Editor’s note: Since 2024, community members have protested a proposal to convert a 100-year-old building on 713 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd.—what is now West End Production Park—into a $500 million data center.
By the time Canopy Atlanta Community Journalist and West End Fellow Naya Clark started covering the issue, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens wrote a letter advising against the proposal, and Atlanta City Council had voted unanimously to stop it. But that wasn’t the end of the story. Instead, despite growing community protests, that same data center proposal is expected to be back up for a city council vote this year.
Tracking the proposal has not been a linear process, for community members and for Canopy Atlanta. Several times over the past year, as city council repeatedly introduced and tabled the proposal, Clark—a West End resident herself—checked in with community members as they grew frustrated by the roundabout civic process.
Since there has been some confusion surrounding the data center proposal, here is Clark’s timeline of events—how the proposal has moved through the legislative process, and how the community’s response evolved as a result.
September 2024
Atlanta City Council voted unanimously to prohibit data centers from being built along the Beltline and within a half-mile of a MARTA station.
“Atlanta’s data center market is one of the fastest growing in the nation,” said Councilmember Jason Dozier, who represents District 4, which includes West End. “While this growth underscores Atlanta’s emergence as a major player in the data center ecosystem, it also raises serious concerns about the impact on our urban environment and essential infrastructure.”
Councilmember Antonio Lewis then introduced an ordinance that would carve out an exception for West End and Adair Park.
“I didn’t really trust the fact that we’re now rewriting legislation for a developer,” Pouya Dianat, then-president of neighborhood association Adair Park Today, said to Canopy Atlanta. “The biggest problems about data centers . . . is that people try to force them into primarily predominantly Black, Brown, low-income, [and] vulnerable neighborhoods.”
Neighborhood collective SWARM (Southwest Atlanta Residents Mobilize) starts attending related city meetings and providing the community with educational resources.
“SWARM just stands for Southwest Atlanta Residents Mobilize,” SWARM member Dave Martin tells Canopy Atlanta, adding, “I like what it evokes because a swarm doesn’t really have a leader . . . The lasting solution [is] to not just defeat a data center, but actually have a vision for what could go there instead.”
December 2024
Ahead of Atlanta City Council’s meeting on December 2, Dianat sent a petition signed by over 600 people opposing the data center, to Mayor Andre Dickens.
Dickens then submitted a letter urging the City Council not to support the legislation, citing upcoming redevelopments of the Mall West End and Murphy’s Crossing. “While important, data centers can also 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,” Dickens wrote.
Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU) V, which represents Adair Park, and Neighborhood Planning Unit T, which includes the West End, also voted against recommending the proposal.
Activists showed up to an Atlanta City Council meeting wearing yellow construction vests and signs with memorable slogans: “We love data centers” and “Data centers are good for the community.”
Ultimately, the City Council opted instead to shelve the ordinance, and the activists wearing yellow vests left the meeting. “As soon as they heard that the vote’s not happening, they left,” Dianat said to Canopy Atlanta.
January 2026
Councilmember Eshé Collins joins Antonio Lewis in reviving the data center proposal. This time, developer Digital Realty’s proposal includes retail, the option for a community benefits agreement, and “closed-loop water systems” that won’t interfere with the city of Atlanta’s sewage system. This new ordinance unanimously gets referred to Atlanta City Council’s zoning committee on January 28.
Drew Owen, the current president of Adair Park Today, the neighborhood association, says that once he was elected, he felt “rushed” by Digital Realty to make decisions during the transition, such as negotiating a community benefits agreement, which can take up to a year.
Owens felt the intention was to overwhelm. “This has felt like a sprint trying to rush us and push us—a classic scammer tactic of [creating] urgency. You’ve got to sign on this CBA, or else you’re gonna miss out on this—and by signing on the CBA, you have to formally renounce your opposition to the legislation.”
March to April 2026
Mechanicsville Civic Association, Pittsburgh Neighborhood Association and Peopletown Revitalization Corp vote to support the legislation pending an appropriate community benefits agreement.
April 13, 2026
Residents voted 105 to 87 against the data center exemption at an NPU-V meeting, representing Adair Park, Capitol Gateway, Mechanicsville, Peoplestown, Pittsburgh, and Summerhill, as reported by Capital B Atlanta.
April 27, 2026
Councilmember Eshé Collins requested to remove her sponsorship from the legislation, though as she stressed, “My request to remove my name on this legislation does not entail that I don’t support nor approve this project.”
Residents at a meeting for NPU-S—representing Bush Mountain, Cascade Avenue/Road, Fort McPherson, Oakland City, and Venetian Hills—voted unanimously against Councilmember Lewis’ ordinance, according to a letter addressed to Atlanta City Council.
“We believe transit-adjacent areas should remain positioned for uses that maximize neighborhood engagement, housing opportunity, walkability, small business activity, and mixed-use investment aligned with adopted planning goals,” the letter reads.
July 2026
July 9, 2026
Atlanta City Council’s Zoning Review Board voted unanimously to deny the legislation.
July 13, 2026
Devlin Davis, president of the Pittsburgh Neighborhood Association, tells Capital B Atlanta that talks between developer Digital Realty and the neighborhood group about a community benefits agreement have stalled. Pittsburgh Neighborhood Association wanted $35 million, though Digital Realty could only agree to $10 million.
At Councilmember Lewis’ request, Atlanta City Council’s Zoning Committee voted 6-1 to table the legislation. “The vibe in the room was . . . tense,” said one meeting attendee, who spoke to Canopy Atlanta under the conditions of anonymity. “Every couple of minutes, a councilmember would get frustrated and tell the room to stop making noise, stop clapping, stop waving signs . . . But there was a sense of hope that you [can] get enough people gathered around a single issue.”
August 2026
August 3, 2026
Atlanta City Council refers Councilmember Lewis’ ordinance back to its zoning committee.
August 10, 2026
Atlanta City Council’s zoning committee tables the legislation.
August 17, 2026
A group of southwest Atlanta Residents mobilized to show up at the general Atlanta City Council meeting to show resistance against the ordinance, many giving public commentary in opposition.
During the meeting, Bianca Campbell, a resident of Councilmember Lewis’ District 12, said, “I have lived and loved in Sylvan Hills for 10 years and I refuse to lose my home again from the proliferation for data centers . . . We cannot belong here, we cannot endure here, we cannot love here, with the proliferation of data centers . . . I hear my neighbors ask for economic development, and I hear developers respond with a dangling carrot of data centers with retail and mixed use . . . Low wage retail jobs will not cover high electricity bills. Fancy tech jobs will not hire most of us, will not train us, and I want more for my people than low wage jobs . . . People . . . want something better.”
Atlanta City Council passes the ordinance back to its zoning committee for review.
August 21, 2026
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund joined with neighborhood and community groups like SWARM to write a letter to Atlanta City Council: “Atlanta already has two data centers in predominantly Black communities, and it does not need a third. Further concentrating the harms of data centers in Black communities could violate federal law.”
September 2026
September 3, 2026
Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock calls for a statewide moratorium on data centers, amid concerns over higher utility costs and light, noise, and water pollution.
September 8, 2026
Atlanta City Council votes to pass Councilmember Lewis’ ordinance back to its zoning committee for further review.
This story is ongoing.
Editors: Christina Lee and Mariann Martin
Fact Checker: J.P. Irie
Canopy Atlanta Reader: Floyd Hall
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