Citizens opposed to a new data center in the city of Marietta are planning to speak out on the issue at a Marietta City Council meeting this coming week.
Some had claimed that a public hearing was to have been held at the council’s regular meeting on Wednesday, but city officials said Friday that’s not the case.
“The City of Marietta is aware of misinformation being circulated regarding discussion of data centers,” the city announced over social media channels Friday afternoon.
“The City confirms there is NO town hall, public hearing, or item for Council discussion regarding data centers scheduled for the June 10, 2026 City Council meeting.”
There’s no mention of the data center on the council’s meeting agenda.
The city’s message was in response to information distributed on a website opposed to the data center with the URL StopCobbDataCenter.com and headlined “Not for Us—Cobb County.”
The site includes a message at the top indicating a public hearing before the Marietta City Council on June 10 (Wednesday), and asks that “we’re asking all attendees who support a permanent ban to wear red—speaking slots are limited, so a united visual presence is our strongest message.”
A Northeast Cobb resident contacted East Cobb News this week on the same matter, saying that she “just found out about the data center they’re planning to put up” and that “apparently there’s folks going to show up at a meeting of the Marietta City Council to have a say about this.”
But the caller’s concerns, as well as those from the “Not for Us—Cobb County” site are coming nearly a year too late.
In June 2025, the Marietta City Council unanimously proved a digital data center proposal on a 30-acre undeveloped tract following claims from prominent land-use attorney Kevin Moore that it would provide more than $70 million in tax revenue.
The data center would employ 40 people and house computer systems and servers and data and networking equipment.
While there was some community support expressed at the time, concerns also were raised over possible effects on nearby residential developments.
The more recent opposition comes as protests specifically against artificial intelligence data centers are growing around the country, citing electrical and water costs, as well as noise and environmental impacts.
A number of local governments in metro Atlanta have imposed temporary moratoria on data centers, including a six-month pause in unincorporated Cobb approved unanimously by commissioners in February.
Noted environmental activist Erin Brockovich also has joined efforts to oppose data centers and has begun an online map to track data centers across the country.
Her map includes the Bells Ferry Road property as a “community reported” site as of May 4. According to the map, such sites “show data submitted by concerned residents across the US about AI data centers.”
The concerned residents behind the “Not for Us—Cobb County” site are not identified. The site offers tips on how public speakers should express their opposition to the data center, including pointing out that no environmental impact study was conducted before the Marietta vote in 2025, and to contact their city council members.
“The developer has lawyers and $100M for a substation. You have the vote and the documented evidence,” according to the “Not for Us—Cobb County” site.
On the City of Marietta’s Facebook page, some citizens took exception to the city’s message about there not being a public hearing.
“There has been zero misinformation about it—public comment is open to non-agenda topics,” wrote one citizen.
“Surely you aren’t trying to discourage your constituents from attending a public council meeting, to speak with representatives who work for us? See you on Wednesday!,” commented another.
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This is a post and other articles are driven by a political group stirring up crap with no knowledge of the details. This is more fear mongering! There are many good DC operators and bad operators also. I will agree that there are some older facilities using older technology that is bad for many reasons, but you cannot paint them ALL with the same broad brush. This was actually rezoned after multiple public hearings and much interaction with the city LAST YEAR.
The rezoning item (Z2025-11 for the Bells Ferry Road / 1751 Bells Ferry Road data center) was tabled once.
• May 6, 2025 Planning Commission meeting: The item appeared on the agenda but was tabled (marked as TABLED in the agenda). This allowed time for additional review, stipulations, or addressing concerns before the subsequent hearings.
It then advanced:
• The Planning Commission later recommended approval (as stipulated) with a 7-0 vote.
• City Council public hearing and final approval: June 11, 2025, with a unanimous 7-0 vote in favor. No further tabling, postponements, or continuances are documented for council meetings after that.
There was a town hall led by Ms Richardson and other council members in either December 2025 or January 2026 because folks had questions and concerns. There were state regulatory officials and county water authority officials in attendance who participated with informational slide shows and subsequently answered questions.
I toured a DC under construction with the owner’s PM, the GC’s PM and lead superintendent in late October in Plano TX…a 108 MW facility that uses no water for their process. They will have less than 30 full time employees in the facility and the only water usage is from toilets, hand sinks, and irrigation. They are using 100% roof mounted air cooled chillers. They even bring their own deionized (DI) water to the site to charge the closed loop for the initial start up. After the ‘burn in’ period, they may have to purge a small amount of air and top off the loop with their own imported and DI water.
I don’t Google information and take it as fact…I am a semi retired GC that chooses to do actual boots on the ground research as opposed to just accepting information from websites whose only purpose is to try and stop something they don’t like and build websites for clickbait revenue. All of the propaganda you are posting, you are getting using DATA CENTERS!! Oh, the irony…’I hate data centers, they are all bad, but I Google everything and stream all of my TV using them’
The DC operators are also investing heavily in SMRs (small modular reactors) which will likely be available in 5-7 years, so there goes the power consumption issue from off the grid. These folks are professional businesses that hear all of these negative comments and are also sensitive to long term operating expenses. This is why they are always trying to solve all of the issues that you mention.
It was/is not heavily wooded. It was/is a field mostly of weeds, grasses and kudzu with ~1 acre dedicated to a billboard, and ~1 acre dedicated to a cell tower. It is bordered on its longest side by I-75. It was a natural stone supply yard for over 30 years. Tractor trailers, dump trucks and others large vehicles and trailers went in and out of it 5-6 days a week. There are veery few trees on this site and was essentially an open field that rises 60-90 feet from Bells Ferry (low point) to its highest point in the northeast corner. In that NE corner is where a townhome development is located.
One rezoning requirement is that the sites elevation will have to be reduced ~60’ or more so that any structure built would not be above the ground level of the townhomes. Also, any Data Center would have to pay Market Rate PLUS 3% profit for the power they use. No tax breaks were given and they would pay business license fees based on revenue plus property and school taxes at a commercial rate.
The church that is across Bells Ferry from the site mostly exists to feed a homeless population that does not qualify for benefits from MUST ministries because of their substance abuse. I assure that if this site were housing friendly and viable for residential, it would have been bought and developed by now. I think everyone that is interested in this potential project drive Bells Ferry on the west side of I-75 and check out this area which has mixed development in the close proximity. On the east side of I-75 it is all commercial property now all the way over to Cobb Pkwy.
NOTHING is being built yet.
NOTHING has been permitted or approved for building yet.
Any statement that says there is false, misleading and gaslighting.
Requirements that must be met for ANY Data Center per the zoning approval:
1. The Data center will pay market rate for their power plus a 3% profit for Marietta Power and Water. This protects the residential customers from rate spikes during peak season.
2. The site elevation on the east side will be lowered by 60’ so that its highest point will be lower than the adjacent townhomes.
3. The cooling loop will be a closed loop system.
4. Water demand is unknown, but the city is pushing for 100% air cooled chillers with NO cooling towers to minimize any water usage. Cobb Water System is the water provider, and is on record as saying they have no issue with the potential demand.
These are the true facts and not hyperbole. The political group that is spearheading this organized effort was asleep at the wheel a year ago when there were multiple public hearings about the rezoning. Now they are organizing this misinformation campaign to attack a city council that followed the law and was transparent the entire time. I know, because I attended every meeting and they are all recorded on the city’s site. One of these meetings was a town hall specifically advertised here and by the city which had State agency and County representatives to answer questions as best they could without an actual hard design on the table yet.
I have ZERO financial or any other interest in this project other than sharing true hard facts with people. This and other posts are uninformed gaslighting and attempts to sling mud at the city council even though they have followed the law and informed the citizens all along the way. You can even go and look at former city council meetings and hearings online as they were recorded if you want to follow the process for yourself, but that takes much more time and effort than just taking these posts as facts, because they are not factually correct. These are cheap political theater meant to divide folks using hyperbole and bad information.