Local votes and rules
⚖️ Court case · Unincorporated Effingham County
Five residents and the group One Hundred Miles sued the county's development authority. They say it did not give proper notice or a real agenda before the July vote that tied county land to OpenAI's company and gave it a 50% property tax break. They ask a judge to throw out those deals.
📌 Other · Unincorporated Effingham County
The county took the OpenAI data center site plan off its September 15 meeting agenda to give staff more time to review it. No new vote date was given in the report.
⚖️ Court case · Unincorporated Effingham County
Three residents sued Effingham County. They say the county skipped a required public hearing when it changed its industrial zoning to allow data centers with no conditions. That change cleared the way for the planned OpenAI data center near Rincon. They ask the court to throw out the change.
🤝 Agreement with the company · Unincorporated Effingham County
The county's development authority approved a tax break deal for OpenAI's planned $20 billion data center (Project Camellia) on 1,440 acres near Rincon. OpenAI gets a 50% property tax cut for 15 years, worth about $870 million, and locks in the 2026 tax rate. It must report each year and meet goals of $20 billion invested and 400 jobs at first.
📜 Data center rules · Rincon
Rincon passed a zoning rule that defines data centers and allows them only in large industrial areas of at least 200 acres.
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In Georgia, cities and towns decide inside their limits. Outside them, the county decides.