Shadowbox Studios is suing DeKalb County for $30 million, claiming county planners spent three years telling the company it could build a data center on its Moreland Avenue property before commissioners voted a moratorium that killed the project.

The civil lawsuit, filed Saturday, Aug. 8, puts a price tag on the legal risk of DeKalb's ongoing data center freeze, which has blocked new applications across unincorporated land near the Perimeter corridor shared by Dunwoody and Brookhaven.

According to WSB-TV, the complaint cites an email from the DeKalb County Planning Department telling Shadowbox that data centers fit within the county's M and M-2 industrial zoning districts and would be allowed by right. Those written assurances were never approved by the Board of Commissioners.

District 3 Commissioner Nicole Massiah said she had suspected for months that county officials were making written promises to developers without public input. She said the deals could cost taxpayers millions to resolve.

"You have residents that aren't aware of this, the potential of it coming in your backyard," Massiah told WSB-TV. "And in listening to the community, that is something they emphasized time and time again."

Massiah has been a vocal critic of data center siting in residential areas. "There's a need for data centers in certain locations, just not in the backyard of District 3," she told 11Alive on July 23, citing unknowns around energy use, water use, pollution and sound.

The Shadowbox property sits on International Park Drive off Moreland Avenue in unincorporated DeKalb County. A Zoning Board of Appeals hearing on the property is scheduled for Sept. 9 at 1 p.m. WSB-TV reported that a hearing notice was already posted on the site.

WSB-TV reported the lawsuit is expected to come up at a DeKalb County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday, Aug. 11. A county spokesperson said the county cannot comment on pending litigation. Shadowbox Studios could not be reached for comment.

Moratorium context

As we reported July 30, commissioners voted 6-1 to extend the data center moratorium through March 30, 2027. Commissioner Ted Terry cast the lone dissenting vote. The moratorium process has involved nine public hearings and four revisions over roughly a year.

On June 23, the commission unanimously killed a proposed zoning ordinance that would have restricted data centers to industrial areas, required special land-use permits, capped campuses at 1 million square feet and mandated a 750-foot buffer from residential properties. That left the county with zero enforceable rules governing where data centers can be built once the moratorium expires.

The lawsuit is the first known legal challenge to the moratorium. If commissioners fail to adopt permanent zoning regulations by March 30, 2027, the county would again have no rules blocking data center applications on unincorporated land near Dunwoody and Brookhaven.

The Sept. 9 ZBA hearing is the next public forum where residents can weigh in on the Shadowbox property.