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Data Center Watch Report · ZIP 30228

Hampton

Henry

Under constructionZIP 63.2% Blackpop 51,485county 49.1% Black

Approved + Under construction + Proposed + Moratorium — all at once

Researched: 2026-08-02 · Lead source: Brockovich AI Data Center community map (13 resident reports, 2026-05-21 → 2026-07-18) · ZIP demographics: 63.2% Black, pop 51,485 (Census ACS 2023) · County: Henry (49.1% Black, 2020 Census) Status: Approved + Under construction + Proposed + Moratorium — all at once

0. Snapshot

Hampton is the most advanced site in this cluster and the one with the most resident reports — 13 between May and July 2026. That volume is earned. Hampton has gone from "no data centers" to at least three known data center sites inside a city of a few thousand people in roughly eighteen months, and the city has now hit the brakes on itself.

The sequence:

  1. March 25, 2025 — Hampton City Council approves, 5–0, a conditional use permit for a 133-acre data center campus north of Georgia Highway 20 at McDonough Street, inside the 900-acre Henderson Farms mixed-use development. Applicant: Southeast Property Holdings, LLC. Three buildings of ~195,000 sq ft each, plus an on-site electrical substation. This was the first approved data center in Henry County.
  2. Then two more. Additional data center requests followed on Rocky Creek Road and Simpson Mill Road. Separately, Hampton Technology Park Owner, LLC (c/o Dillard Sellers) filed a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) application with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a 603-acre, five-building, ~4 million sq ft campus along Lower Woolsey Road, with buildout through 2033. Site clearing has been reported at that location.
  3. County gets caught out. Henry County Board Chair Carlotta Harrell has said the county was caught off guard — the county has no jurisdiction inside the city of Hampton. Henry County then began drafting its first-ever data center ordinance.
  4. The city reverses course. January 28, 2026 — special called public meeting at Hampton Elementary School gym. February 10, 2026 — Council takes up data center zoning amendments and Resolution 2026-09, a 120-day moratorium on accepting, processing, reviewing, or approving new data-center zoning and development applications and permits.
  5. County ordinance stalls. July 29, 2026 — a packed hearing as Henry County goes "back to the drawing board" on its data center regulations.

The pattern the AJC named in March 2026 is exactly what happened here: this Georgia town learned what comes with a data center — more data centers.

Hampton's ZIP is 63.2% Black in a county that is 49.1% Black. The facilities are landing in the majority-Black south end of a county whose north end is whiter and wealthier.

1. The Facility & Where It Sits

Site A — Henderson Farms / GA-20 at McDonough Street (APPROVED)

ItemFinding
ApplicantSoutheast Property Holdings, LLC
Size133 acres, within the ~900-acre Henderson Farms mixed-use development
Buildings3 buildings × ~195,000 sq ft
InfrastructureDedicated electrical substation on site
ApprovalConditional use permit, Hampton City Council, second and final reading 2025-03-25, 5–0 (Councilman Turner absent)
MWNot found as of 2026-08-02.

Where it sits. North of Georgia Highway 20 at McDonough Street. The western property line is adjacent to the Olde Hampton subdivision — the approval condition requiring a 100-foot buffer on that line tells you exactly how close housing is. The site also fronts the Towaliga River; the developer must set aside riverfront land for a city park.

Conditions attached to the permit (unusually detailed, and worth reading if you live nearby):

  • 100-foot buffer along the western line next to Olde Hampton subdivision
  • Landscaping to screen the buildings and the electrical substation
  • Establish and maintain a hydroponic farm on the property, donating produce to non-profits
  • No certificate of occupancy until at least 100 residential units in Henderson Farms have one
  • Land set aside along the Towaliga River for a city park
  • $75,000 contribution for architectural style guides
  • Green roofs on 25% of roof space for any building over 100,000 sq ft
  • A noise impact study must be submitted
  • Water conservation and recycling strategies required
  • Pedestrian improvements: sidewalks and path lighting

Power: the developer "will be responsible for negotiating the power supply for the site." The serving utility was not specified in the approval coverage.

Site B — Hampton Technology Park, Lower Woolsey Road (DRI FILED / SITE CLEARING)

ItemFinding
EntityHampton Technology Park Owner, LLC (c/o Dillard Sellers)
Size603 acres
BuildingsUp to 5 buildings, ~4 million sq ft total
LocationAlong Lower Woolsey Road, City of Hampton
ProcessDevelopments of Regional Impact (DRI) application filed with Georgia DCA
BuildoutThrough 2033
StatusSite clearing reported at the site
MW / tenantNot found as of 2026-08-02.

Sites C & D — Rocky Creek Road and Simpson Mill Road (PENDING ZONING)

Two additional requests within Hampton city limits, on Rocky Creek Road and Simpson Mill Road, were reported as awaiting zoning decisions. Applicant names, acreage, and current status: Not found as of 2026-08-02. Ask the Hampton City Clerk for the case files (see §8).

Is it on the Black side of town? Hampton sits in southwestern Henry County, roughly 35 miles south of Atlanta. ZIP 30228 is 63.2% Black against a county figure of 49.1%. Henry County's Black population went from 14.6% (2000) to 36.3% (2010) to 49.1% (2020) — one of the fastest demographic shifts in Georgia — and that growth concentrated in the county's southern and western communities. The data centers are being sited in that part of the county, inside a small city whose zoning the county cannot override.

2. Public Hearings & Notices

DateBody / action
2025-01-25Public notice: upcoming hearings will consider a data center in Hampton
2025-02Hampton City Council — first consideration of the conditional use permit
2025-03-25Hampton City Council approves CUP 5–0 (second and final reading)
2026-01-06Henry County commissioners move to put "guardrails" on future data centers
2026-01-28City of Hampton special called data center meeting, 6:00 PM, Hampton Elementary School gym, 10 Central Ave — public comment taken
2026-02-10Hampton City Council — 6:00 PM and 6:30 PM sessions — data center zoning amendments and Resolution 2026-09, a 120-day moratorium
2026-02Henry County staff expected to return a revised county ordinance for commissioner review
2026-03AJC reports on metro Atlanta cities questioning how many data centers are too many, using Hampton as the case
2026-07-29Packed public hearing — Henry County goes "back to the drawing board" on data center regulations
2026-08-04 / 08-17 / 08-21Henry County BOC meetings scheduled (9:00 a.m. / 6:30 p.m. / 6:30 p.m.)

Henry County's draft ordinance — as presented in early 2026, it would require:

  • 1,000-foot setbacks from residences
  • Noise limits of 55 dBA daytime / 45 dBA nighttime at a residential property line (roughly a household refrigerator)
  • Prohibition on open evaporative cooling systems
  • Preservation of at least 30% of the site as open space

As of 2026-08-02, the county ordinance had not been confirmed as finally adopted — the July 29 hearing sent it back for rework. Whether Hampton's Resolution 2026-09 moratorium was adopted on Feb 10 and whether it has since expired or been extended: the vote result is Not found as of 2026-08-02. A 120-day moratorium starting Feb 10, 2026 would have run out around June 10, 2026. Confirm with the City Clerk — this is the single most important fact for a Hampton resident to nail down.

Critical structural point: Henry County's ordinance, however strict, does not apply inside the City of Hampton. Hampton has its own zoning authority. Anything the county passes protects unincorporated Henry County, not Hampton residents.

3. Power

  • Site A power: the developer negotiates its own supply; a dedicated substation is being built on the 133-acre site. Serving utility not specified in public coverage.
  • Henry County is served in part by Georgia Power and in part by EMCs. Confirm your specific serving utility from your own bill — do not assume.
  • Statewide rules: since February 1, 2025, any Georgia Power customer expecting 100 MW or more of peak demand must operate under a customized contract rather than standard rates, with financial guarantees, terms up to 15 years, minimum monthly payments, and PSC review 30 days before signing.
  • The PSC ordered Georgia Power to design rates so residential and small-business customers do not carry generation built mainly for data centers. PSC Public Interest Advocacy staff nonetheless found that large industrial customers raise average fuel costs for all other customers by about 5–11% per month, and the Commission opened a separate investigation into fuel-cost allocation.
  • March 2026: environmental groups sued the PSC over the Georgia Power data center expansion. May 2026: the PSC backed a disputed Georgia Power fuel deal amid data center cost concerns.
  • Georgia Power's next general rate case is expected in 2028.

New transmission line routes or additional substations beyond the Site A substation: Not found as of 2026-08-02.

4. Water & Drought

  • Serving utility: the Henry County Water Authority (HCWA). This is one of the more consequential facts in the whole file: a dispute over who would supply the massive volume of water the data center needs prompted the county's water authority to pass its own ordinances governing any future major water users. That is a water utility writing its own rules because the zoning process did not protect it.
  • Towaliga River runs along the Site A property. The approval requires riverfront land for a city park and "water conservation and recycling strategies," but no gallons-per-day figure, withdrawal permit, or discharge permit for either campus was located. Not found as of 2026-08-02.
  • Henry County's draft ordinance would prohibit open evaporative cooling — the highest-water-consumption cooling design. That prohibition would not bind projects already approved inside Hampton city limits.
  • Hampton sits inside the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, which has published guidance on data centers and regional water resources.
  • Drought: as of the 2026-07-14 U.S. Drought Monitor reading, about 33% of Georgia was in active drought with another 52% Abnormally Dry (D0). Earlier in 2026, Georgia's D2–D4 coverage was the highest since 2011. For Henry County's classification on any given week, read the live map (§10) — it updates Thursdays.

Questions worth filing an open-records request for: HCWA's major-water-user ordinance text; any capacity-reservation or will-serve letter issued to Southeast Property Holdings or Hampton Technology Park Owner LLC; the cooling technology specified in each site plan.

5. Population & Who Lives Here

  • ZIP 30228: 63.2% Black, population 51,485 (Census ACS 2023, as compiled for this project). Note that the ZIP is far larger than the incorporated city — it covers a broad swath of southwestern Henry County.
  • Henry County: population 240,712; 49.1% Black (2020 Census). The county's Black share went 14.61% (2000) → 36.32% (2010) → 48.37%/49.1% (2020).
  • Hampton itself is a small city roughly 35 miles south of Atlanta, in southwestern Henry County — a landing place for Black families moving out of Clayton, south Fulton, and DeKalb into newer, more affordable subdivisions. Olde Hampton and Henderson Farms are part of that housing stock.
  • Poverty rate and median income for 30228 and for the City of Hampton: pull directly from data.census.gov (§10). Not independently verified here.

6. Money — Abatements, Incentives, Jobs

This is the thinnest part of Hampton's public record, and that is itself the finding.

  • Tax abatement / PILOT: no abatement agreement, bond-for-title structure, or PILOT dollar figure for the Henderson Farms data center or Hampton Technology Park was located in public reporting. Not found as of 2026-08-02. The Henry County Development Authority would be the holder of any such agreement.
  • Jobs promised: no permanent job count was published for either Hampton campus. Not found as of 2026-08-02. For scale, Columbus's 865-acre / $5B Project Ruby projects 195 permanent jobs. Data center employment per acre is very low everywhere; treat any large number with skepticism and ask for it in writing.
  • What the developer did commit to at Site A is unusual and concrete: $75,000 for architectural style guides, a hydroponic farm donating produce to non-profits, riverfront parkland, green roofs on 25% of large-building roof area, sidewalks and path lighting, and a hard link between the data center's certificate of occupancy and 100 completed homes in Henderson Farms. Those are enforceable conditions of the CUP — get the conditions list from the City Clerk and hold them to it.
  • Georgia's statewide sales-and-use tax exemption for high-technology data center equipment applies regardless of any local deal.

7. Community Reaction & News Coverage

Hampton and Henry County have the most organized resident opposition in this cluster.

  • "Citizens Opposed to DATA Centers in Henry County, GA" — an active Change.org petition and communications campaign that has been publishing meeting alerts, maps of the three known Hampton sites, and agenda items (including the text of Resolution 2026-09) in advance of votes. This group is the most reliable early-warning source for Hampton residents.
  • Core concerns raised publicly: enormous electricity demand, fresh water for cooling, noise, and the sheer number of projects arriving at once.
  • Packed hearings: the January 28, 2026 city meeting was moved to an elementary school gym to hold the crowd; the July 29, 2026 county hearing was described as packed.
  • Henry County Board Chair Carlotta Harrell publicly stated the county was caught off guard and has no jurisdiction inside Hampton.

Outlets covering this: Henry Herald, henryga.news, Atlanta News First, FOX 5 Atlanta, AJC, WFYI/regional syndication, Data Center Dynamics (trade press, useful for square footage and DRI filings), Georgia Public Broadcasting, Georgia Recorder.

8. Find Out For Yourself

City of Hampton — this is the government that actually decides 17 East Main Street South, Hampton, GA 30228 Phone: (770) 946-4306 (City Hall; ask for the City Clerk) Mayor: Ann Tarpley Website: https://hamptonga.gov

Council meeting schedule: second Tuesday of the month — workshop at 6:00 p.m., regular meeting at 6:30 p.m., Council Chambers, 17 East Main Street South.

Agendas and minutes:

Henry County Board of Commissioners (governs unincorporated Henry — not inside Hampton city limits) 140 Henry Parkway, McDonough, GA 30253 · (770) 288-6001 Website: https://www.henrycountyga.gov · Board page: https://www.henrycountyga.gov/298/Board-of-Commissioners · Staff directory: https://www.henrycountyga.gov/158/Staff-Directory Chair: Carlotta Harrell · District 1 Johnny Wilson · District 2 Neat Robinson · District 3 Derrell "Dee" Anglyn · District 4 Michael T. Price · District 5 Kevin Lewis Upcoming meetings listed as Tue 2026-08-04, 9:00 a.m.; Mon 2026-08-17, 6:30 p.m.; Fri 2026-08-21, 6:30 p.m. "Who's My Commissioner?" — https://www.henrycountyga.gov/889/Whos-My-Commissioner

Henry County Water Authority — the body that wrote its own major-water-user ordinance after this fight — https://www.hcwa.com

Georgia Department of Community Affairs — DRI filings. The Hampton Technology Park DRI is a public document. DRI reviews for this region run through the Atlanta Regional Commission. Ask ARC or DCA for the file:

Statutory legal notices: Georgia Public Notice — https://www.georgiapublicnotice.com — search Henry County. Rezoning and CUP hearings must be advertised here.

Utility rate proceedings: Georgia Public Service Commission — https://psc.ga.gov

Local news tip lines:

Resident group: "Citizens Opposed to DATA Centers in Henry County, GA" — https://www.change.org/p/citizens-opposed-to-data-centers-in-henry-county-ga (petition updates page carries meeting alerts and site maps)

Open-records requests worth filing (O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 et seq.), addressed to the Hampton City Clerk:

  1. The full conditions list and staff report for the March 25, 2025 conditional use permit (Southeast Property Holdings, LLC).
  2. The text of Resolution 2026-09 and the recorded vote and effective/expiration dates of the 120-day moratorium.
  3. All pending data center zoning applications, including the Rocky Creek Road and Simpson Mill Road files — applicant, acreage, hearing dates.
  4. The noise impact study required as a condition of the Site A permit.
  5. Any correspondence between the city and Hampton Technology Park Owner, LLC.

Addressed to the Henry County Water Authority: the major-water-user ordinance text, plus any will-serve or capacity letters issued to data center projects in or near Hampton.

9. If You're Thinking About Moving Here

Research only. Not legal, financial, real estate, or investment advice. Verify with §10 and your own professionals.

Be clear about what is already decided. Hampton is not a "maybe" town. One 133-acre campus with a substation is approved next to an existing subdivision. A 603-acre, 4-million-square-foot campus has a DRI on file and reported site clearing. Two more requests are in the pipeline. Whatever protective ordinance Henry County eventually adopts will not apply inside the city.

Water. The Henry County Water Authority had to write its own rules because the zoning process didn't protect it. Metro Atlanta's water is planned regionally and is already contested; Georgia has been in significant drought through 2026. This is the risk to watch hardest.

Power. A dedicated substation next to housing, on a grid whose regulator has an open investigation into whether large industrial loads are shifting fuel costs onto residential customers by 5–11% a month.

Noise and light. Henry County's draft limits (55 dBA day / 45 dBA night at a residential line, 1,000-foot setbacks) are a useful benchmark for what "protective" looks like. Site A's approval predates them and instead requires a noise study, screening landscaping, and a 100-foot buffer to Olde Hampton. 100 feet is not 1,000 feet. If you are looking at homes in or near Olde Hampton or Henderson Farms, walk the buffer line yourself.

Land and housing prices. No documented, sourced price effect specific to 30228 was located. Not found as of 2026-08-02. What is documented is the AJC's framing that one data center brings more — five sites in one small city in under two years is the trend line.

Before you buy anywhere in 30228:

  1. Pull the parcel's zoning and every adjacent parcel's zoning from the City of Hampton (if in city limits) or Henry County (if not). The city/county line determines which rules protect you.
  2. Ask the City Clerk for the current list of pending data center applications and their locations.
  3. Set a Georgia Public Notice alert for Henry County.
  4. Ask HCWA whether your address is on a line serving a large industrial customer.

The honest summary: Hampton is the furthest along of the six sites in this cluster, has the strongest resident organizing, and has the weakest fit between the government that approves the projects (a small city) and the government that would have to absorb their effects (the county and its water authority). Go in with your eyes open, and go to the second Tuesday of the month.

10. Sources

All URLs accessed 2026-08-02 unless noted.

Facility & approvals

Hearings, ordinance, moratorium

Statewide legislation

Power & PSC

Water & drought

Demographics

Contacts & meetings

Lead source

Lead source: resident reports on the Brockovich AI Data Center community map, then independently verified against public records. Research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice. Some resident-reported pins remain uncorroborated and are labeled as such above.