Hall County has officially approved a 180-day moratorium on high-density residential developments, data centers, and included detention centers to the list at Thursday’s Board of Commissioners meeting.
“Zero,” Chairman David Gibbs told AccessWDUN after the meeting regarding communication received from the federal government. “We have not really had time to dig into it. We’ve had no communication with the feds.”
Five residents made general statements opposing the proposed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Oakwood. It was closed on recently for a price tag of $68.16-million to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Alliance Industrial bought all of the property in that industrial park on Atlanta Highway for $7.49-million in December of 2024, records show. That netted them over nine-times what they paid just over a year ago.
Resident and community organizer Matéo Penado was the first to speak to the commission, raising concerns about the proposed facility being a “stone’s throw” away from two Hispanic restaurants and a dance studio.
“Hall County is called the chicken capital of the world and that title exists because of immigrant and Latino workers. People like my mom and dad, my aunts and uncles and cousins who do the hardest, most dangerous jobs in the poultry plant,” Penado said. “All of them are part of the same fabric that hold our community together.”…