Crooked Creek Data Center, Jones County, Georgia

Eagle Rock Partners' Crooked Creek Technology Park, a data center campus of up to 1.8 million square feet on more than 600 acres in Jones County, Georgia, was withdrawn on October 20, 2025, less than a day before its zoning hearing. Eagle Rock and Thomas & Hutton Engineering had filed on September 25, 2025 to rezone the farmland at Highway 18 and Bethlehem Church Road, saying the project would bring "an investment of $5 to $7 billion." It withdrew by email to Planning and Zoning Director Tim Pitrowski and has not said why. The same developer has since agreed to buy the county's Griswoldville Industrial Park, a deal now tied up in a residents' lawsuit.

Residents organized fast. Dustin Riley's Facebook group "No Data Centers in Jones County" drew more than 1,500 members within weeks, and farmer Alexandra Lefholz started a petition. "The fact that it's just 'Bam!' and popped up is what's really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way," Riley said.

After the withdrawal, the county adopted a 90-day moratorium, then on January 16, 2026 unanimously approved data centers as a conditional use only in a new industrial district at Griswoldville, with closed-loop cooling and lower noise limits. April Lipscomb of the Southern Environmental Law Center called the new 200-foot setback "utterly inadequate," and in February 2026, 17 residents including Lefholz and Riley sued the county, arguing officials gave improper notice and engaged in unlawful "contract zoning" with the developer.

The development authority's chairman, Eric Varnadoe, had signed a letter of intent to sell the 956-acre Griswoldville park to Eagle Rock for $25 million, but the authority voted in March to put the sale on hold. "We essentially have a lame duck property right now," Varnadoe said in June.

What happens next depends on the court. The county has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, and a hearing may not come until 2027, according to the development authority. Any data center at Griswoldville would still need conditional use approval from the Jones County Board of Commissioners, chaired by Chris Weidner.