PETITION TO THE AMERICUS CITY COUNCIL
Adopt the temporary data center moratorium
Pause data center zoning and permitting until Americus has an ordinance.
We, the undersigned residents of Americus and Sumter County, ask the Board of Commissioners of the City of Americus to adopt the temporary moratorium on the zoning, rezoning, development, permitting and construction of data centers now in draft before the city.
Neither Georgia, Sumter County, nor the City of Americus has any ordinance governing where data centers may be sited or how they must operate. The Americus Code of Ordinances does not define the term at all. Until it does, any application that arrives has to be judged under a zoning code written for something else.
The draft resolution asks for time, not a refusal. It would pause zoning, permitting and construction of data centers until January 25, 2028, and directs Planning and Zoning staff, the City Council, and outside experts to study the effects and draft the ordinance amendments the city currently lacks.
We are asking our elected officials to use that time before a decision has to be made, rather than after.