Hogansville Data Center, Hogansville, Georgia

Hogansville's city council is still rewriting the rules any data center would have to meet, nearly a year after residents learned that a developer, Fertile Ground Investments LLC, wanted 437 acres of city land on Hightower Road for a 600-megawatt data center in Troup County, Georgia. At a September 21, 2026 work session, council members agreed to add special-use permits, a ban on Sunday construction, a 500-foot wetlands buffer and noise controls to a draft ordinance that would create a heavy-industrial zoning district for data centers.

The site is the city's old wastewater spray field off Hightower Road, on the outskirts of a town of about 3,000 people. Records obtained through an open records request by resident Al Prado showed that Luis Matta, a Fayetteville developer who works for Fertile Ground Investments and sits on the board of the Fayette County Development Authority, had agreed with the city on a purchase of 437 acres at $12,000 an acre, contingent on rezoning from residential to industrial, the Ledger-Enquirer reported.

A power study by MEAG, the city's municipal power supplier, assessed bringing 600 megawatts online and found no generation currently available for it. The city uses about 25 MW a year and owns 36 MW under its MEAG terms. The study put the cost at $300 million, with a customer bearing $153.75 million, and service four to five years after funding.

Residents objected first to the secrecy: the council signed a non-disclosure agreement in January 2024 in executive session, Council Member Mark Ayers said at a December 2025 town hall, and Council Member Michael Taylor Jr. said the council and the development authority got out of it just before the November 2025 election. Resident Roseanna Prado told the Ledger-Enquirer, "I'm not sure what their definition of transparency is, but mine certainly isn't keeping something like this from the public."

About 20 residents spoke against the project at a December 2, 2025 town hall, citing light and noise, wells drying up and the loss of the road's rural character; resident Stacey Smith said "Hightower Road is not industry. It's residential, it's homes, it's families, it's people, it's bonfires." Tina Payton, whose land borders the site and whose children run a 30-acre zoo across the road, said: "My thing is that, it's not ever gonna be quiet or dark."

Taylor was then the only council member openly opposed, saying the deal would bring about $400,000 a year in taxes but only "about 30 to 35 jobs." Gage Bailey, founder of the Troup County Anti-Data Center Coalition, has attended council meetings with members of the coalition, including Hogansville residents.

On February 2, 2026, the council adopted a 90-day moratorium on all data center applications, including any for the Hightower Road spray field. City Attorney Alex Dixon said the moratorium would not automatically push back March deadlines in the purchase option and development authority agreements, that the developer would still need a rezoning, and that those agreements were not legally binding because the council had never voted on them in a public meeting.

On August 17, 2026, the council voted 4-1 to reject the draft ordinance as too weak and extended the moratorium to its September 8 meeting, after residents cited a Southern Environmental Law Center letter asking for stronger standards. Councilmember Mandy Neese said, "My biggest concern is that I don't feel like this ordinance is strong enough at this point. It's not," and said the city has no inspectors or city engineer to manage a data center's construction, while Mayor Jake Ayers said he felt it "is in a good spot and keeps our citizens safe."

Hogansville is not alone in Troup County: the county government adopted its own 90-day moratorium on data center projects in 2025 and the city of LaGrange adopted a 180-day moratorium, both after public concern.

What happens next is in the hands of the city council and the Planning and Zoning Commission. City staff are to bring the revised ordinance back by the October 5, 2026 work session, after which it goes to the Planning and Zoning Commission, another public hearing, and votes by the commission and the council.

Councilmember Kandis Strickland has said she wants no data centers in city limits or on city-owned property, while Councilmember Mark Ayers said he is not ready to rule them out "until one actually comes with a zoning request and a preliminary plat with what they actually want." Any data center on the Hightower Road land would still need its own rezoning and public hearings before it could proceed.