"Data centers can...make it more difficult to develop affordable housing, grocery, greenspace, and retail, which are all more suitable projects for the urban core of our city...Moreover, the centers are being pushed into underserved, traditionally African-American areas that have been starved of equitable development and amenities. This is unacceptable.

Data Center development cannot be prioritized over people-centered urban development, including affordable housing, quality jobs, and neighborhood retail. This is particularly important near the Beltline and high-capacity transit."

 -Mayor Andre Dickens, 12/2/24

Take it one step further and send an email to the city council

Specifically, we need to be emailing the councilmembers who co-sponsored the legislation, and the councilmembers on the Zoning Committee

Co-Sponsors: Eshe Collins - escollins@atlantaga.gov , Antonio Lewis - anlewis@atlantaga.gov

Zoning Committee: Mary Norwood - mnorwood@atlantaga.gov , Kelsea Bond - kbond@atlantaga.gov , Liliana Bakhtiari - lbakhtiari@atlantaga.gov , Eshe Collins - escollins@atlantaga.gov , Wanye Martin - wmartin@atlantaga.gov , Matt Westmoreland - mswestmoreland@atlantaga.gov , Thomas Worthy - tworthy@atlantaga.gov 

Just write one email to all by copying these email addresses together:

escollins@atlantaga.gov , anlewis@atlantaga.gov , mnorwood@atlantaga.gov , kbond@atlantaga.gov , lbakhtiari@atlantaga.gov , escollins@atlantaga.gov , wmartin@atlantaga.gov , mswestmoreland@atlantaga.gov , tworthy@atlantaga.gov 

Here is an easy email template:

Subject Line: Concerned Neighbor Opposed to 713 RDA Data Center

Dear [Council Member Name(s)],

My name is [Your Name], and I am a resident of [Your Neighborhood] in Southwest Atlanta, where I have lived for [X] years.

I am writing to respectfully but firmly oppose Ordinance 26-O-1097, sponsored by Councilmembers Antonio Lewis and Eshé Collins, which would create a zoning exception to allow a Digital Realty data center at 713 Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard.

Our community has already spoken clearly on this issue. When a nearly identical proposal was brought before the council in 2024, multiple Neighborhood Planning Units voted against it, the zoning review board opposed it, and the full City Council voted unanimously to shelve it. Mayor Dickens made his position clear at the time, noting that data centers can make it more difficult to develop affordable housing, grocery stores, greenspace, and retail — and that transit-adjacent land in our urban core deserves better.

The revised ordinance includes some modifications — a retail requirement, closed-loop cooling, and a smaller footprint — but these do not address the fundamental concern: this site, near the West End MARTA station and bordering Adair Park, West End, Pittsburgh, and Mechanicsville, is too valuable and too important to our community’s future to be used for an industrial data center. Independent research consistently shows that facilities of this type create far fewer permanent local jobs than developers claim — often as few as 20 to 50 positions for a 100-megawatt facility — and that those jobs typically require specialized skills not drawn from the surrounding neighborhood.

I urge you to uphold the intent of Ordinance 24-O-1218, which the council wisely passed to protect transit-adjacent land from exactly this kind of development, and to vote against Ordinance 26-O-1097.

Thank you for your service to our community and for carefully considering the voices of the residents who will live with this decision.

Respectfully,

[Your Name]

[Your Address]

[Your Neighborhood]

[Your Email / Phone]