The Truth About the DeKalb Data Center Vote
Watch the 6/23/2026 Data Center Regulations Final Vote on DCTV
Watch Commissioner Terry’s statement about the vote.
DEKALB COUNTY – June 24, 2026.
Official statement from DeKalb Commissioner Ted Terry of District 6:
“At around 5pm on June 23, at the very end of the Board of Commissioners meeting, and long after the public had gone home, a procedural maneuver was used to bring the previously deferred data center regulations item back up for a vote. The ultimate vote was to deny the regulations.
While two of my colleagues framed this late-night denial as a victory because “the people had spoken out against it,” that narrative is deeply misleading. I voted to deny the regulations alongside my colleagues, but the community deserves full transparency about what this vote actually means for the future of DeKalb County.
We did not simply strike down a bad ordinance; we abandoned a 12-month work product that was shaping up to be the most comprehensive data center regulation in the nation. This draft legislation provided such a strong foundation that other communities, like Athens-Clarke County, were already emulating our framework to protect their own residents.
My goal was never to kill this legislation, but to build upon it. I have been advocating for additional, rigorous protections – mandatory LEED certification, hard distance requirements to combat the heat island effect, and strict water usage caps – that would have elevated this ordinance into the absolute gold standard for environmental defense. It was a vital work in progress that simply needed more time to finalize.
The Immediate Threat of Unregulated Zoning
Removing this legislation doesn’t end the fight, DeKalb is still vulnerable without eventually passing strong regulations. I am fighting for an extended moratorium and a health and environmental study so we may ensure our regulations will protect community members.
In fact, there is an active, pending data center application coming before the Board in just a few weeks. Because the zoning code still lacks a legal definition for data centers, this developer is attempting to slip their application through under a different, unequipped zoning designation. Without clear regulations on the books, the door is wide open for this facility to be approved before the Board of Commissioners have established any environmental or community safeguards.
True protection for our neighborhoods requires time, study, and enforceable standards. Extending the moratorium and conducting a formal study would have ensured we completed our due diligence and integrated all community input. Unfortunately, the Board has repeatedly blocked the tools necessary to achieve this.
Data Center Moratorium Extension Failed, Environmental Studies Were Buried
At the last Board meeting, my motion to extend the moratorium for another nine months was voted down. The county law department advised the Board months ago that we needed time to study the impacts and establish a legal rationale for regulations, yet the Board chose to leave DeKalb legally vulnerable.
The community has been explicitly demanding a comprehensive environmental and health impact analysis to evaluate localized heat-island effects, noise pollution, and water pressure strain. My resolutions to fund and execute these exact studies (Agenda Items 2026-0244 and 2026-0245) were again deferred by the Board, for the fourth time.
The Path Forward: Call to Action in July
It may have been a politically savvy move for some to claim victory by striking down an ordinance in an empty room, but the reality is that it forces our community right back to the front lines. The threat of unregulated data center sprawl has not passed; it has simply been rescheduled.
We cannot allow massive industrial applications to sneak through while our county remains legally unprotected. I am calling on the community to return to the chambers this July to demand immediate action. We must pass the resolution for an independent environmental study, and we must implement an immediate extension of the moratorium until that study is complete so we can finalize the gold-standard regulations our county deserves. I will continue fighting to ensure that our infrastructure, our neighborhoods, and our community members are protected, but we need the public’s voice in the room to hold this Board accountable.”
Commissioner Terry’s environmental and health study items (Agenda Items 2026-0244 and 2026-0245) are back at the Board of Commissioners meeting on July 14 at 178 Sams Street in Decatur.