Data Center Ready Community Designation™

A simple guide for residents, local leaders, and community stakeholders

The Data Center Ready Community Program helps cities and counties prepare before a major data center project is proposed. It gives local communities a clear way to plan ahead, set rules in advance, and explain those rules to the public. The goal is simple: less confusion, better planning, and more local control.

Why this matters

Data centers can bring investment, tax base, and infrastructure upgrades, but they can also raise questions about power, water, traffic, noise, and land use. Communities that plan early are in a better position to answer those questions honestly and make decisions based on written standards instead of last-minute pressure.

• Helps communities write clear zoning and review rules
• Encourages early coordination on power, water, and infrastructure
• Provides public-facing information residents can understand
• Supports local decision-making with a more predictable process

What this program does not do

This program does not automatically approve any project. It does not force any community to recruit data centers, and it does not remove local control. If a project is proposed in the future, it still must follow local rules and go through the appropriate review process.

FAQ

Georgia is already a leading data center market, but local uncertainty can kill projects before serious discussions begin. Communities often support investment in the abstract and then lurch into moratoriums, panic zoning, or ad hoc conditions once a real application appears. The result is the same: confusion for residents, delay for local officials, and risk for investors.

The Data Center Ready Community Designation is meant to reverse that pattern. It rewards communities that do the hard work in advance: define the use, map infrastructure, coordinate with utilities, prepare public materials, and establish a fair review pathway before the first project reaches the agenda.

Program goals

• Give local governments a practical framework for planning for data centers before controversy starts.
• Create market confidence by signaling that a community has clear rules, known infrastructure conditions, and a credible review process.
• Protect local control while reducing reactionary policy swings.
• Improve coordination among local governments, utilities, regional partners, technical colleges, and the state.
• Provide a consistent designation that site selectors and operators can trust.

What this program is and is not

1. Use Sections 3 through 6 to establish governance, designation tiers, evidence requirements, and scoring.
2. Use Sections 7 through 11 to prepare the community: zoning, infrastructure, utility coordination, engagement, and stewardship.
3. Use Section 12 as the model ordinance language that can be adapted into a local code or overlay district.
4. Use Sections 13 through 17 as print-ready implementation tools: application, reviewer worksheets, checklists, public FAQs, and templates.
5. Treat the model language as a strong starting point—not as legal advice. Local counsel should review final adoption language.

Primary audiences