I sat through Monday’s city council work session last night and figured I’d share what happened with the data center ordinance, since I don’t think a lot of people know where this stands. There is a video on mariettaga.gov of the entire work session.
TLDR: some of council wants to vote on an ordinance in November. That’s about four weeks from now. There haven’t been any public input sessions, residents haven’t seen a draft or even an outline, and the Georgia Tech guy who was leading the whole process has unfortunately and unexpectedly passed away.
Monday night the ordinance got about 13 minutes of discussion. Sidewalks got about 49. I like sidewalks fine, but come on.
Two council members want to pass an ordinance in November. Two want to extend the moratorium instead. City Attorney Haney confirmed extending it is an option, so it’s not like their hands are tied.
Long version: Back in August, Georgia Tech’s Center for Economic Development Research sent the city a (VERY basic) proposal to build the ordinance. It was roughly seven months of work (September through March) with three public sessions. The first was supposed to be a Data Centers 101 with an expert panel on power, water and zoning. The second was for answering whatever questions residents raised. The third was presenting the draft ordinance, along with a document showing which section addressed each concern people brought up. Cost was around $52,600.
Alan Durham was leading that for Georgia Tech, and he has since unfortunately passed away. Tech hasn’t sent a new proposal as of last night although one is allegedly still coming. None of those sessions ever happened. The closest thing to them was the Gaddis town hall which, for those who were there- didn't count. 95% of the time was spent hearing from city management, and direct data center questions were not answered. I don't fault him for that directly- The town hall was held in August, right after the Powers rezone passed. There wasn't enough time between the two events to address the ordinance effectively. Additionally, Gaddis was able to get me a copy of the GT proposal and that was fantastic information that should have been published by the city. Dead horses, I just keep beating.
Tech’s own proposal warned that without a real ordinance, the city ends up “negotiating standards on a project-by-project basis, under time pressure, and without a structured opportunity for resident input.” That was an economic development team saying that, not a bunch of anti-data center folks. And it’s pretty much exactly what a November vote looks like.
Right now the only rule on the books that really applies is the noise ordinance, which maxes out at $1,000 a day in fines. For a data center that’s pocket change. Nothing I’ve seen published about the new ordinance mentions penalties at all. Actually, to be clear- the only thing I've actually seen published was by the MDJ and was... sparse. At best.
As the Bells Ferry site is already rezoned- having a solid ordinance in place before the next developer comes along, before vesting, matters. The Mayor has frequently brought up questions as to how they can prevent Bells Ferry from moving forward. Tumlin gave MDJ a quote that Bells wouldn't work (I'm paraphrasing, but it wouldn't work). In Georgia, rezoning follows the land- So, unless there's a high and tight ordinance in place, it's going to be a brawl.
The next council meeting is TOMOROW- Wednesday 10/14/26 at 7pm at Marietta City Hall. You can sign up for public comment or just show up, because a full room matters. You can also email your council member ( https://www.mariettaga.gov/596/City-Council, click your member, you'll get the email address) and ask them to extend the moratorium and hold public sessions before anything gets drafted and voted on. I aim to be on public comment tomorrow night.
Happy to answer questions. I’ve been following this since the Powers Ferry rezoning and have read more city documents than is healthy. I'm also hot buttered pissed that certain council members are blatantly attempting to push a weak, fast ordinance over one that is good for Marietta but I won't publicly speculate on why. I encourage you to watch last nights Work Session online beginning at minute 28 and draw your own conclusions.
While I'm here, Councilwoman Richardson also brought up Marietta sponsoring 500 or so wreaths for the Marietta Wreaths Across America at the National Cemetery. Each wreath is $17. Every year, the number of wreaths is significantly less than the number of graves. As it stands, there are 18,846 veteran graves and 1908 wreaths with committed sponsors. The 500 from the tourism budget still equates to a shortage of 16,438 wreaths. I just sponsored a wreath- Maybe you can too. Sponsor here: https://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/pages/14805/Overview/?relatedId=0
Links in the comments.
*UPDATE EDIT*- Advertising the special permit passed on consent. That means it's voted on in 4 weeks for the special use permit. Several council members did generously speak with me after the meeting and assured me that a moratorium extension is coming along with pushing for the GT proposal once we see it and town halls. Stay tuned. You can find the video here: https://marietta.granicus.com/player/clip/3860.
Worth watching new officers, firemen, & kiddo awards at the beginning, Perry Barrett touches on data centers at the beginning of his PAD proposal for homelessness beginning 31:40, at u/samformarietta discusses pedestrian and safety improvements on 41 & Allgood beginning at 31:00, and public comment which is the only other place data centers are brought up beginning at 2:14:00. Joel Becker, Lindsay Koch, and Don Barth appear in Public Comment.
