Residents of Coweta County, Georgia, are mounting an aggressive campaign to block one of the state's largest datacenter projects, collecting signatures for a referendum that could give them direct say over a development their elected officials already approved. The push signals a broader uprising against data infrastructure expansion across rural America.
In recent weeks, volunteer organizers have held roughly a dozen petition-signing events throughout the county, most recently at Morgan's Market on a Sunday afternoon where hundreds showed up despite bad weather. As of late last week, they had gathered about 6,500 signatures. They need roughly 14,000 to trigger a countywide vote on Project Sail, an 831-acre datacenter proposed for an area zoned as rural conservation land.
Success would make Coweta County only the third in Georgia history to hold a referendum challenging a county commission decision. The county, located southwest of Atlanta with 160,000 residents, has already become a flashpoint in a national debate over where to place the massive facilities driving artificial intelligence expansion.
"Our overarching goal is to protect the rural character of Coweta County," said Melanie Tomlinson, one of the referendum's organizers and a member of Citizens for Rural Coweta. The 58-year-old lifetime resident said she had never engaged in local politics before the datacenter issue forced her hand. County commission meetings on the project went from drawing a handful of attendees to packing rooms with more than 100 people.
The tipping point came in December when the commission passed an ordinance allowing Project Sail to move forward. Tomlinson felt the decision dismissed genuine concerns about noise, water consumption, and electricity costs. "It was like a brick wall," she said. Residents also filed a lawsuit to block the project.
Jenn Riggs, a 41-year-old graphic designer who volunteered at the petition drive, lives about two miles from the Project Sail site on land her family has owned for generations. She expressed frustration that the commission seemed to ignore constituents entirely. "It's almost like taxation without representation," Riggs said. She mentioned particular worry about the rezoning of the land from rural conservation to industrial use and the potential impact on local wildlife. "We have bald eagles all year," she noted. "If this impacts our groundwater, our ability to see the night sky, it affects the way we've lived for generations."
The Coweta effort arrives as opposition to datacenters is becoming a defining issue in rural counties nationwide. Monterey Park, California, became the first U.S. city to pass a datacenter referendum just this month. National polling shows roughly seven in ten Americans would oppose a datacenter being built near their homes.
Environmental groups flag real concerns. Chris Manganiello, water policy director for Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, identified sediment runoff during construction as the largest immediate threat to nearby rivers, potentially affecting water temperature and fish populations. Recent incidents in other Georgia towns have amplified fears. In Fayetteville, residents noticed unusually low water pressure after learning a utility company had supplied 30 million gallons of water at no charge to a datacenter developer.
Some petition signers came with broader objections. John Leseur, a 25-year Newnan resident, voiced skepticism about the entire enterprise. "These datacenter people, these billionaires, they prey on small rural towns with loose zoning laws," he said. "With that AI stuff, enough's enough."
Others had relocated specifically to escape datacenter sprawl. Carla Jackson moved to rural Georgia four years ago from Loudoun County, Virginia, an area so saturated with datacenters it earned the nickname "Datacenter Alley." When she learned of the Coweta referendum campaign, she became active immediately. She has trained 38 volunteers and collects signatures wherever she goes: her neighbors, her veterinarian, her dentist. "When I came here, I said this is paradise," Jackson said. "If one datacenter comes, that's not going to be the end of it."
At least five additional datacenters are planned for Coweta County. The industrial real estate company Prologis, which is behind Project Sail, declined to comment. A county spokesperson said commissioners welcome civic engagement while emphasizing their responsibility to serve the entire community.
Quentin Savvoir, director of programs and strategy at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, said referendums like this one serve an important function. They demonstrate that "people don't have to acquiesce to elected leaders, particularly when they don't have people's interests at heart."
Georgia's state constitution allows such referendums when a threshold percentage of registered voters sign a petition, with the percentage varying by county population. Once enough signatures are verified, the vote becomes binding on elected officials.
Manganiello said he has never witnessed grassroots opposition to development quite like what he's seeing with datacenters. "Everything about datacenters in Georgia is unprecedented," he said, noting that rural counties are also passing construction moratoria. "This sentiment is not going away."
Tomlinson hopes Coweta's battle sets an example for other communities facing similar pressures. "I hope that other places see what Coweta County is doing and care as much as we care. I hope it makes them brave to stand up and do something," she said.
Author James Rodriguez: "What started as concerned neighbors has turned into genuine grassroots power, and the datacenters are learning that rural doesn't mean powerless."
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