On Monday, the Hogansville council again heard public opposition about data centers ahead of the first reading of a proposed ordinance that would create a General Heavy-Industrial District and regulations for data centers. An ordinance in place would create protections for the city and its constituents to make data center developers be good neighbors. Many of the public spoke about concerns of noise, light and environmental pollution from data centers, including impacts on people and animals’ health. Some asked for data centers to only be located in industrial parts of the city (like near the Amazon site off I-85), while others said they didn’t want data centers at all in the city. Some called for more strenuous regulations, like those implemented by Troup County, and several asked for the existing moratorium on data center applications to be kept in place until the consequences of data centers are fully understood. “We are not here to beg or plead for scraps of protection. We are here to demand a moratorium, no performative bills, nothing fake — a real moratorium until we understand what is going on with these data centers,” Stacy Miles said. “There's no government regulation. It is like the Wild West. It is no-holds-barred, and we need to pump the brakes because once that genie is out of the bottle, there is no putting it back in. Our future is not for sale, and there's an issue when we have more regulations in this city, in this county, in this country, to sell a sandwich…
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