As AI companies race to build the infrastructure powering the next generation of technology, data centers are proliferating across the country—increasingly landing in, or even being courted by, rural communities that have little experience dealing with large-scale industrial development, and even less warning when a project arrives.
One such project is reportedly bearing down on a 15-acre property in Muscogee County, GA. The land has been in Debbie Jackson‘s husband’s family since the mid-1800s and holds a cemetery with 22 graves. It sits less than 2 miles from the proposed footprint of Project Ruby—a $5.18 billion, 650-megawatt hyperscale data center being developed by Habitat Real Estate Partners.
Jackson learned about the project in February. Since then, she has been weighing concerns about fire safety, noise, light pollution, water contamination, and what the development might do to her property value…