One is a data center site approvals consultant based outside Atlanta, Georgia. A developer of powered land brings a site that was denied, withdrawn, or not yet filed. Over ninety days, Bryce Galen meets the adjoining owners, the residents who organized against the last application, and each county commissioner one at a time; scores the county's political capacity the way an engineer scores the substation; and writes a commitments plan on noise, water, power rates, traffic, buffers and decommissioning that the county can adopt as enforceable zoning conditions.
The engagement ends with a plain recommendation: file, refile with these changes, or walk away. Fees are a ninety-day retainer plus a per-megawatt success fee paid only if the approval includes the plan.
Who hires One
A developer after a denial or withdrawal. The land is still under contract and the county's waiting period is running. The question is not whether to refile but what would have to be different, and whether the people who said no would say it again.
A developer before the first filing. The parcel passes the physical screen: the corridor, the substation, the water, the fiber. Nobody has modeled the political one. One scores the county before the option is signed, names the gaps to close before disclosure, and says which sites to walk away from while walking away is still cheap.
A county or development authority. A listening process residents can see, run by someone paid to report what was heard rather than to sell the project, with a public summary before the vote. The commissioners get a record; the developer gets a plan that holds.
What ninety days produces
- Listen · weeks 1 to 6Structured one-on-one conversations with the adjoining owners, the residents who spoke at the last hearing, the people who organized against it, and each commissioner individually. A written record of every conversation. We listen more than we talk, and we say plainly who is paying us.
- Diagnose · weeks 4 to 8Why the last application failed, or what this county would need to see before a first one. Who decides, who moves them, what they are afraid of, and what cover they need to say yes. A political screen with the same rigor as the grid study.
- Commit · weeks 7 to 11A commitments plan written from what people actually asked for, drafted as zoning conditions and a recorded agreement that binds whoever buys the site.
- Recommend · weeks 11 to 13A plain recommendation on whether and how to file or refile, including “not this site.” A public summary of what was heard goes to the county before anything is filed.
What is in the commitments plan
Every line has a cost, an owner and an enforcement mechanism, and the whole sheet exists on paper before disclosure, so the FAQ residents receive says “we have agreed to” rather than “we plan to.”
- Rate protection. The tenant pays full interconnection and any dedicated generation under the utility's large-load tariff, documented in a letter the county can publish.
- Water covenant. Closed-loop or air-cooled design, a stated ceiling on any municipal draw, own wells and treatment where applicable, with reporting.
- Noise covenant. A property-line limit, continuous monitoring, and a public dashboard.
- No-expansion clause and a defined building envelope; any expansion requires a new public vote.
- Decommissioning bond sized to demolition and restoration, posted before construction.
- Buffers and screening specified in feet and species, with berms where the terrain allows; construction routes and hours.
- PILOT or fee schedule through the development authority, with the school district's share stated separately, on a schedule the county can print.
- Homeowner relief where state law allows a credit that shows up on residents' tax or utility bills.
- Community-benefits escrow funded at option exercise, held by the county, kept whether or not the project proceeds.
- Fire, EMS and roads: capital for the specific station, apparatus and intersections the campus will load.
- Farmland or open-space easements on a defined acreage, ideally the parcels neighbors can see.
- Local hiring and training, broadband from the campus fiber, and one visible public good the county chooses.
At a gigawatt campus the entire sheet is a one-to-three percent line item for the tenant and a rounding error against the step-up from farmland to powered land. Its cost is never the constraint. Its timing and sequence are.
The political screen
The physical screen models the parcel and the grid. The political screen models the county with the same rigor, produces a score before the first option is signed, and is updated weekly during the pursuit. A county scoring poorly on three or more dimensions should not be optioned on its grid score alone.
| Dimension | What we measure |
|---|---|
| Decision structure | Form of government, votes needed, who chairs, planning staff depth, prior large rezonings |
| Election calendar | Months to the next commission election and open seats; a hearing inside an election window is a risk |
| Precedent | Prior data center, power plant or industrial approvals within thirty miles |
| Moratorium exposure | State climate, county or neighbor moratoria, pending state bills |
| Opposition network | Active groups in the county or region, prior campaigns, group size |
| Comprehensive plan | Future land-use map, utility corridor designations, agricultural preservation policy |
| Fiscal need | School and fire budgets, millage trend, digest concentration |
| Utility standing | The utility's local reputation, recent rate cases, co-op or investor-owned, large-load tariff in force |
| Water | Source and authority, and whether the design needs any |
| Champion availability | A development authority director, landowner or elected official willing to front it |
| Media environment | A local paper that will print the FAQ, or only the opposition group's page |
The reasoning behind the screen, and the record of approvals and denials it is built from, is on Why counties say no.
Where One works
One is based outside Atlanta and works the Southeast first: Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida. Georgia is the proving ground because it has the tools a county needs to say yes, development authorities, a large-load tariff and a precedent base, alongside some of the country's most active local opposition. For the engagement the principal is on the ground in the county, not on a call, so a stuck site anywhere in the United States is worth a conversation.
How it is priced
| Retainer | Monthly, for ninety days. Covers the time in the county and with your team, weekly check-ins, and the written reports. |
| Success fee | Per megawatt, at closing, earned only if the approval includes the commitments plan or a successor the county adopted. Weighted toward the success fee for a first engagement. |
| Third-party costs | An acoustical baseline, a well survey, local counsel: proposed in writing with a cap and approved before they are incurred. |
| Conflicts | One site at a time. A non-circumvention covenant on your site and the land around it. |
What One is not
Not a lobbyist, not a public-relations firm, not a law firm. One does not run campaigns, buy advertising or draft the county's ordinance, and it says who is paying it in every conversation. Local counsel turns the plan into the recorded agreement; engineers produce the studies it relies on. The value One adds is the order in which people learn about the project and the written answers they have in hand when they do.
Questions developers ask
What does a data center site approvals consultant do?
The work between a developer and the county on the local rezoning or special-use vote. One meets the adjoining owners, the residents who organized against the last application, and each commissioner one at a time; writes down what each of them is afraid of and what would let them say yes; scores the county's political capacity; and drafts a commitments plan on noise, water, power rates, traffic, buffers and decommissioning that the county can adopt as enforceable zoning conditions. It ends with a written recommendation: file, refile with these changes, or walk away.
Why do counties reject data center rezonings?
Four fears that nobody answered in writing before residents heard about the project: the power bill, the water, the noise, and what happens when the campus is finished, sold or expanded. The order in which people learn about a project matters more than the size of the benefits package. Officials hear first under NDA, neighbors hear last from a handout, and by then there is an organized room. The longer explanation, with the record of approvals and denials, is here.
How long does a county approval take for a data center?
When the sequence is right, roughly six to twelve months from the first conversation with county officials to a vote: three to six months of quiet work on the option and the grid study, one to two months to recruit a local champion and hold the first twenty conversations, one to two months to draft and price the commitments, two to four months from public disclosure to the hearing, and one to three months of formal process. Projects that disclose late and lose spend longer, and many counties bar a new application on the same parcel for six to twelve months after a denial.
Can a denied or withdrawn data center site be refiled?
Usually, once the county's waiting period has run. Whether it should be depends on what would be different. If the same people would say the same things at the next hearing, a refiling burns the second chance. One's ninety-day engagement answers that question first, and sometimes the honest answer is that the site is not worth bringing back.
What is a commitments plan, and how is it different from a community benefits package?
A benefits package is money and amenities offered to the county. A commitments plan starts from what residents and commissioners actually asked for and puts each item in writing with an owner, a budget, a date, a limit measured where people live, and a way for the county to enforce it. It is drafted as zoning conditions and a recorded development or host-community agreement, so it binds whoever buys the site. Typical lines: a property-line noise limit with public monitoring, a water covenant, rate protection under the utility's large-load tariff, a no-expansion clause, a funded decommissioning bond, buffers in feet, construction routes and hours, a PILOT or fee schedule the county can print, and one visible public good the county chooses.
Do you work for counties and development authorities?
Yes. A county that is about to receive an application, or that just denied one, can hire One to run an independent listening process residents can see. One is paid to report what was heard, not to sell the project, and a public summary goes to the commission before the vote.
Where is One based, and where do you work?
Outside Atlanta, Georgia. Most of the work is in the Southeast: Georgia first, then Alabama, Tennessee, the Carolinas and Florida. The principal is on the ground in the county for the engagement, so a stuck site anywhere in the United States is a conversation worth having.
What does an engagement cost?
A monthly retainer for ninety days, plus a success fee per megawatt paid only at closing and only if the approval in force includes the commitments plan or a successor the county adopted. For a first engagement the fee is weighted toward the success fee. Third-party costs, such as an acoustical baseline, a well survey or local counsel, are proposed in writing with a cap and approved before they are incurred. One site at a time, with a non-circumvention covenant on your site and the land around it.
Is One a lobbying firm, a public-relations firm or a law firm?
No. One does not run campaigns, buy advertising, draft the county's ordinance or appear as counsel. In every conversation we say who is paying us. Local counsel turns the commitments plan into the recorded agreement; engineers and hydrogeologists produce the studies it relies on. One's job is the listening, the diagnosis, the plan and the recommendation.
Do you handle the power and utility side?
Not the utility contract itself. Power is a schedule the utility and the tenant negotiate. What One does is make sure the rate question is answered for the county in writing before disclosure, using the utility's large-load tariff where one exists, so that a commissioner can say what residents' bills will and will not do.
Who is behind One?
Bryce Galen. He underwrote hotel, office and mixed-use joint ventures in real estate private equity at Fidelity Investments on a $1 billion value-add program; founded and ran two companies, Zero, acquired in 2021, and Landian; and in 2023 led a rezoning of a hundred acres of rural land before a county commission in Tennessee after the neighbors had already organized against it, by meeting them one at a time and rewriting the plan around what they said.
How do we start?
A thirty-minute call about the site. Email hello@talktoone.com or use the contact page. If One can help, you will hear how. If the site is not worth bringing back, you will hear that too.
Have a site that is stuck? hello@talktoone.com. A thirty-minute call, and a straight answer.