Talbot County’s planning commission and commissioners will hold public hearings Nov. 23 and Dec. 7 on new data center zoning. County records obtained by 706report show that while the first version was being written, county staff met with a consultant who proposed changes to the rules and with an energy company planning a project in the county. At the two public hearings held so far, the minutes record one public comment, from a speaker with the consultant’s name.
The short version
- Two public hearings are set. The Talbot County Planning Commission meets Monday, Nov. 23, at 6 p.m. The Board of Commissioners meets Monday, Dec. 7, at 10 a.m. Both are at the commissioners’ office, 35 West Madison Street, Talbotton.
- This is the county’s second try. A judge declared the data center amendment the county adopted July 6 void on Oct. 22, after the county agreed it had not followed the required process.
- Records show months of contact with outside parties. Between May and September, county staff met or spoke with a consultant who proposed revisions to the draft rules “based on the hyperscale user requirements,” and with Twenty20 Energy, a company that told the county it was studying “the viability of rezoning the property” for a project.
- One outside speaker at two hearings. At the May 27 planning commission hearing, the minutes record one public comment, from a speaker with the consultant’s name. At the June 1 commissioners’ hearing, the minutes say no one attended to speak for or against.
- The county answered “NO” when 706report asked whether anyone had applied for or asked about a data center permit this year. No application is in the records.
Update, Nov. 6: Harris County is also weighing new industrial land at the corner it shares with Talbot and Muscogee counties. Read the latest: Three Counties, One Corner: The Data Center Dates to Know.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — Talbot County will hold two public hearings this month and next on rules that would allow data centers in the county. Records the county released to 706report on Tuesday show that the first version of those rules was written while county staff were meeting with a consultant who proposed changes “based on the hyperscale user requirements” and with an energy company planning a project in the county.
At the two public hearings held on that first version, in May and June, the only public comment recorded in the minutes came from a speaker with the consultant’s name.
The hearings
The Talbot County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing Monday, Nov. 23, 2026, at 6 p.m. The Talbot County Board of Commissioners will hold its public hearing Monday, Dec. 7, 2026, at 10 a.m. Both hearings are at the Board of Commissioners’ office, 35 West Madison Street, Talbotton.
The county’s legal notice is scheduled to run Nov. 5, 12 and 19 in the Talbotton New Era. It says the hearings will cover:
- definitions of “data center,” “data center development” and “closed-loop cooling system”;
- allowing data centers in Industrial (I-1) districts and as a conditional use in Agricultural (A-1) districts, on parcels that meet the requirements;
- development standards, including minimum lot size, setbacks and buffers, building height and screening, dark-sky lighting, cooling systems and effluent treatment, noise studies and limits on backup generator testing, utility availability, emergency coordination and a decommissioning plan.
“A full copy of the proposed text amendment to the Talbot County Zoning Ordinance is available at the Talbot County Board of Commissioners’ Office,” the notice says. “All interested citizens are invited to attend these hearings.”
The commissioners’ June 1 hearing on the first version was at 6 p.m. The Dec. 7 hearing is at 10 a.m.
How to take part
- Read the proposal: the full text is available at the commissioners’ office, 35 West Madison Street, Talbotton. The office number is 706-665-3220.
- Speak at the planning commission: the commission’s posted procedures for its May hearing required anyone who wished to speak to sign up on a county form before the hearing began.
- Need an accommodation? The notice asks anyone with a disability who needs help to call 706-665-3220 by 4:30 p.m. Nov. 20 for the planning commission hearing, and by 4:30 p.m. Dec. 4 for the commissioners’ hearing.
- Campaign contributions: the notice says anyone who has given more than $250 to a commissioner in the past two years and wants to speak in opposition must file a campaign contribution report at the commissioners’ office at least five days before the hearing.
Why the county is starting over
The commissioners adopted a data center amendment on July 6. Ronnie Wilson and his company, WCR LLC, sued in August. On Oct. 22, Chief Judge John T. Martin Sr. signed a consent judgment in which the county agreed the amendment “was not adopted in compliance with the procedures required by law.” The order declared it void and said any new amendment must go through Planning Commission review and a noticed public hearing. 706report covered the order in “Talbot County Admits It Broke Zoning Law. Its Data Center Ordinance Is Void.“
On Oct. 26, Edward N. Davis, attorney for the commissioners, told 706report the county would go forward with new data center amendments with the help of the River Valley Regional Commission, which he said helps the county with its zoning ordinance and amendments. On Oct. 27, regional commission staff ordered the legal notice for the new hearings, the records show.
What the records show
706report asked Talbot County on Oct. 26 for records about data center applications, inquiries, meetings and drafts since Jan. 1. County Clerk Jona Gibson sent 194 pages on Tuesday.
Spring: “We are being considered”
- April 9. Allison Slocum, assistant director of planning at the River Valley Regional Commission, wrote county staff: “Can we schedule a meeting to discuss what you want in regards to data centers for the county?”
- May 1. Carol Ison, then county manager, sent Slocum a marked-up draft ordinance. “I think we need to push and try and get this approved at the May Planning & Zoning Board meeting,” she wrote. “I heard through the grape vine that we are being considered for a Data Center in Talbot County. I just want to be sure that we are prepared.”
- May 6. Ison wrote Slocum: “Paul and I had a meeting this morning with several key players regarding a proposed Data Center coming to Talbot County.” Paul Higginbotham is the county’s planning and zoning director. Ison said Leigh Ann Green of Development Site Services, Inc. “is reviewing the draft ordinance and is going to send me an email of recommendations.”
- May 11. Green, president of the Senoia firm, sent Ison and Higginbotham a redlined draft. “We have made suggestions based on the hyperscale user requirements,” she wrote.
The records do not say who Green’s client is, or what company the “proposed Data Center” in Ison’s May 6 email was.
The records also show Ison sent the draft ordinance on May 1, and a “final draft” on June 26, to a person using a personal email account. The same person asked for the May 6 meeting, and wrote in June that Green would come along to a June 29 meeting with county official Ronnie Hendricks. The records do not state the person’s affiliation. 706report has asked the county, and the person, in what capacity the person received the drafts.
The public hearings
- May 27, Planning Commission. The hearing ran from 6:02 to 6:57 p.m. The minutes list one public comment, from Leigh Ann Green of “Atlas Development.” She told the commission that data center developers “are willing to comply with any standards.” Green’s emails to the county are signed as president of Development Site Services, Inc.; the records do not explain the connection to Atlas Development. The commission voted unanimously to recommend the rules with conditions, including using National Fire Protection Association standards because the county has no fire marshal.
- June 1, Board of Commissioners. The hearing ran from 6 to 6:32 p.m. Commissioners asked about decommissioning, green energy and stormwater and tabled the amendments. “No one was in attendance in support of or opposition to any amendments to the zoning ordinance,” the minutes say.
- June 3. Green wrote Slocum, copying Ison and Higginbotham, “about some of the concerns that the commissioners had at the meeting Monday night.” She wrote that “the requirement to use around 15% of renewable energy could become an issue,” and that “in lieu of a bond a lot of communities are requiring a fund be put in place” for decommissioning. She included “the verbiage that Columbus added to the Decommissioning section” of its data center rules.
The July 6 vote
- June 16-17. Ison wrote Davis that Slocum “couldn’t get the Data Center advertisement to the legal organ for the July 6th meeting.” Davis replied: “The public hearing has already been held, and the decision was deferred until this meeting. We should not have to advertise again.”
- About June 23. Morgan Knol, chief operating officer of Twenty20 Energy, met Ison in person. “I was particularly encouraged to hear that the County is interested in attracting investment in data centres and power generation infrastructure,” Knol wrote afterward. “We are continuing our due diligence on the land parcel within the County and will need to work closely with you and your team to better understand the viability of rezoning the property to support the proposed development.” He asked about “the anticipated timeline for the County’s new zoning ordinance.”
- July 6, 9:02 a.m. Knol wrote Hendricks, by then county manager: “I believe you are already broadly aware of Twenty20 Energy and our planned development within the county.”
- July 6, evening. The amendment was on the commissioners’ agenda under Old Business. Slocum “returned to review changes to zoning amendments for data center development presented at the last meeting,” the minutes say. The commissioners approved the amendment “with changes,” unanimously.
Summer and fall: Twenty20 Energy
Twenty20 Energy’s emails list an address in Dubai and refer to T20 Holdings Pte Ltd. The company’s chief executive, chief financial officer and project director were copied on its emails to the county.
- July 13. Hendricks accepted an invitation to a video call with the company and was copied on an automated summary of it, produced by a note-taking app. The summary describes a “250 MW gas turbine plant for 150 MW digital load, scalable to gigawatt levels.” It also says: “Talbot County approved data center ordinance; 30-day wait before rezoning applications; early materials submission planned.”
- Aug. 10. Ison, signing as chief financial officer, wrote Slocum that Commissioner Anthony Couch “stopped by the office this morning and said he heard we were getting sued for not properly advertising the public hearing for the Data Center Ordinance.” The suit had been filed Aug. 7.
- Aug. 21. Callum Easton, Twenty20’s project director, set up a meeting at the county office for Aug. 25 “to discuss the project overview and pathway to zoning approval. In addition, I would like to discuss other approvals such as PSD Air Permit and building permit etc.” The calendar entry is titled “Talbot Dev Authority / Twenty20 Energy.”
- Sept. 21. “Following our meeting on 25th August,” Easton sent an invitation for a video meeting Sept. 23 “to understand how the zoning is looking within Talbot County.” The calendar entry is marked tentative; the records do not show whether it took place.
The records do not say where Twenty20’s land parcel is. They do not say whether Twenty20 is connected to Green or to the “proposed Data Center” in Ison’s May 6 email. The records do not mention Project Ruby, the code name for the data center proposal at the center of the Columbus overlay case.
Columbus material in the file
The county’s response also includes the Columbus Chamber of Commerce’s “Unofficial Data Center Overlay Ordinance Review” and two copies of Columbus’s Technology Overlay ordinance “annotated with recommended edits from the Data Center Zoning Committee – May 2026.” No email in the response shows who sent them to the county or when.
What the county told 706report
706report asked the county: “Has anyone applied for, or asked about, a permit, rezoning, conditional use or development agreement for a data center in Talbot County this year?”
The county’s answer, in Gibson’s Nov. 3 email: “NO.”
For applications, permits and development agreements, the county answered “NONE.” No application is in the records. The records include Knol’s June email about “the viability of rezoning the property” and Easton’s August request to discuss “pathway to zoning approval” and permits.
For the other parts of the request, the county answered “SEE ATTACHMENT.” It did not cite any exemption.
Questions we are still asking
706report sent written questions on Nov. 3 to Talbot County, Twenty20 Energy, Leigh Ann Green and the person who received the drafts, and will update this story with their answers.
- Who is the “proposed Data Center” Ison described May 6, and who were the “several key players” at that meeting?
- Who is Leigh Ann Green’s client? Was she representing Twenty20 Energy, another company or a landowner?
- Where is Twenty20 Energy’s project? Has the company filed, or scheduled, a rezoning application?
- What changed between the version heard in May and June and the version adopted July 6, and what is different in the version going to hearing Nov. 23?
- Why is the commissioners’ Dec. 7 hearing at 10 a.m., when the June 1 hearing was at 6 p.m.?
- What happened at the Aug. 25 meeting, and did the Sept. 23 meeting take place? What is the “Talbot Dev Authority” named in the calendar entry?
- Who sent the county the Columbus Chamber review and the annotated Columbus ordinance?
We have also asked the county for records it did not include, among them notes of the August and September meetings and the June 26 “final draft.”
Do you live in Talbot County or near the Muscogee-Talbot line? Have you been contacted about selling or leasing land for a data center? Tell us through our contact form.
Notes on sourcing.
County records: 194 pages released by Talbot County Clerk Jona Gibson on Nov. 3, 2026, in response to 706report’s Oct. 26 Open Records request. They include emails, calendar entries, drafts, legal notices, and Planning Commission and Board of Commissioners agendas and minutes. The pages are scanned images; quotes were checked against the page images.
The call summary: the July 13 summary was generated automatically by a note-taking app, not written by a participant. It is quoted as the app’s summary, not as statements by the county or the company.
Personal information in the records, including private phone numbers, personal email addresses and the names of private landowners, is not published.
The consent judgment: WCR, LLC, et al. v. Talbot County, Georgia, et al., Civil Action File No. 2026-CV-084, Talbot County Superior Court, signed Oct. 22, 2026.
Davis’s comments: email to 706report, Oct. 26, 2026.
Disclosure: 706report wrote the People’s Overlay, a set of proposed protections submitted to Columbus Council during the overlay debate.
