Kingston Data Center Vote Nears as Bartow Weighs Growth and Home Values

A proposed $1 billion data center outside Kingston goes before the City Council for its first public hearing on Monday, Oct. 26, after the city’s zoning board unanimously recommended denial, as Bartow County communities weigh large industrial projects against concerns over water, noise and home values.

Zoning board recommends against the Kingston Technology Hub

The Kingston Unified Zoning Board voted at its Oct. 15 meeting to recommend that the city deny an annexation request from Thor Acquisition WC LLC, an affiliate of New York-based Thor Equities, The Daily Tribune News reported. All three members present voted for denial; two members were absent.

The site covers roughly 560 acres off Highway 293 and Law Road. Figures differ slightly by document: the state filing lists about 559 acres, the zoning application about 561.5, and a Thor executive cited 563 at an earlier council session. The plan calls for a single data center building of about 350,000 square feet.

According to the company’s Development of Regional Impact filing with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, submitted Sept. 4, and coverage by Bisnow and DatacenterDynamics, the project is valued at about $1 billion and would draw 150 megawatts of power, which Bisnow reported would be supplied by the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia. It is expected to use about 50,000 gallons of water a day, employ about 50 people full time and generate at least $2 million a year in local tax revenue, with completion targeted for 2030.

The council’s first public hearing is set for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, with a second reading and final vote at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2, both in council chambers at 30 W. Main St.

What the developer promises and what neighbors fear

Greg Berman, an executive vice president at Thor Equities, told the zoning board the site already has electrical infrastructure, that Thor would pay for a new sewer line serving the Law Road area and downtown Kingston, and that the facility would draw water from the county system rather than an on-site well. He said the building would be inaudible beyond the property and screened from Law Road, about two-thirds of a mile away, by a hill. He described the projected tax revenue as roughly double the city’s desired budget.

At an Oct. 5 council work session, Thor’s vice president of development and construction, Peter McEneaney, said the building’s footprint would cover less than 100 acres of the site and that it would use closed-loop cooling.

Residents who spoke raised questions about groundwater and private wells, the glycol used in cooling systems, and the noise of diesel backup generators. Zoning board member Don Jenkins said he was concerned for Law Road residents because generators and cooling equipment can run continuously. One resident framed the stakes for homeowners bluntly: “Nobody is going to move next to a data center.”

Euharlee writes rules before any project arrives

Elsewhere in western Bartow, Euharlee is drafting a data center ordinance even though no specific project has been identified there. At its Oct. 20 meeting, the City Council postponed the ordinance’s second reading and vote to Nov. 3 because of heavy public interest, and scheduled a town hall for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27. Mayor Craig Guyton said the expert panel will not include industry representatives.

City Manager James Stephens said the draft was revised after resident input. Any data center would have to file a decommissioning plan, use public water rather than wells, pay for its own infrastructure, maintain an emergency response plan with regular drills, complete an environmental impact assessment and identify a verified end user.

Data center demand is also driving new power infrastructure. Georgia Transmission Corp. held an open house in Cartersville on Oct. 22 for a planned 230-kilovolt line running about 5.17 miles through Bartow and Paulding counties, including about 3.84 miles in Bartow affecting roughly 17 landowners. The line will serve the Switch data center campus and surrounding area, with clearing expected in the second quarter of 2027 and service by the second quarter of 2028.

A grocery store and townhomes win approval

Not every growth decision this month went against developers. On Oct. 14, Commissioner Steve Taylor, who decides zoning cases as Bartow County’s sole commissioner, approved a Kroger rezoning at Fire Tower Road and Joe Frank Harris Parkway in the Cassville area. The plan includes a 99,000-square-foot store, about 9,800 square feet of shop space and four outparcels. Taylor added conditions for an evergreen buffer, a residents-only gate on Pettit Circle, dark-sky lighting and weekday construction hours of 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Kroger will not get access to Fire Tower Road until the road is improved.

Taylor also approved about 107 townhomes on 17.5 acres at 6870 Allatoona Gateway, rezoned from agricultural to multifamily residential, with a minimum of 1,200 square feet per unit and a mandatory homeowners association. Neighbors cited traffic, narrow roads and drainage. Taylor said he understood “the community’s pain as far as seeing development there.”

What research says about data centers and home prices

The evidence on data centers and nearby home values is mixed, and the studies most often cited disagree. HousingWire reported in July that University of Rochester research found little measurable effect on nearby prices, while a George Mason University-led study found new data centers slowed local price growth. Data Center Knowledge, by contrast, described a 2025 George Mason analysis of northern Virginia sales that found homes closest to data centers sold for more than comparable homes farther away, which researchers linked to data centers locating where infrastructure is strong. Findings from Loudoun County’s dense data center corridor may not translate to rural Bartow.

The decisions arrive in a softer local market. Redfin data for August show Bartow County’s median sale price at about $319,000, down 6.2% from a year earlier, with homes taking a median 75 days to sell.

The Sherry’s Homes Take

For homeowners near Highway 293 and Law Road, the near-term issue is uncertainty. An undecided project of this size can make buyers cautious, and that caution can show up in showings before any vote is taken. Once the outcome is known, buyers can price the actual setbacks, screening and noise controls rather than the worst case.

Over the longer run, the effects cut both ways. A sewer extension of the kind Thor has offered can make nearby land more valuable for development, and large industrial taxpayers can ease pressure on residential property taxes. Continuous generator or cooling noise, on the other hand, would weigh on homes closest to the site. The research does not settle which effect wins, which is why the specific conditions written into any approval matter.

The Cassville Kroger is a more familiar trade-off. A full-service grocery nearby is generally a selling point, while the traffic concerns neighbors raised are real for homes along Fire Tower Road until improvements are built.

What it means for you

• Kingston-area owners: The first public hearing is 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, and the final vote is set for Nov. 2 at 30 W. Main St.
• Euharlee residents: The data center town hall is 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, ahead of a Nov. 3 council vote on the ordinance.
• Buyers: Before making an offer in rural Bartow, check county and city agendas and the state’s Development of Regional Impact list for pending projects near the property.
• Sellers near approved projects: Expect buyers to ask about road improvements, buffers and construction timelines; having the approval conditions on hand can shorten that conversation.