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LEESBURG, Ga. (WALB) - Lee County commissioners are weighing an extension of the county’s moratorium on data center development through the end of 2026, saying the pause is meant to give leaders time to put rules in place—not to recruit the projects.

The current freeze on data centers is set to expire in July. During their May 26, 2026 meeting, County leaders emphasized there are currently no applications or letters of interest for data centers in Lee County.

“We currently do not have any provisions in our ordinances to identify, define, or tell us how to permit a data center. So we don’t have any protections in place,” said Scott Addison, county manager.

Since the first moratorium was adopted, the county manager has worked with the county attorney, consultants, and legal experts to draft a data center ordinance. The proposed ordinance would create a new zoning district specifically for data center developments.

Commission Chairman, Luke Singletary, said they are trying to get ahead of any applications so no data center developers are “grandfathered in” by current ordinances, which have no rules or regulations for centers spelled out.

“Well, we’ve had other businesses in the past that we didn’t have our rules around and they came in and then we developed rules and of course they don’t have to abide by the same rules. Fortunately, most of these people have chose to abide by rules that were implemented after their application, but we can’t count on that,” Singletary explained.

Commissioners reassured the public once the draft ordinance is ready, it will be released for community feedback.

“We’re taking it slow. We’re not rushing into this. This is not something that’s trying to be done outside of the eye of the public. We have already gotten a lot of public input and we’ll continue to take public input on this,” Singletary said.

Because the resolution to amend the moratorium was not prepared before the May 26 meeting, commissioners said they plan to hold an official vote at their next scheduled meeting on June 9, 2026.

You can watch the county commission meeting below. The meeting ended “abruptly ended due to technical difficulties,” according to officials.

This is a developing story, stay with WALB for updates.

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