The ACC Commission has voted unanimously to place a temporary ban on new data centers in Athens until standards can be developed to regulate their growth.
At their meeting last Tuesday, the commission also placed limits on AirBnBs and other short-term rentals in certain zones, diverted some affordable housing funds towards Habitat for Humanity, approved a two-way bike lane on Barber Street and rejected a request to build a large church near Winterville. Lastly, the commission delayed making a decision about the redevelopment of the Homewood Hills shopping center until next month.
Contents
Data center moratorium
Limiting short-term rentals
Funding affordable housing
Bike lanes on Barber Street
Church on Smithsonia Road rejected
Data center moratorium
In recent years, investors in the US and across the world have been funneling large amounts of money towards the development of artificial intelligence, an endeavor that requires massive amounts of computing power. To fuel the computing boom, several dozen data centers have already been built in Georgia with dozens more on the way. Local zoning codes and other restrictions around data centers have often lagged behind the pace of construction, making communities more vulnerable to certain environmental impacts.
Currently, Athens does not have a formal definition for “data center” in its zoning code. That hasn’t stopped one of these massive computing warehouses, owned by Atlanta Gas Light, from being constructed in Athens. Since it was built, ACC planners have worked to develop regulations on data centers that may be needed to ensure this industry doesn’t cause too deep a disruption to people’s lives. The ACC Planning Commission will review a draft of these new regulations on December 11.
It may take months before the new rules are finalized and put into effect. Therefore, the ACC Mayor and Commission has decided to ban all new data center construction in Athens until this process is complete. The ban on new data centers is currently scheduled to last until March 6, although this date is subject to change.
The decision to ban new data centers, which was unanimous, came after over a dozen residents spoke during public comment on the issue. These concerned residents urged the commission to impose firm restrictions on data centers because of the environmental and community impacts of these facilities.
“Georgia already has 98 data centers. They use the amount of power equivalent to three million homes and 67 million gallons of water a day,” said Olivia Asher, a member of the Coalition of Athens Scientists. “Before we bring more data centers into Georgia, we need to thoughtfully consider if this is right for our community and the state of Georgia as a whole.”
Some speakers focused on the specific impacts data centers have on poor residents and on communities of color.
“Athens already has one data center that was approved with no public information in the back of Pittard Road, an environmental victim zone,” said Tawana Mattox, Athens resident and advocate for the Pittard Road neighborhood. “No community should be placed in that position again. Unfortunately, the data center proposals [such as the one at Athena Studios] are in the same area: the Black, rural working-class area.”
Later in the meeting, ACC Manager Bob Cowell explained that the proposed Athena Studios data center has been rejected by ACC planners because they believe it is not compatible with the area’s zoning. Athena Studios is zoned employment-industrial, a category that allows for light industrial activities but not heavy industrial uses like data centers. This ruling is not necessarily final; Cowell acknowledged that the land owner has a right to appeal the decision to a hearings officer.
Other Athens residents spoke in opposition to data centers, saying that these facilities drive up electricity costs for working families and create light, noise, air and water pollution. Furthermore, data centers don’t provide many jobs after construction, said one speaker.
Before approving the three-month moratorium, commissioners expressed regret that they had not acted sooner to block data center construction.
“The first data center snuck up on us,” said Commissioner Ovita Thornton. “It should have set off some alarms for us. But here we are, we’ll have a moratorium and we’ll move forward.”
For the time being, the commission is defining “data center” as a “building, structure or facility in which any floor area is devoted to operating data processing or computing equipment for commercial purposes.”
Limiting short-term rentals
In February of last year, the ACC Commission voted to limit short-term rentals like AirBnBs and VRBOs in single-family neighborhoods across Athens. Last week, the commission voted 8-1 to expand their short-term rental restrictions, further limiting these types of rentals in multifamily neighborhoods, agricultural neighborhoods and light industrial zones.
Going forward, tenants will be allowed to rent out their apartments on AirBnB, but only if they live there as their primary residence. New short-term rentals started by commercial entities will not be allowed in multifamily zones anymore. Previously, they were permitted on an individual basis through a special use process.
Commissioner Tiffany Taylor was the only commissioner to vote against the legislation. She did so out of a concern that it would not be enforced. She also expressed a desire to move away from the short-term rental discussion entirely and talk about other housing issues.
“There are always ways to go around what we establish to the point where we’re back to square one,” Taylor said. “We don’t even have places for residents to live [in Athens]…We really should be having a conversation about [that].”
Commissioner Allison Wright recused herself from the vote presumably because she is the owner of a short-term rental, as she has previously stated. However, the ordinance does not affect existing rentals, only new ones. Wright did not explain her reasoning for the recusal at this meeting.
Funding affordable housing
The ACC Commission has awarded $273,000 to Habitat for Humanity for the construction of affordable housing. The funding, which comes from Athens’ share of the American Rescue Plan, will supplement a previous award being used to help complete the Micah’s Creek affordable housing development. The current allocation may also go towards building affordable homes on infill lots within about a mile of Micah’s Creek.
There was some debate on the commission about whether to award this funding to Habitat for Humanity. Commissioner Dexter Fisher proposed dividing the $273,000 evenly to the five different nonprofits which had applied for it, including the Athens Community Council on Aging, Historic Athens and the East Athens Development Corporation. However, Cowell expressed concern that spreading the funding so thin would not allow the various nonprofits to do anything meaningful with it.
Fisher then proposed tabling the award until January, when more American Rescue Plan funding would come available. These funds are being recaptured from previous awardees who have been unable to complete their proposals on the strict timeline required by the federal government.
Fisher’s proposal to delay awarding the funding failed in a 5-6 vote, with Commissioners John Culpepper, Carol Myers, Patrick Davenport, Melissa Link and Allison Wright voting no. Mayor Kelly Girtz broke the tie against the delay out of a desire to put this money to work in the community as soon as possible.
Commissioners then voted 8-2 to allocate all $273,000 to Habitat for Humanity. Only Thornton and Commissioner Stephanie Johnson voted no.
Bike lanes on Barber Street
The ACC Commission has approved the construction of a two-way bike lane along Barber Street from Chase Street to Oneta Street. This safety improvement will cost $7.6 million, paid for with SPLOST and TSPLOST dollars.
Bike safety advocates originally hoped that the bike lane would be constructed along a longer stretch of Barber Street, at least from Chase Street to Boulevard if not all the way to Prince Avenue. This is not currently possible. Costs have ballooned over the last few years as construction has been delayed twice by commissioners: once by progressives, who wanted to ensure that bike lanes were built along the entire stretch, and once by the commission’s moderate faction, who had called for more public input on that proposal.
Fortunately for bike safety advocates, commissioners are no longer calling for delay. The downside is that available bike lane funding is currently only sufficient for construction along a relatively short stretch of road.
While not calling for delay, Link is still calling for public input in light of some significant engineering difficulties on the remaining stretch of road from Oneta Street to Prince Avenue. There is no funding currently available for construction on this stretch, but Link is calling for a public meeting to discuss ideas when money does come available.
“We didn’t [have a public meeting] initially because this came through during the [COVID-19] pandemic. We couldn’t have those face-to-face meetings,” Link said.
Link’s plan also includes some small, inexpensive safety improvements along the entire stretch of road, including adding a stop sign at Barrow Street. The commission approved Link’s plan, which includes bike lanes from Chase to Oneta, in a unanimous vote.
Church on Smithsonia Road rejected
Lastly, the ACC Commission has rejected a rezoning request for a large church proposed in the county’s “green belt” on Smithsonia Road, near Winterville. Several Winterville residents spoke against the proposed church during public comment, which they felt would add unwanted traffic to the area and might encourage sprawl, which the “green belt” zoning was intended to prevent.
The commission denied the rezoning request in a unanimous vote, thereby keeping the property’s current agricultural zoning.
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