Two sites which may become Henry County’s first data centers will be considered by the zoning board and county commissioners this month. The properties are located off Rocky Creek Road and Simpson Mill Road.
The zoning advisory board will consider the requests on Thursday, November 14. The board of commissioners are scheduled to consider them on Tuesday, November 19. Update: the requests have been postponed off the November 19 BOC agenda. They will be rescheduled for a meeting in 2025.
Two Data Centers
Before construction can occur, the two data centers require a rezoning request. The applicant is also petitioning to amend the county comp plan. The following cases are up for the county’s consideration:
- COMP-AM-24-02
0 Rocky Creek Road, LLC of Wilmington, DE requests an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan for property located south of Highway 20 West, east of Rocky Creek Road. The property consists of 148.2 +/- acres. The request is to amend the Future Land Use Map designation from Low Density Suburban to Office-Institutional. District 1 - RZ-24-07
0 Rocky Creek Road, LLC of Wilmington, DE requests a rezoning from RA (Residential-Agricultural) to OI (Office-Institutional) for property located south of Highway 20 West, east of Rocky Creek Road. The property consists of 148.2 +/- acres. The request is for a data center. District 1 - COMP-AM-24-06
Strickland Road Farms, LLC of McDonough, GA requests an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan for property east of Simpson Mill Road and north of Walker Drive. The property consists of 249.8 +/- acres. The request is to amend the Future Land Use Map designation from Low Density Suburban to Office-Institutional. District 5 - RZ-24-20
Strickland Road Farms, LLC of McDonough, GA requests a rezoning request from RA (Residential-Agricultural) to OI (Office-Institutional) for property east of Simpson Mill Road and north of Walker Drive. The property consists of 249.8 +/- acres. The request is for a data center. District 5
The Sites
The Rocky Creek Road site would have a 1.2 million square feet data center. An electrical substation would also be on-site. The primary entrance would be off Georgia 20. A secondary emergency access point would be on Rocky Creek Road.
Secondly, the Simpson Mill Road site would have 1.25 million square feet of data center space. Its site plan depicts two buildings. It too would have an on-site electrical substation. Road access would be from Simpson Mill Road. The plan has a secondary emergency entrance off Walker Drive.
Red Wolf DCD Properties, LLC is the projects’ developer, according to the DRI applications. That’s a state review process for large projects. The DRI reviews completed this fall.
Staff Recommendation & Board Meetings
Henry County planning staff are recommending approval on all four agenda items. They have proposed conditions for the rezoning requests. These include a 60’ buffer around each property. The buffers shall be undisturbed, where there’s sufficient existing vegetation, or enhanced with a six-foot landscaping berm.
The zoning advisory board meets on Thursday, Nov. 14, at 6:30 pm. Update: the zoning board recommended approval of the Rocky Creek Road property. They recommended denial of the request off Simpson Mill Road.
The board of commissioners have their meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 6:30 pm. Update: the requests have been postponed off the November 19 BOC agenda. They will be rescheduled for a meeting in 2025.
Both meetings are at the county admin building in McDonough. They are open to the public.
Featured image shows the location of two proposed data centers. Clayton Carte / MHF News map created with Datawrapper.
