Furious locals in southern data center boom town wage war against tech firms 'eating up their land'

Furious residents in a growing tech boom town have pushed back against Silicon Valley giants 'eating up' their neighborhoods for massive data centers.

Meta, Google, Microsoft and Elon Musk's X are all desperately fighting for space in Atlanta's real estate market, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Shocking new figures reveal data center construction exploded by a whopping 76 percent in just six months, according to real estate firm CBRE.

'The amount of growth we've seen the last few years, it's really starting to catch people off guard,' David Guarino, a data property analyst at Green Street, told the Wall Street Journal.

City officials have banned new data facilities near transit stations after locals protested over big tech turning their communities into computer warehouses.

'I think the city is recognizing that data centers, while they provide some value to abandoned office buildings, they don't really, long-term, add to the city's vibrancy or housing,' Matthew Garbett, a member of the Adair Park Neighborhood Association, told the Wall Street Journal.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens emphasized that Data Center development 'cannot be prioritized over people-centered urban development' in a letter addressing the legislation.

He specifically emphasized the importance of 'affordable housing, quality jobs, and neighborhood retail.'

But experts predict Atlanta's data center power usage will continue to skyrocket to a shocking 4,000 megawatts by 2028 - that's thirty times more than in 2012.

As Atlanta's battle continues, other cities are taking notice.

Fairfax County, Virginia - another data center hotspot - has already followed suit with its own ban on facilities near rail stations.

But data center companies remain defiant.

'Nobody wants zoning issues, challenges to their development,' said Chris Gatch, an executive at DC Blox, which is pushing ahead with two new suburban facilities despite the controversy.

Meanwhile, residents like Garbett point to success stories of community-focused development: a former school transformed into affordable housing, and an old shelving factory now buzzing with apartments, offices and shops. 

Still the tech growth shows no signs of slowing down throughout the country. 

Musk's X recently secured a $10 million tax break for expansion, while Amazon Web Services is pouring $10 billion into new data centers near Jackson, Mississippi.

Residents of Ashburn, Virginia, home to an extraordinary 70 percent of the world's web traffic, were also furious when the town's several data centers 'ruined their neighborhood.'

The six-square-mile town, with a population just over 45,000, sits in Loudon County, became the epicenter of a raging battle to prevent the state's countryside from being swallowed up by the internet in July.

Virginia is currently home to the nation's largest data center market with 51 million square feet of the massive groupings of networked computer servers - and there is another 58.6 million planned.

Officials in nearby Culpeper County came up with a plan in 2021 to invite data centers into the area to meet the huge demand while safeguarding the landscape and residential appeal.

It approved plans to turn pasture land into its sixth data hub during a vote last week, leaving locals angry.

The Culpeper County Board of Supervisors agreed to transform farmland into a data center that stretches across 1.5 million square feet.

They voted to approve the sprawling Red Ace Data Center campus by a tight 4-3 vote despite complaints from locals about potential noise, traffic, energy capacity and wells running dry.

'These data centers will definitely destroy the county,' resident Don Haight said, according to The Washington Post.