By a 3-2 vote, including Mayor Jonathan McCollar’s tiebreaker, Statesboro City Council on Tuesday evening approved a request from 4AM Development LLC to rezone its almost 27-acre site on Burkhalter Road for a two-story data center with roughly 230,000 square feet of floor space. District 5 Councilmember Shari Barr first made a motion, seconded by District 4’s John Riggs, to deny the request that the property be rezoned from “R-4” high-density residential to “O” for office and business. But then District 1 Councilmember Tangie Johnson spoke up to say that she works in a place that includes a data center – she meant at Georgia Southern University – and is not opposed to them. “I’ve been in much prayer regarding this data center,” Johnson said. “I work for a facility that has one. This facility houses students, and it’s right here it the city of Statesboro. I use the technology from a data center. Anytime you hit ‘save’ on any device that you have, if you’re saving something, it has to go and be stored somewhere. … I’m not against data centers.” She also noted the existence of a “mini” data center on Brannen Street near the Walmart Supercenter, and said she would support the zoning for the larger proposed data center. Then District 3 Councilmember Ginny Hendley spoke. “I also don’t have a problem with the zoning; it’s staff approved, and staff knows what they’re doing,” Hendley said. “I don’t see a problem with it.” So the vote to deny was split 2-2, and McCollar voted to…
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