One is a data center site approvals consultant based outside Atlanta, and Georgia is where it works first. Georgia has the tools a county needs to say yes: development authorities that can structure a bond-for-title payment in lieu of taxes, a Public Service Commission rule that answers the rate question by contract for any customer over 100 megawatts, nearly ten gigawatts of newly certified generation, and a precedent base of campuses that paid what they promised. It also has some of the most active local opposition in the country. The difference between a county's yes and a denial two counties over is sequence, not money.
Why Georgia says yes more often
Development authorities. Every Georgia county has one, and it can take title to a project and lease it back so the campus pays a negotiated schedule in lieu of taxes. The school district's share can be stated separately. A county gets a number it can print before the vote.
The rate question is answered by contract. Under the PSC's January 2025 rule, any customer over 100 megawatts is billed on terms beyond the standard tariff: contracts up to fifteen years, minimum bills, and collateral, with every contract filed with the PSC at least thirty days before signing. In 2026 the PSC certified 9,885 megawatts of new Georgia Power generation, about eighty percent of it for large customers, with the utility backstopping the risk in 2029 through 2031 that the load does not show up. A commissioner can hold up a letter and say what residents' bills will and will not do.
A state sales-tax exemption for data center equipment that survived repeal attempts in the legislature in 2024 and again in 2026.
Precedent. Plant Scherer and a gas plant in Monroe County; Google's campus and fee stream in Columbia County; the Stanton Springs campus east of Atlanta. A billion-dollar applicant is familiar rather than alien in these counties, and their neighbors have watched the revenue arrive.
Homeowner relief. House Bill 439, passed by the General Assembly in 2026, would let a county, with voter approval, fund a credit against the county portion of homeowners' property-tax bills. A benefit that shows up on a resident's bill is the most legible kind there is.
Where Georgia says no
Georgia is also among the states with the most local data center moratoria and ordinances. Columbia County, on the night it approved one campus four to one, denied another four to one, and has since written an ordinance with noise limits and a ban on wells. Citizen lawsuits have followed approvals. PSC seats on the November 2026 ballot can change the commission's posture on cost allocation. And the counties that pass the physical screen, with an extra-high-voltage corridor on the parcel and farmland within an hour of a metro, are often the rural counties with the smallest staff, no prior experience with an applicant this size, and a population that moved there to avoid exactly this.
How a Georgia rezoning actually runs
- Pre-applicationPlanning staff, the county manager, the development authority director and the commission chair, under NDA. The grid study runs in parallel. This is where most developers stop talking to the county until the filing, and where the gap that loses hearings opens.
- Champion and conversationsA local face to introduce the project, three to five validators willing to be named, and twenty substantive conversations with the deciders, the people who move them, and the organizers of the opposition. Done before disclosure, not after.
- Commitments in draftNoise limit, water covenant, rate letter, no-expansion clause, decommissioning bond, buffers, construction routes, the PILOT schedule with the school share, one public good the county chooses. Priced, with an owner for each line, agreed in principle with the county.
- Disclosure and applicationNamed developer, champion in front, a FAQ that says “we have agreed to,” listening sessions. The application, the notice and signs the Zoning Procedures Act requires, the planning commission's recommendation.
- The hearing and the voteThe board of commissioners votes on the rezoning with conditions that match the commitments, followed by the development agreement and the development authority's bond-for-title resolution.
- Keeping the promises in publicMonitoring published, an annual report to the county, the community fund disbursed. The next county in Georgia will call this one.
What One does in a Georgia county
Ninety days on one site. The principal meets the adjoining owners, the residents who organized against the last application, and each commissioner one at a time; scores the county on the eleven dimensions of the political screen; works with the development authority on a schedule the county can print; gets the rate question answered in writing under the large-load rule; and drafts the commitments plan as zoning conditions and a recorded agreement that binds whoever buys the site. It ends with a plain recommendation, including “not this site,” and a public summary of what was heard that goes to the county before anything is filed. Scope, timing and pricing are on the approvals page.
One works statewide: the metro-edge counties along the I-20, I-75 and I-85 corridors, the Augusta area, middle Georgia, and south Georgia along the transmission corridors. Based outside Atlanta, on the ground in the county for the engagement.
Questions about Georgia
Who approves a data center in Georgia?
The county board of commissioners, or the city council inside a municipality, through a rezoning or special-use decision under the county's zoning ordinance, with the notice and public hearing the Zoning Procedures Act requires. Where a payment in lieu of taxes is involved, the county's development authority approves the bond-for-title structure. No state agency sites data centers.
Does the Georgia Public Service Commission approve data centers?
No. The PSC regulates Georgia Power, not land use. It certifies the utility's generation and, under the January 2025 large-load rule, reviews contracts with customers over 100 megawatts, which Georgia Power must file at least thirty days before signing. The rule allows contracts up to fifteen years, minimum bills and collateral, so the question of who pays for new generation is answered by contract rather than by a county vote.
What is bond-for-title, and why does it matter for a data center?
A Georgia structure in which the development authority takes title to the project and leases it back, so that the project pays a negotiated payment in lieu of taxes on a published schedule instead of ad valorem tax. For a county it means a number it can print; for a developer it means a benefits mechanism that already exists in law and does not have to be invented at the hearing.
How do Georgia counties protect residents' electricity bills?
Through the PSC's large-load rule, under which a customer over 100 megawatts contracts for its own interconnection and generation costs, and through the 9,885 megawatts of new generation the PSC certified with Georgia Power financially backstopping the risk that the load does not materialize in 2029 through 2031. A commissioner can say in writing what residents' bills will and will not do. House Bill 439, passed by the General Assembly in 2026, would additionally let a county, with voter approval, fund a homeowner property-tax credit.
How long after a denial can a site be refiled in Georgia?
It depends on the county's ordinance. Most Georgia counties bar a new application for the same parcel for six or twelve months after a denial, and some bar substantially similar applications for longer. The waiting period is the window in which the work of a refiling gets done.
Does One work outside Georgia?
Yes. Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida next, and anywhere in the United States where a site is stuck. Georgia is where the practice is based and where it works first.
A Georgia site that is stuck, or one you are about to option? hello@talktoone.com.