgia. I have checked the newspaper and I haven't seen notices that meet either one of those notice requirements. The purpose of the UDO There's no mention of money from anybody. That's not what the UDO is for. The purpose isn't to raise money. One of my other concerns is the 2026-03 text for the resolution of the UDO. It talks about, among other things, Data centers have to be within two miles of I-20 or the interchange of I-20. This proposed MMM data center is more than two miles from I-20, so it should be disqualified under that ground alone. And I'm also concerned about the proposed UDO that you folks are working on. It does set cooling system requirements but it doesn't put any limitations on the water usage. The nuisance abatement says that no data management or processing use may cause adverse or detrimental effects to adjoining properties, owners, and residents, but it doesn't define what those are. So legally, that would be unenforceable. water consumption the same they have to propose something but there's no limitation on water usage either now the same applies to the energy consumption it sets out what they need to do but there's no limitation on how much electricity they can use blocks has built a substation already and there's going to be a substation built if this mm is approved uh I think all of those are unenforceable. And if the notice requirements have not been met, all of this is just void, what we're doing here. And Jennifer and perhaps Cotter can figure that out more than I, because I've only been practicing law for 49 years. Lastly, because of my association with the county, being an unpaid sworn assistant district attorney, what I can do is extremely limited. But I just ask you to consider that it should be disallowed on the mileage in and of itself. If you've got a map, you can use a ruler, it's more than two miles from I-20.

Thank you. Fatima Cervantes.

Good afternoon. My name is Fatima Cervantes Mendez, and I was born here and have been here ever since. I'm a 15-year-old student here, and though many may still consider me quite young, even I can see how the building of these data centers will greatly affect my community. I understand that the wishes of modernized and expanded Rockdale are relevant, but there are so many other ways of doing this that won't truly harm our community. I'd like to talk about the negative consequences that will come along with the building of these data centers. First of all, these data centers require huge amounts of water as stated in an article that i have currently researched on it has stated that we will use about 300 000 gallons for mid-sized facilities of water a day while larger facilities will use up to 5 million gallons daily these data centers require immense amounts of water this is almost enough to supply 306 000 households indoor water use that will set be used on data centers These areas require a large amount of space. This space could be utilized, as many others stated, for housing. Like they said, the community here is growing immensely. We need more housing. We need more people here. This is actually a better way of modernizing that won't jeopardize our future. They spoke about installing noise blocking walls that will supposedly not harm us and won't cause noise pollution. But then we also see that this fracturing, I believe that is the word, which actually just means that the sound wave would just bounce off the wall and cause more sound, which leads to noise pollution. Noise pollution affects our environment and affects humans greatly. and affects humans greatly. It could lead to hearing loss and hearing damaging for younger and older people. With this being said, I urge the committee to please reconsider the billing of these data centers since we are not against the use of AI, but we are against the jeopardization of our future for the younger and current generations and the overall future of the Rockville County. Thank you. Thank you.

The last public comment card we have in opposition is Alexandria Harvey.

How are you tonight?

Great. Hello.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I am actually planned on deferring my statement tonight to our river keepers or the people that live closer to the data centers. But since we are equipped with enough adequate time, I would just like to say I realize the applicants from here, I realize the applicants that are applying are not from here. I can see how they don't understand what agony we have endured as a community. Allow me to give you a description. Imagine skies filled with chemical clouds, toxic carcinogenic ash falling from the sky, constant emergency alerts and orders to stay inside with our windows and doors closed, hoping nothing would leak through the seals, shelter in place overnight because the chemicals fell and rose with the barometric pressure, mandatory evacuation, voluntary evacuations, school closures, chlorine smells, fear, and adverse mental health conditions associated with the circumstances that we were all exposed to because of Biolab. So to say that we can eat the glycol from your closed loop systems or to tell us that it's edible is absolutely tone deaf. We've been exposed to enough harmful substances as a community. We're still finding new information about lack of transparency with what we are even exposed to. We cannot afford any other unknown detrimental environmental impacts and conditions. Independent research needs to be conducted before we can allow any of these data centers to be built in this area. I would also like to know, is the propylene glycol, is it food grade? Is it FDA approved? Is it ethylene glycol? Do we know any of this? Thank you guys. Thank you.

Thank you all for your comments, whether you were for the application or in opposition. We appreciate the feedback. And at this time, the commissioners, any conversation, any discussion? And let me just remind you, we need to speak. We have rebuttal. You want to come back? I'm sorry.

no so madam chair a balance of time is did did you have a balance of time I am NOT going to give any rebuttal we're gonna just let it ride with what we have here today I think that you've heard both sides and we'll let you all okay

OK. All right. So we will close the public comment at this time. Again, thank you so much for taking the time. We appreciate the feedback. So commissioners, at this point in time, we will have, is there any conversation? And we need to speak loud enough so everyone can hear us.

I think based on the items that we heard tonight, I don't think we have enough information to solidly vote on this right now. I think we need to defer it back for further investigation on some of the things that we've heard tonight.

Okay. Any other comments?

I concur. Go ahead.

I concur I I just feel like right now it's stood to rezone this property specially for residential at this particular time in that particular area is is not is if we had to vote at this time I would say we need to deny because

I feel we need more information so if we we can't vote for it so I feel we need more information I guess would be the best way to say it we can't vote for it we either have to deny it or postpone this and learn more I agree my comment would be that there is still a lot to be learned on both sides

There is some outstanding information. I think the residents of that area have some valid concerns and those concerns need to be answered. Even if it's an invalid concern, education is key, right? They still need to understand and they still need to be sure that the property they have invested in will not, one day, 10, 15 years down the road, cause them health issues. And I think that's the elephant in the room, is that people are really worried about, how will I be 10 or 15 years down the road? Now, that could be invalid, but they need facts and data to support that. So I agree, and I do... I heard the fact that you all have done some community involvement and you have answered questions, you have made some adjustments, but it seems like there's still some more work to be done. So at this time, any other comment?

I just wanted to make a comment, and it was a strong comment. I'm a homeowner. My taxes have went upscored. But the idea of selling out in hopes that I may get a tax reduction is not a sure thing. It's not a positive thing. Thank you. It's not guaranteed. We're going to bring $5 million. That's not a guarantee. Georgia Power through 2028 is going to stabilize energy costs. But in 2029, there's a phase that's going to start. So that is not going to impact it positive for a tax reduction. So it's a lot to be discussed. It's a lot that's outstanding. And I don't think at one point that I thought was very important. We're all Rockdale citizens. Why does the citizen Lakeview Estates have to pay for advantage of 212 and 138? That's why.

Any further comments by the commissioners? No, no.

So Madam Chair, if you don't mind for just one second, I would just like to remind the Planning Commission that as you get ready to vote to make your recommendation to the Board of Commissioners that you have four options. And I know Director Wright went over at the beginning of the hearing, but it's been a long night, right? So I just want to remind you, you can approve the proposed amendment, you can deny it, you can approve it with an amendment, or you can you can add conditions or a lesser intense zoning so those are the options before the planning commission tonight and you do have four um items i am not exactly clear director right if these are all one application or four it needs to be separate votes or if it can be one vote one okay so it's one application this is one application to be considered with the four options for the recommendation to the board of commissioners

Okay, so for point of clarity.

I'm sorry. I apologize. Two?

Yes.

So what they're saying is that you'll take the rezoning together and the future land use map amendments together as well. So that would be two votes. Two votes. Okay.

And just to clarify, item three and, R3 and four, we would have to vote separately.

No votes. No. I got it. So it's two votes. Future land use and rezoning.

Yes, and so that would be item R1 and R3 together and R2 and R4 together.

Okay, I understand. I was trying to get there for clarification. If I want to vote on something, I'm not understanding. We need to be super clear, right? So let's make sure we do.

That's true. All right.

Okay. So, commissioners, do I have a motion for R1 REZ202508 and R3REZ2025-11 for result. I make a motion to deny.

I second the motion to deny.

So we have a first and a second. So let's vote. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion passes.

All right. One more, you all. Bear with us. So do I have a motion? If you all settle down, we can get it done. All right. All right, you're still talking. Thank you. So do I have a motion for item R2, FLUM 2025-03, and item R4, FLUM 2025-05?

I make a motion to deny. Future land use map 2025-03. Future land use map 2025-05.

So the motion has been first and second. We will vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed nay. The motion passes. All right, so that, you all just, the next regularly scheduled meeting, Planning Commission meeting, we're still in session, will be August the 13th, 2026, at 6 o'clock p.m. If there are no further business before the Planning Commission, I will call for a motion to adjourn.

I make a motion to adjourn.

Second. Second. We have a first and a second. The meeting has been adjourned at 8.41 p.m.