SPRINGFIELD, Ga. — The Effingham County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to table a vote on the OpenAI data center site plan until Nov. 17.

District 2 Commissioner Roger Burdette made the motion to table the site plan vote after an extended back-and-forth with Rich Modliszewski, the Octans GA LLC representative presenting the Project Camellia site plan. Burdette said Modliszewski’s presentation lacked clarity and conflicted with conversations he had had with OpenAI representatives, particularly regarding berms intended to mitigate noise.

“I’ve been talking about a berm since day one,” Burdette said. “I was told we were going to have a 20-foot berm, that if we needed to add something extra like a concave acoustic wall that we would do that. If I can’t get approval on some dirt tonight then I can’t stand behind this site plan.”

District 4 Commissioner Beth Helmly also announced that the Board of Commissioners would discuss a data center moratorium at its next meeting.

Commissioners also voted to approve the Effingham County Zoning Ordinance and adopt the county's official zoning map, completing unfinished business from their previous meeting.

Site plan discussion

The site plan for the proposed Project Camellia campus at the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub covers approximately 1,347 acres and includes six data center buildings, a warehouse, an operations building, two electrical substations, cooling infrastructure, electrical yards and approximately 1,600 parking spaces.

However, it contained no written commitment to construct a 20-foot dirt berm along Hodgeville Road, which borders high-density residential neighborhoods.

Commissioners raised questions about water and sewer service, wetland impacts and the generators that would be used after construction. OpenAI had previously committed to using battery storage as backup power for the data centers. Modliszewski clarified that generators would be used for “life safety and security systems,” not to power the data center buildings.

He deferred many of the questions to engineers from Thomas & Hutton, calling them forward to respond or saying he could provide answers later.

“I’m not an engineer,” he told commissioners. “I was here to talk about the merits of the site plan and its conformity to the ordinance. Most of the questions tonight had absolutely nothing to do with conforming to the zoning ordinance. A lot of that needs to be settled during the development plan application when the engineering is actually complete. This is a preliminary site plan.”

When Burdette pressed him about the promised 20-foot berm, Modliszewski initially could not confirm it.

He said some form of noise mitigation would be provided in accordance with zoning requirements.

After a brief recess requested by Burdette, during which Modliszewski took a phone call in a corner of the commission chamber, the Octans GA representative returned and said he could promise a 20-foot berm.

That did not satisfy Burdette, who stood by his motion to table the vote.

“I expected tonight to have somebody with the capabilities of coming here and telling people about this project and we haven't had that,” Burdette said. “I really appreciate what all of OpenAI has done for us so far, but safety's got to be number one, and we have to have reassurance of that, and I don’t have that assurance.”

He said he hoped to have more questions answered by Nov. 17.

Residents voice concerns

Effingham County residents filled the commission chamber to capacity despite the election-night meeting. Some wore “No Data Center” stickers alongside their “I Voted” stickers on their T-shirts. Members of the Protect Effingham Alliance distributed instructions for a silent protest in anticipation of what many expected would be approval of the OpenAI site plan.

Alexis Lane and Anna Lee HeidtHarris, co-founders of Protect Effingham, joined other residents in celebrating the decision to table the site plan but said significant concerns remain.

“Obviously we’re appreciative of the tabling,” HeidtHarris said. “We definitely need more time.”

However, she said the presentation made clear that OpenAI was focused on meeting requirements rather than honoring verbal commitments.

“I wish that they would put this much passion into worrying about other aspects of the project as they are for these berms,” Lane said. “There are a tremendous amount of concerns other than that that they don’t seem to be worried about.”

She cited the revised site plan's increase in proposed data center building heights to 42 feet as one of those concerns.

County resident Jerri Howell distributed petitions seeking amendments to the Effingham County Code of Ordinances that would revise data center definitions and prohibit data centers in all zoning districts.

The petition drive began about a month ago, and Howell said it had already collected more than 1,500 signatures. Even if OpenAI's site plan is eventually approved, she said, the petition's goal is to establish more safeguards for future development proposals.

As for a potential moratorium, Howell said it was too little, too late.

“We've already given access to what is arguably one of the largest if not the largest hyperscale data center in the country,” she said. “I feel like we're doing a moratorium to save face as opposed to pressing pause and actively thinking through this.”