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STATESBORO, Ga. () — In a decisive move to manage its rapid growth, the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners has unanimously enacted two temporary halts on development projects. This decision, made on Tuesday, is set to pause the county’s expansion efforts.
The approved moratoriums are scheduled to last for 90 days, with one specifically targeting a delay on new housing development proposals.
Chairman David Bennett shed light on the specifics of the moratorium’s scope.
“To be clear, it’s not limited to planned use developments; it includes residential rezoning activities as well,” Bennett stated. “I would characterize this moratorium as more reactive than proactive at the moment.”
According to a study conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology, Bulloch County is projected to require around 8,000 additional residential units within the next ten years to accommodate its burgeoning population.
Tuesday’s pause will allow the Commissioners to investigate impact fees as a way to charge new residential developments and commercial developments for the growth needed to support them.
“[Impact fees are] a fee that is put on new development to help pay for infrastructure that’s not currently available,” Bennett said. “What we’re trying to do is get our infrastructure to catch up with the growth that we’ve had previously and prepare for the future. It’s impossible to do that without raising some type of revenue to pay for those things… an impact fee just provides us another revenue stream to help to contribute to that infrastructure in Bulloch County.”
The moratorium’s three-month stop also allows for the county re-evaluate how to maintain its number one industry while also providing space for growth.
“We know that in the county there’s a huge concern about the loss of agricultural land,” Bennett said. “Agriculture is the largest industry in Bulloch County and we want to make sure that we’re doing right with that resource that can’t be replaced.”
The other moratorium prohibited the submission of a request for a data center from being submitted for 90 days.
Bennett said this agenda item was being done to stay ahead of any proposal about the contentious topic.
“Our concern was everybody looks at data centers as being this boogeyman, and we wanted to be able to take an unbiased look at this without the pressure of having someone come into the county and saying, ‘Hey, we want to put this here and you need to do something now.’”
Bennett reiterated later in his interview with that no data center requests have been submitted to the county.
“I want to make clear that this is not an attempt to back door a data center coming to Bulloch County,” he said. “We don’t have any knowledge of anybody considering placing a data center in Bulloch County right now. We’re trying to be proactive in what’s happening.”
Following the regularly scheduled commissioners meeting on Tuesday, a public work session was held where representatives from Georgia Power answered questions about data centers for the Commissioners.
Topics discussed included the history of them, current locations across the state, the noise level they run at, utilities needed to power one and different sizes and land acreage data centers could come in.
Bennett told he asked representatives to speak to share that knowledge, as well as how they can regulate the customers if data centers are eventually approved to come to the county.
“Georgia Power is the largest provider of electricity in the state of Georgia, so they have some insight into this process,” he said. “They have insight into the requirements that are there and some of the things that they’re doing to prevent local communities from being harmed…There are things that they can put in place to ensure that these folks come and they become true members of our community.”
Bennett did confirm that both moratoriums can be extended beyond 90 days, but not until after a public hearing is held. That hearing is scheduled for May 5.