Former Fulton commissioner Natalie Hall calls for data center transparency as county opposes tax breaks

The debate over the rapid growth of data centers in metro Atlanta is intensifying in Fulton County, where former Commissioner Natalie Hall is calling for greater transparency around the massive facilities' demands on water, electricity and public infrastructure.

Hall, who previously represented District 4 on the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, said Thursday that she supports the technology powering cloud computing and artificial intelligence but believes communities need more information about its costs before new projects move forward.

Hall, who describes herself as a more than 30-year information technology professional, said large-scale data centers can put significant demands on electricity, water, transportation and other public infrastructure. Those effects, she argued, should be considered before developments receive approval, rather than after surrounding communities begin experiencing them.

Her comments come just days after the Fulton County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution opposing tax abatements and other local financial incentives for data center projects. 

The Aug. 5 resolution, sponsored by Commissioners Bridget Thorne and Bob Ellis, also urges the Development Authority of Fulton County to decline consideration of those incentives. 

Hall is seeking to return to the commission in the Nov. 3 special election for the District 4 seat. Fulton County election records list Hall as a Democratic candidate and information technology director. 

Hall wants more information disclosed before projects move forward

Hall said residents should have access to projections showing a proposed facility's water and electricity consumption, infrastructure needs, environmental impacts and anticipated permanent jobs.

She also called for disclosure of expected tax revenue and any tax incentives or abatements being considered for a project, as well as an assessment of the potential effects on nearby neighborhoods. 

"Transparency must be non-negotiable," Hall said. 

That question of what communities receive in return for hosting data centers has become increasingly central to the debate in Fulton.

Although Fulton County government can weigh in on incentives, zoning and land-use authority rests with the county's 15 cities, meaning individual municipalities can still approve data center projects. Milton and Roswell have already adopted moratoriums on new data centers, according to Fulton County. 

County officials say the Development Authority of Fulton County has approved about $150 million in data center tax breaks since 2020, with roughly half tied to a Microsoft project. Fulton also says statewide data center incentives are estimated to cost county and municipal governments about $1.1 billion in sales tax revenue in 2026. 

Data centers increasingly face scrutiny across metro Atlanta

The Fulton debate is part of a much larger reckoning over data center development across Georgia.

In DeKalb County, packed public meetings over proposed regulations have drawn residents concerned about water use, electricity demand, noise and development near residential communities. Officials there have considered rules requiring water-use plans, energy-consumption assessments, stormwater reviews and annual compliance reporting. 

And earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised concerns during a congressional hearing about reports of discolored water and low water pressure from residents near the Meta data center campus in the Stanton Springs area east of Atlanta. The Environmental Protection Agency later sought additional information from state and local officials but stressed that it had not opened a formal investigation. Meta has denied that its operations caused the reported problems and cited an independent groundwater study it says found no impact from the data center. 

For Hall, the issue is not whether Fulton should reject technology development altogether, but how local leaders decide where it belongs and whether its promised benefits outweigh its long-term costs.

"Technology and economic development are not the enemy," Hall said, arguing that the larger question is what resources data centers require, what benefits they provide Fulton County and what costs could ultimately be borne by taxpayers and neighboring communities. 

"Economic development must also be responsible development," Hall said.