Calhoun data center (Highway 53), Calhoun, Georgia

An Atlanta-based developer is pursuing a 500,000-square-foot data center on 11 acres of a 57-acre tract off Highway 53 in Calhoun, Georgia, next to Fair's Auto Services & Repair, despite moratoriums on data centers, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported in June 2026. The property, about 57.27 acres at 1401 Hwy. 53 Spur between the Brookstone Subdivision and Fair's Auto, lies inside Calhoun's city limits in Gordon County, where the county's own moratorium on data centers does not apply.

The Gordon Gazette first reported the site in April 2026, when it was being cleared and a driveway had been installed. "The proposed use of the property to construct a data processing center would be a legal conforming use for the zoning district," City Building Official Joey Moore said of the land, which is zoned IND-G, Industrial General. Discussion of the site followed reports of possible negotiations over energy rates between the city and North Georgia EMC, and of a possible will-serve letter from the city to the utility.

A host of residents attended the City Council meeting that month, and every member of the public who spoke opposed a data center, several fearing one was already underway. "I will assure you to my knowledge and to the council's knowledge that none of us have been approached or have any knowledge of a data center in any way," Mayor Jimmy Palmer told the crowd. The council's four members then unanimously adopted a moratorium on "all applications for zoning decisions, land disturbance permits, and licenses for data centers" through at least July 27, 2026, while City Attorney Brandon Bowen drafts an ordinance. Bowen said the ordinance would include a public notice and hearing process and was meant "to create an ordinance that will be protective of the city." On June 8, 2026, the council voted 3-0 to extend the moratorium by six months, halting data center permits, approvals and construction in the city through mid-January 2027.

The Gordon County Board of Commissioners adopted its own moratorium near the end of March 2026. Across Georgia, 34 counties and 23 cities had moratoriums or ordinances in place or in draft as of June 5, 2026, and Atlanta, Palmetto and Fayetteville have banned data centers.

Whether the Highway 53 project can go forward depends on the Calhoun City Council, which can issue no data center permits until the extended moratorium ends in mid-January 2027 unless it acts sooner. The Gordon County Board of Commissioners has no authority over the site.