PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. — A lively Port Wentworth City Council meeting on Thursday saw numerous residents voicing strong objections to proposed data centers. Despite the pushback, the council moved forward, approving the ordinance.

The meeting followed a decision by the Port Wentworth County Commissioners, who had rejected a similar ordinance concerning data centers. These centers are complexes of buildings designed primarily for managing digital data operations.

Every resident who approached the council expressed opposition to the zoning ordinance plan.

“The city is already overwhelmed with industrial warehouses,” one local resident remarked. “Truck traffic is rampant, and we’re being told that this is the cost of economic progress. Now, they’re saying the same thing about data centers. We’re told this new ordinance will protect us, but that’s a claim that simply doesn’t hold water.”

During the meeting, Port Wentworth City Manager Steve Davis presented an overview of the zoning ordinance, outlining the specific requirements that any future data center would need to adhere to within the county.

The presentation included how they would use water and electricity, the requirement to do a noise study, a requirement of the center needing to be built 500 feet away from residents and more.

A majority of residents asked city council to hold the vote and not make a rushed decision.

“Like we’re being rushed,” a resident said. “I don’t know what the rush is.  Why are we pushing this through?  You can ban it now, right?  Then we can come revisit the ordinance and do all the things that we can reinstate it later, if that’s what we’re truly going to do.”

Council Member Artlise Alston-Cone also suggested council to wait before making a vote and wait till a meeting early next year. She was the only council member to speak out at the meeting opposing the plan.

 “We need to make a decision based on what they want, not what we want,” Alston-Cone said.

City council voted in favor of an ordinance to amend the zoning ordinance to define and set rules for data centers. Alston-Cone was the only council member present who voted against.

City council did state that this is not the approval of a data center, but rather the approval of rules and regulations if one is built.