By a 4-3 vote Wednesday, the Marietta Planning Commission recommended approval of a data center off Delk Road that drew community opposition.
The proposal by Prime Storage would convert up to 40 percent of its existing 90,000-square-foot facility on Powers Place, located adjacent to Interstate 75 at Delk, for what the applicant’s attorney called “mission critical” data infrastructure use for local purposes.
Attorney Parks Huff said the proposed data center is needed in the area because “latency is a problem.” He was referring to the time lag between when a data request is made and when it is processed, especially for medical and other time-sensitive purposes.
But nearby citizens urged at least a delay in the request (you can read it here) because they said more details need to be made public.
“This could be a good use,” said Marietta resident Don Barth, who lives in the Powers Ferry Hills community not far from the Prime Storage site.
“But there’s not enough information. It’s not a bad deal, but you’re building too close to homes.”
The proposed 12-megawatt data center, which could be expanded to 18 megawatts, is on a much smaller scale than a data center rezoning request approved by the Marietta City Council last year, and which has drawn strong opposition recently.
While there’s no proposal at the Bells Ferry Road property, several dozen people turned out Wednesday before the Planning Commission to echo similar concerns.
David Baker, who lives nearby and who said he is a corporate computer analyst, said that while “data centers have been around for a long time, we don’t know what technology is going to look like in 10 years. Is this really the only use planned?”
Other citizens expressed concerns about the possibility of rising electrical and water rates because of what data centers can consume, as well as noise issues.
Huff said that “we’ll comply with the noise ordinance,” which was referenced in the city’s zoning analysis.
The city zoning staff also extensively noted that the Marietta code doesn’t have anything specifically relating to data centers. The proposed data center sits close to an existing data center on Powers Place that has a larger size.
The Marietta City Council will consider the Prime Storage request next Wednesday, and could discuss the matter at a work session on Monday.
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