Three publicly disputed requests to construct data centers in Columbia County could set the stage for a heated showdown between leaders touting progress and rural residents fearing encroaching development.
The Columbia County Planning Commission is scheduled to hear three applications on Thursday, Jan. 15 for zoning variances that, if granted, would allow:
- An 8.1-million-square-foot data center that would expand White Oak Business Park on Appling-Harlem Highway.
- A data center campus initially described as 18 one-story buildings of 275,000 square feet each, bordered roughly by Interstate 20 to the south, Lonergan Hulme Road to the west, Louisville Road to the east, and Langston Avenue to the north.
- The “Pumpkin Technology Campus,” on part of 420 acres, bordered by I-20, Appling-Harlem Highway, and Wrightsboro Road west of the Pumpkin Center roundabout.
In triplicate: Third developer eyeing more Columbia County land near I-20
Data center development is a growing real estate trend attached to a growing need. Data centers store and manage massive blocks of sometimes-sensitive information that people use daily for online tasks connected to health care, banking, and cultivating useful artificial intelligence…