Marietta leaders aren’t talking about data centers, but residents will have their say
Residents in Marietta, Georgia, are planning to attend a city council meeting to voice opposition to an already approved hyperscale data center, despite the project not being on the official agenda. The data center, developed by Grind Capital Group, was approved in June 2025 via a unanimous rezoning vote. Opposition groups are concerned about environmental impacts, high power consumption, and job counts, while the developer emphasizes tax revenue.
Residents of Marietta, Georgia, plan to attend a city council meeting to express their opposition to a hyperscale data center previously approved for a 31.4-acre site on Bells Ferry Road. Despite the data center not being on the official agenda for the Wednesday night meeting, activist groups "A Better Cobb" and "Not For Us
— Cobb County" are mobilizing citizens to speak during the public comment period. City officials had initially called the groups' claims "misinformation" before the agenda was finalized.
The controversy stems from the Marietta City Council's unanimous vote in June 2025 to rezone the site from retail commercial to light industrial, allowing Atlanta-based Grind Capital Group to construct two buildings totaling 347,200 square feet. These structures, planned to be 105 feet tall, would consume 108 megawatts of power, equivalent to 80,000 homes. The developer's attorney highlighted potential tax revenue for the city and school system and assured that the cost of an on-site electrical substation would not impact municipal power utility customers.
Opposition groups raise concerns about the lack of an independent environmental or health impact study, citing research from the University of California, Riverside and Caltech on AI model training's air pollution. They also point to rising electricity prices near data center hubs. While a temporary moratorium on new data center applications was enacted in February 2026 by the Cobb County Board of Commissioners for unincorporated areas, this specific project is within Marietta city limits and thus unaffected. DeKalb and Coweta counties in Georgia have also implemented similar pauses, reflecting a statewide trend of pushback against data center developments.