FW: Columbus Ledger: Columbus Planning Advisory Commission approves data center rules

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From: Mark Woodall <woodal...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2026 5:59 AM

Subject: Columbus Ledger: Columbus Planning Advisory Commission approves data center rules

 

Columbus commission approves data center rules, advises creation of oversight board 

 

By Brittany McGee Updated March 18, 2026 3:39 PM 

 

  The Columbus Planning Advisory Commission (PAC) voted Wednesday to recommend to the Columbus Council a technology overlay district ordinance for a proposed data center and to recommend the council create a board to oversee data centers. After a failed motion to deny the recommendation and having to vote twice for a motion to approve it, commissioners voted 5-1 to recommend approving the measure, which they tabled earlier this month, with the condition that there be a 500-foot setback. The proposed setback was initially 75 feet. Rick Stallings was the only commissioner to vote against the measure. 

 

Around 10 residents voiced their concerns to the commission about the data center, with two residents speaking out in support of the data center. “The planning commission obviously had mixed feelings about this, based on the vote and the considerations and everything,” PAC chairman Brad Baker told the Ledger-Enquirer.   PAC wasn’t asked to approve a rezoning of the approximately 900 acre-property for the proposed data center, called Project Ruby, in northeastern Muscogee County. That request is expected to come later. 

 

Baker explained why the ordinance for the creation of a technology overlay district came first. “The purpose of that is then we will have mandatory guideline minimums for if any data center wants to be built here in zonings that will work for it,” he said. The city would have minimum setback standards, minimum lot size, maximum decibels and maximum height and size of the buildings. “If the commission chooses to, and we get recommendation from professionals or anything like that, we would add conditions, upgrade the standard minimums to whatever is needed for that particular property,” Baker said. 

 

Along with approving the technology overlay district, the PAC, by another 5-1 vote, also asked for the Columbus Council and mayor to create a separate board for the oversight and recommendation of every proposed data center to give them recommendations from professionals. “I think it’ll help all of us to make informed decisions because we will have professionals who are looking (at specifics), not generalities,” Baker said. When the PAC considers a proposal, the data center commission would be able to assess archeological concerns, water concerns, where the power is coming from, how close is the nearest neighbor and whether there are churches nearby that could be impacted, he said. “We would have people who are professionals in their fields that can look specifically at those things for each, individual property and say, ’For this particular property, here’s what we would recommend,’” Baker said. 

 

PAC members are Columbus residents appointed by the city council. “If this was being built in my backyard, I would have major concerns as well,” Baker said. “And so, we want to be smart, and we want to honor the citizens concerned and honor what the city is trying to do in development as well. It would help us to have professionals giving us specific details.”

Read more at: https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/politics-government/article315102279.html#storylink=cpy