Those seeking to build data centers in Bartow County will have rules to follow if Bartow County Commissioner Steve Taylor approves the recommendation for a text amendment change at his next meeting.
The Bartow County Planning Commission approved the text amendment in their meeting last Monday. The amendment addresses data center zoning regulations since the current county ordinances didn’t include the new industry in its rules.
The new regulations made several conditions that Taylor had previously placed on proposed projects in their zoning requests into local law. Those include:
- The projects must provide its own power source rather than relying on local power suppliers for energy. Many data centers across the country are building their own power generation plants or substations as the construct the buildings. President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14318 titled Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure July 23, 2025 prioritizing and streamlining federal permitting for large data center and the energy infrastructure they build to power them.
- That data centers must use a closed loop water system. Water use is a concern in many areas because of the amount data centers could use daily. A closed loop water system allows the center to keep reusing the same water.
- That data centers obey a strict noise ordinance. Many constructed centers produce a constant hum that affects the community. This part of the ordinance addresses that.
- That the project must obey the county’s “down lighting” ordinance. Bartow County instituted a “down lighting” regulation that forces industries and businesses, especially those near communities, to cut lights off at 9 p.m. One of the complaints about data centers is the lights shining into private homes throughout the night.
The ordinance puts data centers in a category, where they weren’t listed in a category previously. Categorizing them allows them to fall under all regulations for that industry as well as adhere to regulations specific to them.
The commissioner’s meeting is set for July 1 at 10 a.m.
This text amending change comes on the heels of the announcement of a 200MW data center campus being planned for 69 acres at 218 Industrial Park Road in Cartersville. Data Bank, a US operator filed a Development of Regional Impact application with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs June 22.
Colloid Environmental Technologies Company (CETCO), a construction materials firm, owns the land. The proposed data center will be 1.1 million square feet and is scheduled to go live with its first phase in 2032. The project is expected to be valued at $2.4 billion at full build out. Data Bank owns six facilities in the Atlanta area.
Melody Dareing is a freelance writer for publications in the U.S, Canada, the UK and Germany. She is a former news director of Adelphia Channel 4 and WBHF Radio. She is on Facebook, X, YouTube, content on Substack, and has a podcast on Rumble.