A temporary moratorium bars the City from accepting, reviewing, approving, or granting new applications for data-center zoning, rezoning, development, redevelopment, platting, construction, permits, land uses, and land disturbances through October 13, 2026, unless revoked earlier. Existing land uses with permits issued before the extension are exempt.

Data centers may be built only in zoning districts where they are a permitted use, and each site must contain at least 200 contiguous acres.

The site must have a power-transmission-line right-of-way crossing it or immediately adjacent to and abutting it.

Server or computing buildings must generally be at least 500 feet from existing residential dwellings, measured wall-to-wall. The distance may be reduced to 350 feet only if a berm and additional vegetation are installed. The measurement excludes property owned or controlled by the data-center owner or operator.

Server or computing buildings must be at least 1,000 feet from existing public schools, places of worship, and hospitals.

Data centers must provide vegetation or plantings to screen all data-center buildings from adjoining residential dwellings.

Buildings may not be constructed in a FEMA-designated 100-year floodplain unless properly mitigated through a Letter of Map Revision or other applicable FEMA approval.

Each data center must have direct access to a state, federal, city, or county road capable of carrying heavy truck traffic, as determined by specified city officials.

Construction traffic must use routes pre-approved by the City, and the applicant must submit a traffic study identifying required road improvements and proposed construction routes.

Bridges on construction traffic routes must be evaluated to confirm that their weight limits are adequate.

Data-center buildings must observe 200-foot front, side, and rear setbacks, and a 100-foot setback from industrial or commercially zoned property, subject to the separate residential setback rules.

A minimum 100-foot buffer is required along exterior property lines, and a minimum 50-foot buffer is required along existing public-road rights-of-way, excluding access points.

Disturbed buffer areas must be replanted to maintain visual screening. Where existing vegetation is insufficient, specified tree density, species composition, minimum planting height, irrigation, and twice-yearly fertilization requirements apply; a one-year landscape bond must also be posted.

Data-center buildings and mechanical equipment are limited to a maximum height of 80 feet unless a variance or special exception is approved, with FAA or Robins Air Force Base approvals required where applicable.

The City must study storm drainage, water and sewer infrastructure, and roads that may require upgrades because of the project. The owner or operator must fund the study, plan, and required upgrades, improvements, expansions, or mitigations.

Structures must have permanent concrete foundations, use muted earth-tone exterior colors, and may not use shipping containers, railroad cars, semi-trailers, or similar temporary units for permanent non-construction storage.

Backup generators must meet EPA Tier IV emissions standards.

Continuous operational noise is limited to an average of 70 dBA and 75 dBC during 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and 60 dBA and 70 dBC during 6 p.m. to 8 a.m., measured over 30 minutes at the shared property line with qualifying residential property. Emergency backup generation and utility curtailment are exempt.

The owner or operator must pay for continuous, 24-hour-per-day, seven-day-per-week perimeter sound monitoring by a third-party service, including dBA and dBC monitoring and immediate violation notifications to the City.

Data centers must use specified sound-attenuation best practices, and periodic post-occupancy verification must be performed by an INCE Board Certified engineer using third-octave-band analysis.

Noise violations can result in fines of up to $1,000 per day, increasing to up to $10,000 per day if unresolved after 30 days.

Water use may not exceed 1.8 gallons per kilowatt-hour of electricity per day, based on the electric utility's written power-allotment verification.

Closed-loop cooling systems are required. Recycled or non-potable water must be used first once available, and cooling-water discharges to public sewers require applicable pretreatment and monitoring.

The owner or operator must pay for water and sewer infrastructure extensions or construction needed to support data-center operations.

Water-based cooling facilities must submit annual water-use and efficiency reports, use water-efficient technologies, prioritize reclaimed or recycled water and on-site storage, and install metering capable of providing real-time usage data upon request.

Data centers may not directly connect to surface-water sources, aquifers, or existing wells, and existing wells on the property may not be used by the owner or operator.

Before a land-disturbance permit is issued, the owner or operator must provide written utility verification that sufficient grid capacity and outage redundancy exist, or provide a utility infrastructure agreement or conditional service commitment if upgrades are being funded.

Applicants must disclose projected annual energy use when applying for a land-disturbance permit.

Data centers must comply with applicable EPA and Georgia environmental, sustainability, emissions, and Clean Air Act requirements.

The owner or operator must pay the City $500,000 for each 300,000 square feet of data-center building toward fire-department equipment, with payment due before the certificate of occupancy for each building.

An eight-foot perimeter security fence is required, and exterior lighting must be directed downward and limited to the minimum necessary for safe operation and security.

An owner or controlling party is ineligible if it or its ultimate parent is on specified federal restricted-party lists, is majority-owned or controlled by certain foreign governments identified as national-security risks, or has a qualifying human-trafficking felony conviction.

No data center may be developed or operated without City site-plan review and approval confirming compliance with the chapter, applicable land-development ordinances, and any required DRI process.

A pre-application meeting with the developer, applicant, property owner, and other necessary parties is required before a data-center application may be accepted.

The pre-application process must address potential blasting, effects on nearby wells, local power availability, roadway and bridge damage, and mitigation measures.

Applications must disclose projected energy and water demands, and any variance or special-exception request requires advertised public hearings before the Planning and Zoning Board and City Council.

Data centers exceeding applicable DRI thresholds must undergo regional DRI review coordinated by the Middle Georgia Regional Commission.

Permanent decommissioning requires at least 12 months' advance notice, a City-shared decommissioning plan, and owner-funded removal and cleanup.

The owner or operator must provide a decommissioning bond from a AAA-rated insurer, in an amount sufficient for complete cleanup and maintenance, for a 24-month period.

A data-center development may be required to enter into an agreement preserving payments to the City equivalent to applicable electric and natural-gas franchise fees for up to 20 years after a state or federal law change eliminates or reduces those fees, subject to specified offsets.

Allows financial incentives through an Economic Development Agreement or other arrangement with the Byron Development Authority, subject to limits that payments may not exceed those without bond financing and that taxes under a payment-in-lieu structure must be no greater than otherwise applicable. financial incentives

Provides that data centers are permitted uses in the A-1 agricultural zoning district, as adopted through Ordinance 2026-6. providing for data centers as permitted uses in the A-1 zoning district

Requires site-plan approval to verify compliance, but states that approval shall not be unreasonably withheld, creating a limit on discretionary denial. approval shall not be unreasonably withheld

Limits public-hearing requirements to applications requesting a variance or special exception; ordinary site-plan applications are not expressly subjected to that additional hearing process. any application which requests a variance or special exception

Permits a residential setback to be reduced from 500 feet to 350 feet when a berm and additional vegetation are installed. the setback can be reduced to 350 feet

Requires the City to identify infrastructure upgrades needed solely because of the data center and to plan and execute those projects through its consulting engineers, although the owner/operator must fund the study and necessary improvements. The City shall conduct a study

Allows grid-capacity verification to be satisfied by a utility infrastructure agreement or conditional service commitment when the data center is funding transmission or substation upgrades. satisfied by a utility-executed infrastructure agreement

Creates a water-use ceiling and requires closed-loop cooling, but allows more efficient, lower-water technologies and permits cooling-water discharge without pre-treatment when the discharge constituents do not require it. Pre-treatment may not be required

Exempts emergency operation from the ordinary noise limits, including operation of backup generators during power outages or utility curtailments. These restrictions shall not apply during emergency situations

Provides a compliance pathway for deviations from the chapter through the Zoning Review Board's special-exception procedures. Any deviation from this chapter may be considered

Applies the chapter to new facilities and substantial modifications defined as expansions increasing floor area by 25% or more, so smaller expansions are not identified as substantial modifications under this chapter. expansion increasing floor area by 25% or more

Exempts current land uses for which the City issued a permit before the moratorium extension's effective date, protecting those permitted operations from the moratorium. This moratorium extension shall not be applicable to any current land uses for which a permit has been issued

Requires the data center owner/operator to pay $500,000 per 300,000 square feet toward fire-response equipment, allowing the facility to obtain a certificate of occupancy after the required payment is made for each building. The fee shall be paid prior to the CO being issued