No Data Centers in Our Communities! Georgia Fights Back!

The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners is working in unison with tech billionaires to push through the construction of a 1 MILLION sq. ft. data center in Ellenwood — next to our children’s schools and in our neighborhoods.

Community pressure forced the County to extend the moratorium on data centers to June 23, 2026. But now the Board is planning a vote on Jan 13 to force the Ellenwood data center through despite mass grassroots opposition. The Board is also set to vote on a dangerous amendment regarding data center regulations on Jan 27 that would open the floodgates for data centers to be built across DeKalb. 

Data Centers Built for Billionaires — Not the Community

Massive hyperscale data centers primarily serve the interests of corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and IBM — not the working people who bear the costs.

These centers are being built at a rapid pace across the country so tech billionaires can expand AI to automate jobs and fuel mass surveillance. Meanwhile, working class communities get the toxic pollution, the heavy metals, the carbon emissions, and the skyrocketing utility bills.

Georgia Power is already seeking $15 billion in rate hikes, with 80% of future demand driven by data centers — not residential needs. Data centers also require massive water consumption — up to 5 million gallons a day in some cases. In Newton County, the Meta data center is already consuming 10% of the county’s daily water supply, leaving residents with brown sediment in their taps or no running water at all.

Environmental Racism and Public Health Threats

The proposed facility would sit in South DeKalb, a community that is 88% Black and has long been denied adequate environmental protections.

The data center would be less than five miles from the Cedar Grove schools — elementary, middle, and high — exposing thousands of Black children to increased air pollution, water contamination, and failing sewer infrastructure.

They Drain Public Resources — But Bring Almost No Jobs

Data centers are notorious for delivering almost no permanent employment. After construction, data centers typically bring around 20 permanent jobs. 

In Georgia, the data centers receive $300 million a year in state and local tax breaks. That money should be going to affordable housing, healthcare, and our schools. Across the country, states are handing out hundreds of millions of tax dollars to corporations to subsidize unsustainable data centers that harm our people and the environment.

A Completely Undemocratic Process

The process to approve and construct data centers has been rushed, inaccessible, and designed to shut out the very people who will be most affected. In meeting after meeting, community members have been denied real democratic consultation. 

County officials hold meetings at impossible times, cut public comment to 10 minutes, turn people away at the door, and even cancel meetings with no notice. It is clear that the politicians and officials that are beholden to the interests of the big tech billionaires are selling us out. But working class people who would be most impacted have also shown that they overwhelmingly reject these destructive projects. 

A Fight for Our Future

Data centers may be needed in a digital society, but they must not be built at the cost of majority Black communities, environmental safety, or democratic participation.

Grassroots community organizing has forced the DeKalb Board to extend the moratorium, but we must continue to fight. These projects are not inevitable. When the people are organized, we can stop them. In Indianapolis, the people organized and defeated Google, forcing it to pull its proposed data center in the Franklin Township. The people of Chandler, Arizona forced the local City Council to reject the Price Road data Center project. If we dare to struggle, we dare to win! 

Sign this petition to demand no toxic data centers and become a part of a growing movement for a DeKalb County and Georgia where development serves the people — not the billionaires. 

The People Demand:

1. REJECT THE ZONING AMENDMENT
2. WITHDRAW CURRENT DATA CAMPUS PROPOSALS
3. NO TOXIC DATA CENTERS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS