Board of Commissioners Work Session - September 29, 2026

The Camden County Board of Commissioners held a work session on September 29, 2026, to review a draft data center ordinance and a proposed Technology zoning district while a moratorium on data centers remains in place. Staff presented proposed limits and safeguards, including minimum lot sizes, setbacks and buffers, noise and lighting standards, closed-loop cooling, utility-capacity documentation, emergency response planning, public notice, and decommissioning requirements. Commissioners discussed revisions to the draft, including stronger requirements for lighting plans, screening, power and utility planning, developer-funded infrastructure improvements, and potentially a financial guarantee for decommissioning. The group also discussed aligning lot-size requirements with facility scale and site conditions. The proposal would bar county tax incentives for data centers and reserve the Technology district for technology-related uses, helping prevent a rezoned site from reverting to broad industrial uses if a data center is not built.

No contract awards, purchasing decisions, spending allocations, or formal votes were identified. Commissioners differed on whether to continue developing the ordinance before voters have a say, but the discussion ended without a decision to adopt it; the moratorium remains in place. Follow-up discussed included revising the draft to reflect the session, reviewing a more detailed ordinance from Oglethorpe County, and gathering further information through Georgia Tech presentations and site visits. Any future development agreement could address project-specific community benefits and require developers to fund necessary infrastructure, but none was approved at this meeting.