TRANSCRIPT 🔗
Russell Brown (00:10)
Hi, welcome back to "FoCo Unplugged," where we take a look behind the scenes of what's happening here in our community and across the nation, not just here in Forsyth County, but across the nation, if not the globe.
Data centers, really a hot topic here as we get deeper into 2026 and looking out into the future. I don't think the data centers conversation is going to go away anytime too soon. And here in Forsyth County, we've had some moves and some news about that here over the last few months.
And here to talk to us about that is our commissioner for District Four, Mendy Moore, and our director of planning and community development, Mr. Tom Brown. Guys, thank you so much for joining us here today.
Mendy Moore (00:45)
Thank you.
Tom Brown (00:46)
You're welcome.
Russell Brown (00:47)
Well, as of August 2026, there's now over 12,200 active data centers globally. Here in the United States, about 40% to 45% of those facilities are right here in the state. So, it's a matter of time before data centers became a topic here in Forsyth County. And earlier this summer, in fact, the county revoked a previously approved data center CUP, C-U-P. Why and how did that happen, Commissioner?
Mendy Moore (01:13)
Well, that data center CUP was approved in 2024, so that was before I joined the board. And if an applicant, a landowner, gets a zoning approval and does not move forward with building that out, getting a land disturbance permit in 18 months, it does come back before the Board of Commissioners for reconsideration.
So at that point, we could decide to extend their time to get their project going, or we could revoke that zoning or change it somehow.
And so we did make the decision after the 18 months.
I had spoken with the landowner, and that was a project that was not going to come to fruition. It was a small data center project, though.
So I do want to clarify that. It was two 10,000 square foot buildings.
So in the world of data centers, where you see millions of square feet being dedicated to data centers, this one was small.
It was for a crypto mining operation.
And so when the 18 months passed, the applicant received a letter from the county that we were going to be reconsidering that.
And fortunately, he was receptive to us revoking the CUP, the conditional use permit, for that data center. The underlying zoning is commercial, and so that stayed in place. And we actually even codified some of the conditions on that particular zoning so that it continued to stay, because it was an old zoning, really old zoning for commercial.
Russell Brown (02:37)
You mentioned it there. This was a smaller data center operation, and there's so much gray area from beginning to end of how big a data center could be, how small it is. A lot of misconceptions about that that we'll talk about here in just a few minutes.
But you had some language to fall back on for that revocation, and that's with the county's data center ordinance that was adopted, what, Tom, was that last year or here the last couple of years that was implemented?
What is that ordinance, and how long has that been in place?
Tom Brown (03:05)
That's right. We started discussions in 2024, and it was adopted in early 2025. The real essence of the ordinance is to protect surrounding properties if a data center goes in, in particular, residential property.
So it establishes requirements for buffers, setbacks, building height, generator use, water and most importantly, the commissioner was just mentioning, it requires a conditional use permit.
So any new data center proposed in our county is going to come before our Board of Commissioners for a public hearing, and also the possibility that if it is approved, it could be conditionally approved.
So they could take the unique characteristics of the proposal and the surrounding property and add any conditions they thought were appropriate to minimize the impact on those neighbors.
Russell Brown (03:57)
Going back, Tom, your career here at Forsyth County, how long have you been with Forsyth County in this role?
Tom Brown (04:03)
In this role, over a decade.
Russell Brown (04:05)
Over a decade, and then in the planning and community development team, much longer than that, right?
Tom Brown (04:09)
That's right. Getting close to 30 years now.
Russell Brown (04:11)
Would you have ever thought this would ever be a conversation 30 years ago? I mean, what are the things that you see a conditional use permit come before that I bet in your wildest imagination years ago would never have thought of something like this? At least for me, I would never thought that this would be something that would be such a hot button issue.
Tom Brown (04:27)
Certainly. They weren't on the radar.
Russell Brown (04:30)
Yeah.
Tom Brown (04:30)
Every community now, I think, is dealing with it. It's a very popular topic.
Russell Brown (04:34)
Well, luckily here in Forsyth County, you guys are all ahead of this thing. As you mentioned there, this conversation starting in 2024.
Great forethought here from our Forsyth County team and our board of commissioners to make sure we're ahead of the game when it comes to data centers as we were here today.
Misconceptions about data centers, the good, the bad, the ugly. Commissioner, I know this has been something that with this particular CUP, you probably took a lot of time looking at some of those misconceptions and mistruths out there.
What are some of the things that you would want the residents of Forsyth County to know about data centers that are true?
Mendy Moore (05:08)
Well, for starters, we actually have a number of smaller data centers that have maybe been operating for decades.
I recently went to an office park, and in this office, there was actually a data center. But they weren't those big, massive ones that we see.
So everybody wants to think about the hundreds of thousands of square feet, the millions of square feet, the hundreds of acres that some of these
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are taking up.
It actually can be, and is already in some of our office parks.
The technology is changing, though, all the time. And so, I think that what we're going to see is an evolution in what data centers look like over the future.
And I don't know what that's going to look like, but by putting together a data center ordinance, it gives us an opportunity to be able to evaluate each one of these on their own merit on where they are.
So if the technology changes, for instance, the one that we were looking at had a closed cooling system.
Russell Brown (06:11)
Okay.
Mendy Moore (06:11)
So it would not have drawn from our water resources.
Well, that might not have been a possibility previously. And so a lot of the technology is changing on these data centers and the components of those data centers.
And so we will continue to keep our eye on those things and adjust our ordinance as we feel is necessary in the future.
A number of other counties, when I get together with other commissioners at ACCG events and things like that, a number of counties are very encouraging of data centers and very positive about it.
It's a polarizing issue, though. So you have people that are either adamantly against or adamantly in favor of.
But there are some benefits to communities.
For a community, a big data center could make up their entire budget for the year, and so they could offset property taxes with the revenue from a data center.
The downside is there's not a lot of jobs created by data centers.
The one that we were looking at here would be three employees, and not even all there at the same time. Sometimes it would be operated remotely, and there wouldn't even be an employee there at the data center.
So they're not big job creators.
But they do create a lot of property tax revenue for communities because the equipment in those facilities is very expensive.
Russell Brown (07:32)
Heard an example of a county, I believe it was in Georgia, in fact, that has three data centers, and the revenue brought in about $100 million, and that was the operating budget for that county.
It was a complete, I guess, minimization of property taxes.
Now, it doesn't impact school property taxes, I imagine, but that does for the county's operation budget. That would eliminate that completely.
That'd be something else a bit unheard of here in Forsyth County when we think about property taxes. So something to think about here with data centers.
A lot to consider here with them. And again, it's not one size fits all. They're not perfect for every community, and they're all different when it comes to their scale and their size and the drawn resources as well.
So we talked about a little bit how other communities are handling this. Tom, are you seeing other counties having similar ordinances to what we have here?
Tom Brown (08:22)
We are. At this point in Metro Atlanta, every county either has an ordinance or is in talks about adopting one.
We were kind of on the front end of that when we adopted ours, got it in there early. The topics are pretty common.
Noise and buffers are the most common things we're hearing. And some of the communities that don't yet have an ordinance have put a temporary ban in place to prohibit any new data centers until they get one adopted.
Russell Brown (08:53)
How can the public get involved in the data center conversation?
Is there a time, a period, a board meeting, anything that happens coming up under the comp plan coming up? Is that something where the public can make their voice heard when it comes to data centers?
Mendy Moore (09:04)
Well, when we went through the process of revoking the conditional use permit on the one out in, it was on Browns Bridge Road out near Jot Em Down, I did have a lot of people engage on that.
They were very concerned about data centers, the scary data center terminology. And so it was an opportunity to have a lot of dialogue with the community.
But yes, our comp plan is coming up. I'll let Tom talk about that.
Tom Brown (09:29)
Absolutely. Data centers, we've talked before in conversation how they're allowed in industrial districts.
And our comprehensive plan is our document that guides future growth and development in our community, and it's going to identify the areas that we think are appropriate for industrial development.
And so at an absolute minimum, we're going to be talking about where are the areas appropriate for industrial and eligible long-term for a data center proposal, and that will be part of the conversation.
We'll start engaging with the public later this year and into next year on that with a goal of having a document ready sometime around summer of next year that we can transmit to the state.
Russell Brown (10:07)
And this is an area of emphasis with our comprehensive plan, not just for data centers, not just for industrial, but across the board for the land use decisions made by the County that I highly encourage residents, stakeholders out there, get involved in this process.
This is the opportunity to really help mold what the future's going to look like here in Forsyth County.
A lot of great details about that coming out at forsythco.com and, of course, on our social media channels.
Before we get out of here, first of all, thank you both for this conversation. A lot of great information here about data centers, and you can get a lot more, folks, by visiting forsythco.com.
Going to our meetings page and the meeting earlier this year in the summer about data centers, definitely worth rewatching if you need to get some more information from the board on that.
But let's talk about the future. What happens now? And we talked about the comprehensive plan, but how does the county also just react to the data centers as they develop?
Mendy Moore (10:58)
Well, I think we've got to keep our eye on the ball, right?
I think there's going to be some legislation come through at the state level to address these. Our Public Service Commission has also been addressing the power needs of these data centers.
And it's important to kind of filter out between misconceptions and fact, and to do our due diligence and make sure that we are getting factual information.
At this point, we're kind of in a holding pattern, right? Because no one has come in and expressed an interest in building a great big data center.
And so until they do, we're just going to keep our eye on what's going on legislatively and throughout the state.
Other counties are well ahead on this data center issue, and many of these counties have multiple data centers.
I'm going to be curious to see how that turns out for them. What are the things they wish they had done differently? What are the things they wish they had known going into it?
What are the things that could've been done to mitigate some of the concerns and the impacts that they've had?
Russell Brown (12:02)
Adaptable. Is that a fair term, Tom, to say that the county needs to be adaptable when it comes to data centers?
Tom Brown (12:08)
Certainly. Just as 20 years ago, it'd been hard to predict today's environment, we don't know what they're going to look like 20 years from now or even five years from now.
But we need to continue to monitor those trends, and if we see something that's inconsistent with our community's vision, react to it.
Russell Brown (12:25)
Curious to see what kind of topic we're talking about 25 years from now here in Forsyth County. I imagine there'll be a lot of changes as there was 25 years ago.
Couldn't have imagined data centers being a topic as they are here today.
Well, one thing's for certain, Forsyth County will be ready for it in the next 25 years. A lot of great things going on with our board as well as our staff here at Forsyth County.
Highly encourage folks out there, if you want to get more about what's happening in your county, pick up the latest Forsyth County Annual Report.
You can get that online as well as here at the New Freedom Campus Administration Building.
Well, that's it for this edition of "FoCo Unplugged." We appreciate you joining us here today. We got plenty more great topics coming up.
Commissioner, Tom, thank you both so much for your time here today.
Mendy Moore (12:58)
Thank you.
Tom Brown (13:03)
Thanks for hosting.
Russell Brown (13:04)
We'll catch you next time. So long for now.