Home/United States/Georgia/Bulloch County
Data centers in Bulloch County, Georgia: 2 projects mapped
Bulloch County, around Statesboro, has spent 2026 arguing about whether to ban data centers or regulate them. The county government imposed a 90-day moratorium in mid-February on data center zoning anywhere in its unincorporated area. On May 5 commissioners extended it to December 31 and voted 5-0 to start the process of banning data centers outright through a zoning text amendment, which the appointed Planning and Zoning Board recommended. The amendment defined data centers and then excluded them from the General Business, Heavy Manufacturing and Light Manufacturing zones.
Commissioners balked when it came back. They tabled it 3-2 on August 4, and on September 1 voted 4-3 to kill it, with Chairman David Bennett breaking a tie in favor of Commissioner Timmy Rushing's motion to "deny this text amendment, leave the moratorium in effect, and give everybody ample time to figure out what's going on before we put something in permanently." Commissioners Ray Davis and Ray Mosley voted with Rushing; Nick Newkirk, Toby Conner and Anthony Simmons voted to keep the ban alive. "I'll go on the record saying I don't think that this community needs a largescale, 'Meta,' data center," Bennett said. "But at the same time, I'm not going to ignore the fact that by doing an outright ban we'd put ourselves in a potential for legal jeopardy here in this community." Newkirk, who had visited Memphis to see data centers powered by gas turbines, played the commissioners a recording he measured at 60 decibels and noted that data centers run around the clock.
Read more
The alternative on the table is regulation. County staff have drafted an ordinance allowing data centers by right only in special overlay districts, with setbacks of at least 350 feet from most neighbors and 500 feet in industrial zones, decibel limits, generators restricted to emergencies and scheduled testing, noise testing before occupancy, downcast lighting, closed-loop cooling and connection to municipal water and sewer. Planning Director James Pope said the main benefit could be lower property taxes, and noted that the county's high-voltage lines limit where data centers could go; only one 230-kilovolt line, the kind Georgia Power prefers, crosses the county. "The intent here is to make sure that they are not put next to a residential neighborhood and that they're not going to go and use up ag land to put a data center on it," Bennett said. Newkirk wanted a way to "shut these places down if they violate our rules."
The city has gone further. On August 18 Statesboro's City Council voted 3-2 to rezone a 26-acre site at the edge of the city on Burkhalter Road for a data center proposed by developers, though no special-use permit application had yet been filed; the county's rules do not apply inside city limits. The county has formed a 21-member working group of residents, three named by each commissioner, to study data centers before the moratorium expires on December 31, and Bennett said it could probably be extended.
Data center projects on record in Bulloch County
Grouped by the town each site sits in. The report above may name projects that have no record here yet.
Statesboro2
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burkhalter Data CenterStatesboro | Not reported | Approved | Not reported | |
| Edge PresenceStatesboro | Ubiquity | Not reported |
Where this comes from
The reporting above was written from these. Open one and check it yourself.
Moratoriums and bans in effect
Pauses on new data centers covering this area.
| Place | Type | Started | Ends | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bulloch County | Moratorium | Aug 5, 2026 | Dec 31, 2026 | Record off site ↗ |
Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.