The ACC Commission extends data center ban, considers affordable housing

The ACC Commission has extended the ban on new data center construction until June 5. They also considered a set of affordable housing recommendations, but some commissioners have cold feet.

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TRANSCRIPT

Last year, the ACC Commission temporarily banned new data construction in Athens. On Tuesday, they voted to extend that ban until June 5 after hearing a number of speakers who are opposed to data centers, including some college students.

“I want to thank the young people who are here today, particularly the young man who stood up and warned about using ChatGPT and other AI technologies…Technology which is quite literally destroying our planet and our societies.”

At the same meeting, Commissioners also asked ACC planners to develop a set of affordable housing recommendations and turn them into actual policies that could be voted on. But it wasn’t a unanimous decision.

“I appreciate what the resolution is trying to do in moving stuff forward, but … you know unfortunately I’m not going to be able to support it because I don’t think the resolution adds enough guidance to the planning commission about what it is that we would hope to achieve…I think we just need to tread carefully and offer more guidance to our planning commission so we don’t box ourselves in and so that we don’t bring up expectations that we won’t be able to meet.”

Commissioner Mike Hamby voted against the recommendations out of a concern that his constituents probably wouldn’t want smaller, more affordable housing types like duplexes, townhomes or tiny houses springing up in their neighborhood.

But Commissioner Ovita Thornton spoke out for the recommendations, saying that denying these types of housing is part of the racist legacy of segregation.

“A lot of the zoning that we have are discriminatory. They were written to be discriminatory. They were written to be racist…So any way we can attack racism. If it makes some other folk uncomfortable, we’ve been uncomfortable for a long time.”