Ordinance to address data center absent from city council agenda

An ordinance to address guidelines for a proposed data center in Muscogee County is not on the city council’s agenda for Tuesday. Citizens were anticipating a first reading of the ordinance on the city manager’s agenda April 14, 2026. The ordinance would create a technology overlay district which would establish strict guidelines for a data center.

The Clerk of Council Lindsey McLemore confirmed to Now Georgia that there are “advertising regulations” that prevented scheduling the technology overlay district on the city council’s agenda this week. Once the Planning Advisory Commission (PAC) approved the ordinance it must be advertised for an amount of time before council can consider the matter the clerk said.

The PAC approved a request to amend the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to create a technology overlay district with a condition that the city create a committee to study all of the issues associated with a data center. The commission makes recommendations to city council whether to approve or deny development and rezoning requests. The PAC is recommending the city approve the ordinance.

The technology overlay district could become home to Project Ruby a proposed hyperscale data center in the Upatoi area of Muscogee County. The proposition has been met with swift backlash from members across the community against building a data center.

While the ordinance is delayed people are still packing the city council meeting to sound off on the data center. There are 20 citizens scheduled to speak on the public agenda many of whom want to voice their concerns about the proposed data center. There have been a few people in favor of a data center, but they are in the minority despite several town hall meetings and forums to address public concerns.