Project Turbo data center, Gainesville, Georgia

Project Turbo, a $1.2 billion data center planned on O'Kelly Road outside Gainesville in Hall County, Georgia, was withdrawn in December 2025 after significant opposition from residents over water use and traffic. Williams Brothers Development had presented the plan to the Hall County Planning Commission as three buildings of about 300,000 square feet each, 900,000 square feet in all, promising about 150 jobs. Its developers say they still want to build there, and Hall County has since put a moratorium on data centers, extended in August 2026 for another 180 days.

The applicant, Project Turbo LLC, applied in 2025 for a special use permit and a rezoning from planned industrial development to light industrial on roughly 119 acres at 2400 O'Kelly Road, off Candler Road; its listed organizers are Cameron Grogan, owner of Atlanta-based Williams Brothers Development, and Christopher Hoag. It also filed for a state Development of Regional Impact review for the site, which is about 55 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. The plans included a new substation; Georgia Power high-voltage transmission lines and a natural gas transmission facility border the southern part of the site.

Water was the fight. The developer acknowledged that the City of Gainesville, which would supply the water, said it would not have enough capacity if the data center reached the high end of its estimated use, and residents worried about roughly 225,000 gallons a day for cooling. "It wasn't that long ago we had a drought, and we were thirty feet down [at Lake Lanier] and we here in Hall County were in desperate shape where water is concerned so what's going to happen then?" resident Mandy Harris asked. "They're not giving us answers," said Jody White, another resident. Planning Commission member Shannon Davidson said: "What kind of issues are we gonna have in the County if the City is saying they can't do it?" Residents also questioned a possible conflict of interest because Planning Commission Chair Chris Braswell works for Norton Commercial, which was selling the land to the developer; Braswell recused himself from the item.

The planning commission eventually approved the application, but the developers withdrew it before the county commission's vote. "We withdrew our application not because we want to walk away, but because it's just clear that the county has not yet decided if it wants a data center, and if it does, then just we need to all take a step back and come up with some rules and regulations of how those will be developed in the future," developer Cameron Grogan said on WDUN. Grogan said annexation into the City of Gainesville would be needed for sewer, which the Lake Lanier Association wanted so the water could be returned to the lake, and he argued the plant's maximum water use would take 12 and a half years to lower the lake by an inch. At the county commission meeting, residents learned the developers would seek a light industrial zoning change instead, and many remained skeptical. "I'm very happy they pulled the plug," said neighbor Kerri McCoy. The same applicant, Project Turbo LLC, is linked to Project Azalea, a six-building data center campus proposed on 200 acres on Randall Hunt Road in Thomson, McDuffie County, outside Augusta.

Hall County commissioners approved a 180-day moratorium on data centers on February 26, 2026, and on August 27 voted to extend it by another 180 days while they work on a data center ordinance. At an August 14 public hearing, many residents said the draft ordinance did not go far enough, and some wanted an outright ban. "It's so we can go and do our due diligence and our homework," Commissioner Gregg Poole said of the extension. Any return of Project Turbo would go either to the Hall County Board of Commissioners under the ordinance it is now writing, or to the City of Gainesville if the land were annexed.