Ban On BeltLine Data Centers Closer To Reality

Atlanta City Council members are set to vote next week on proposals that would outlaw the development of data centers along the 22-mile stretch of the Atlanta BeltLine and within a half mile of MARTA rail stations.

The BeltLine and MARTA bans are separate measures co-sponsored by every member of the city council, which is set to vote on the ordinances Tuesday. They were drafted by Council Members Jason Dozier and Matt Westmoreland and were approved Monday during the city’s Zoning Committee hearing.

City officials say the BeltLine ban is necessary to prevent real estate around the popular pedestrian pathway that rings the city from being consumed by server farms that offer few new jobs and no housing or retail opportunities but take up massive amounts of power.

“Clearly, Georgia needs data centers. It’s part of our economic engine,” Atlanta Council Member Amir Farokhi told Bisnow. “But we also need to balance, making sure our center city and neighborhoods are livable and don’t have buildings without people. Server farms have an important role in our economy, but they’re not appropriate for every neighborhood.”

Farokhi said allowing data centers to take large parcels along the BeltLine is particularly concerning as the city battles to increase the number of affordable housing units.

“It’s a little bit of a zero-sum game if you put in a data center that could have been space that otherwise could have been housing or retail,” he said, adding that the BeltLine overlay district is geared to medium- and high-density developments that “are more appropriate for people rather than data centers.”

Council members also said the next phases of development along the BeltLine are near historically Black neighborhoods that have been victims of environmental pollution from interstates, proximity to landfills and disposal practices, and the ban is intended to protect these communities.

Pushback is percolating across the U.S. against the rampant expansion of data centers. A primary concern is the increased power demand for smart equipment driven by an artificial intelligence boom. In Atlanta alone, development activity increased 76% year-over-year, with enough facilities to add another 1.3 gigawatts of capacity in the state, according to CBRE. If all of those centers were delivered today, Atlanta would become the second-largest data center market in the U.S.

Available data center space has grown more than 110% since 2020, third behind Hillsboro, Oregon, and Phoenix, CBRE said.

It is unclear, though, how much actual interest there is among data center operators to locate along the BeltLine. Data center giant QTS operates a data center along Jefferson Street, near the BeltLine Westside Trail, a project that existed before the advent of the pedestrian trail. QTS is also expanding its facility there but received blowback from community leaders last summer after requesting a $45M tax break from Fulton County. The firm withdrew its request in June.

Dozier told Bisnow data center operators have historically been attracted to the BeltLine because of the in-place infrastructure and the many empty warehouses that dot the circuit. 

“Even in my district, we have a data center right next to the Lee + White development. It's there because of the fact that it was an empty warehouse at the time,” Dozier said. 

While the ordinance wouldn't affect existing data centers in the BeltLine overlay district, it could prevent operators from expanding those facilities, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in May.

Earlier this year, Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed a state bill that sought to halt tax incentives to data center operators through June 2026.

The pushback against data center development isn't endemic to Metro Atlanta. Lawmakers in Virginia have introduced bills in the state legislature aimed at restricting data center development. The political environment has gotten particularly hostile toward data centers in Northern Virginia, which is the top data center hub in the nation. But a dwindling supply of developable land and available power from utilities has already made large-scale data center projects in the region more challenging than ever.

Dozier said he has received “interest from the industry” since drafting the legislation earlier this year. He visited the QTS facility and met with Digital Realty executives, who expressed concerns about more regulation on the data center industry. 

But Dozier said he doesn't expect data center industry pushback at Tuesday's council meeting.

“They're watching with bated breath rather than trying to kill the legislation outright,” he said.