Chatham County has now done what its 7th District commissioner was only proposing in late August: it has formally paused large-scale data center development while officials study what permanent rules should govern it.
On September 11, the Chatham County Board of Commissioners approved a 155-day moratorium covering unincorporated parts of the county. The measure applies to data centers with an electrical capacity of at least 10 megawatts and restricts the conversion of warehouses and industrial spaces for data center use. District 7 Commissioner Dean Kicklighter had initially proposed a 12-month pause, but the adopted measure was shortened to 155 days.
The timing also changes the regional picture from the one in the original proposal. Savannah did not wait until after Chatham acted. Savannah City Council voted on August 27 to approve its own 155-day moratorium on large-scale data centers within city limits, including facilities of 10 megawatts or more and certain large industrial-building conversions.
Part of a regional pattern, not a one-off
Chatham and Savannah are not acting in isolation. Temporary data center moratoria have become a common way for local governments to create a window in which planners can define the use, study infrastructure demands and decide what standards should apply before additional applications move forward.
In North Carolina, Durham County commissioners voted 4-1 on August 24 to adopt a nine-month moratorium on new large-scale data centers. The county said the pause would give staff time to evaluate existing regulations and potential infrastructure and community impacts.
The Durham measure also illustrates why the details matter. Smaller qualifying facilities were exempted, and Commissioner Nida Allam cast the lone dissenting vote because she opposed that exemption. The debate was not simply about whether data centers should exist; it was about how large facilities should be defined and regulated before permits are issued.
That same regulatory gap has appeared elsewhere. Hendersonville, North Carolina, adopted a one-year moratorium on September 3 after city officials concluded that their existing ordinance did not directly address data centers. The recurring sequence is increasingly familiar: officials identify a land-use category their code does not clearly regulate, pause new approvals and use the interval to write specific rules.
Why commissioners keep reaching for the pause button
In Chatham County, the immediate concern is not a finding that every data center will create the same impact. It is that county officials want more information about electricity, water, land use and nearby development before deciding what permanent standards should look like.
The adopted 155-day window gives the county time to conduct that review. Kicklighter has said the period could be extended if commissioners do not have enough information by the scheduled expiration date in February 2027, although the ordinance limits how far that extension can go.
Durham’s discussion showed another practical concern. Commissioner Larissa Williamson said the county would have difficulty verifying compliance with electrical-use limits because county officials do not control electrical usage. That is a narrower point than saying counties lose all authority once a data center is operating, but it helps explain why local boards want to settle land-use conditions before facilities are built.
Water demand is similarly project-specific. Cooling technology and local climate can make a major difference, so a large campus using evaporative cooling can present a very different water profile from one using closed-loop or other lower-water systems. That variability is another reason local governments are asking for project-specific standards instead of assuming one rule fits every facility.
The moratoria also remain distinct from permanent bans. Savannah’s pause was designed to give city staff time to study infrastructure capacity, zoning classifications and development standards. Chatham’s measure serves much the same purpose in the county’s unincorporated areas.
The important shift in Coastal Georgia is therefore not that local leaders have permanently shut the door on data centers. It is that both Savannah and Chatham County have decided they want written rules before the next large project forces them to make those decisions on the fly. For now, the pause is the policy, and the permanent rules are what officials have given themselves the next several months to work out.