This story was updated on Monday, May 12, 2025, at 4:28 p.m.
Picture you’re driving down the dusty back roads of Fayetteville, about 40 minutes south of downtown Atlanta, seeing large parcels of greenery and suburban homes.
The drive is serene until heavy machinery and loud industrial construction take over the natural sound of the environment.
It’s a work crew in the beginning stages of building a data center.
Data centers have been calling Georgia home for decades. But as time has passed and internet use has skyrocketed, the demand for these facilities has soared.
Now, residents in the south metro area are bracing for the proliferation in the places they call home.
“We see construction machines of all kinds … all around the area,” said Diana Dietz. “You can’t go out without seeing several of those huge construction vehicles on the roads. And what’s really sad is that this is not a community of where you expect to see that.”
Dietz has lived in Fayetteville since the 90s. She says she’s been tracking these types of developments for nearly three years.
“I’ve had to dig and dig, and I tell my husband I’m going to change my name to Nancy Drew,” she said. “I wish I had a team, but the people that was a little core group have dropped off because they’ve given up all hope.” Dietz said.
Data centers are massive warehouse-esque facilities that store data on servers and computers — think cell phone usage or even streaming.
Dietz isn’t directly impacted by data center development, but she works to educate her neighbors about what’s to come as demand continues to grow.
Off a main street in Fayetteville, Omin Road is a dirt path where miles of trees have been cleared, and sky-scraping towers, or monopoles, stare down the landscape.
“You got your subdivisions, your churches, do you see anything that’s industrial in any way, shape, or form?” Dietz said while on a tour of the area.
Here is just one site where developers of the QTS data center campus are placing roots. QTS, or Quality Technology Services, is a data center company with more than 75 locations throughout the country.
The Fayetteville campus will be powered by Georgia Power with about 16 buildings spanning over more than 600 acres, or about 450 football fields. QTS has two other campuses located in Atlanta and Suwanee.
Data centers have been around for years, but now they’ve become more of a worry for smaller communities.
“Now I have to come to terms with the fact that what I once thought would be life here now has significantly changed.”
Kecia Scott, a Planter’s Ridge resident who was unaware there would be a new data center development inches away from her new home when she moved to the neighborhood last fall.
Folks from south Atlanta cities like Union City and Palmetto, places where development is or could be underway, have recently organized several community-led meetings to inform their neighbors.
At least 16 data centers are active or planned in areas south of Atlanta, according to the group, ScienceForGeorgia.
“If we’re not all collectively coming together to deny them, then they’ll just skip hop to go to wherever they need to go, and we’ll still be impacted by that,” said Andrea Jones with Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND), at one of the community meetings.
Attendees expressed that they felt left in the dark about data centers moving into their cities. They also questioned the need to build these developments near residential neighborhoods.
“They have an energy poverty and systemic inequality. When they come over to communities that have poor infrastructure or have limited infrastructure, they pull a lot more from that. And so what happens is that our bills will start going up,” Jones added.
Officials with QTS say they pick locations with resources and community needs in mind, plus accessibility to skilled workers.
“We select sites where we can be a good community partner, help grow the local economy through jobs, tax revenue, and economic development, and support communities by contributing our time and resources to local programs and agencies,” a spokesperson for QTS wrote in an email to WABE.
Folks also wondered about the land scarcity for affordable housing and recreational spaces.
In one Fayetteville neighborhood called Planter’s Ridge, residents are dealing with data center construction basically in their backyards.
The close-knit cul-de-sac is home to Kecia Scott. She’s lived there since last fall, and her home sits directly across from a QTS development site.
“It wasn’t until I actually moved in … that my neighbor made me aware of what was forthcoming,” Scott said. “I have seen all of what used to be a cozy, quaint, wooded kind of area completely change.”
Her crisp white home is modernly designed with a large window beside the front door. Cleared woodlands, construction vehicles, and a demolished home are easily seen through that window during the day.
“Now I have to come to terms with the fact that what I once thought would be life here now has significantly changed,” Scott said.
Scott works from home, running a tech-based business. So she has some first-hand insight into what looms as data centers continue to pop up in areas like hers.
“There’s no way to stop it. The only way to stop it is to put your phones down and get back to old-fashioned everything, and it’s not gonna happen,” Scott said. “Data centers are here to stay.”
However, a few places in Georgia are taking some steps to regulate data centers. Ordinances were passed by the Atlanta City Council last fall, defining data centers and limiting where they are built.
“If we’re not all collectively coming together to deny them, then they’ll just skip hop to go to wherever they need to go, and we’ll still be impacted by that.”
Andrea Jones with Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND)
Other areas, like Glynn and Douglas counties, have proposed some data center rules.
Commissioners in Coweta County voted in April to rezone an unincorporated portion of the county for a data center project called “Project Peach.” However, they recently voted to pause data center-related development for nearly six months.
Currently, officials in Douglas County have put in place a 90-day moratorium halting data center development until they better understand the impacts of these facilities. It expires in June.
QTS says they are committed to transparency as they continue to build in Fayetteville.
“By providing residents with a platform to voice questions and concerns, we have addressed misconceptions and alleviated issues,” the company said in an email.
This story is part of the WABE Newsroom series Server South: What’s powering Atlanta’s data center growth — and what it means for you.
