Effingham County residents file damages lawsuit against OpenAI, county officials over Project Camellia

Three Effingham County residents filed a lawsuit in Effingham County State Court seeking damages from OpenAI, Octans GA LLC, the Effingham County Industrial Development Authority, county commissioners and other officials. The complaint alleges the defendants used nondisclosure agreements, closed meetings and incomplete public agendas to keep the proposed Project Camellia data center campus and its land transaction secret until residents could no longer effectively object.

Project Camellia is described as a four-building, 4.4-million-square-foot campus that OpenAI plans to develop through Octans on roughly 1,440 acres in the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub, with an estimated cost of $20 billion. The plaintiffs also allege the county adopted a zoning ordinance without required public hearings and seek compensatory and punitive damages, attorney’s fees and enhanced damages under Georgia’s racketeering law. County officials declined to comment on the pending litigation, while the plaintiffs’ attorneys said the case concerns transparency and the process used to secure the data center rather than AI technology itself.