Data center developers eyeing vacant land near the Perimeter corridor will have to wait at least until fall before DeKalb County commissioners decide where, or whether, the facilities can be built.
At a public hearing Thursday, July 23, District 3 Commissioner Nicole Massiah and industry executive Kirk Ofell staked out opposing positions on the future of data centers in the county. The moratorium affects parcels along the Perimeter corridor near Dunwoody and Brookhaven, where Massiah's district includes large tracts of undeveloped land that have attracted proposals.
"There's a need for data centers in certain locations, just not in the backyard of District 3," Massiah said at the hearing, according to 11Alive. "There are so many unknowns around energy use, water use, pollution, sound."
Massiah said she would not support siting the facilities near residential neighborhoods. She called on commissioners to use the moratorium period to gather facts rather than simply buy time, warning that misinformation from both industry boosters and opponents has muddied the debate.
Kirk Ofell, CEO of Overwatch Mission Critical, a data center developer, pushed back. He argued that data centers bring job growth but acknowledged the industry needs to communicate more clearly about community impacts. He cautioned commissioners against treating the moratorium as permanent, saying a prolonged freeze could drive investment away for good.
How the moratorium evolved
The commission first imposed a moratorium on new data center applications in 2025. Since then, it has extended the pause multiple times while staff drafted permanent zoning rules.
On June 9, commissioners voted to extend the moratorium through September 30, according to WABE. Two weeks later, on June 23, the commission unanimously rejected a proposed ordinance that had been under development for roughly a year. That draft would have restricted data centers to industrial zones, required special land-use permits, capped campuses at 1 million square feet, and set a 750-foot buffer from residential properties, up from a prior 500-foot standard.
With those regulations dead, commissioners are back to square one on permanent rules.
What's next
The moratorium blocks all new data center applications through September 30. Once it expires, commissioners must either adopt permanent zoning rules or extend the freeze again. No specific meeting date has been set for that decision. Residents can track the agenda and submit public comment through the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners' Legistar portal.
