South Fulton Mayor Carmalitha Gumbs says data centers are now a must-have for city revenue, declaring at a recent industry event that they represent the new reality for cities and an economic necessity. Her comments come just weeks after South Fulton let its roughly nine-month moratorium on new data center development expire, clearing the way for the very kind of projects that have triggered fierce backlash in neighborhoods across metro Atlanta and beyond.
Gumbs made her remarks at Bisnow’s Atlanta State of the Market event, held Wednesday, September 30, at 1375 Peachtree, according to Bisnow. The mayor pointed to Loudoun County, Virginia — a major data center market that generated $1.1 billion in data center tax revenue in fiscal year 2026 and has used that windfall to help lower its property tax rate over the past decade — as the model she wants South Fulton to follow. She told the crowd she had visited Loudoun County herself, and argued that the six-month pause actually helped the city get its house in order, allowing South Fulton to become more business-friendly and thoughtfully welcome data center opportunities rather than rushing in blind.
Gumbs also pushed back on what she called misconceptions that data centers cause cancer and other harms, framing resident fears as largely unfounded. Her comments land amid a wave of organized resistance to the industry nationwide — at the start of 2026, 40% of 770 planned U.S. data center projects faced backlash, and roughly 25 proposals were scrapped altogether in 2025 due to community pushback, per Bisnow’s reporting, even as big tech companies are projected to spend more than $700 billion on data centers this year.
New Rules Came Just Before the Moratorium Lifted
South Fulton’s moratorium ran for about nine months, from its adoption in December 2025 through September 9. Days before that deadline, the City Council moved on August 11 to enact Ordinance ORD2026-024, repealing and replacing the city’s data center regulations with new zoning rules, permitting standards, and noise performance guidelines, according to the City of South Fulton. City officials have described the new framework as guardrails intended to protect neighborhoods and public infrastructure as development resumes…