Resident calls out data center proposal for having four completely redacted pages

Our Take

This is the buildout playbook in miniature: a rezoning vote, a stack of paper with four pages blacked out entirely and more redacted in between, a resident asking the obvious question, and a council that approves it anyway. Credit to More Perfect Union for putting a camera on the moment residents are usually told doesn't matter — the part where the public asks what they're actually signing off on and gets silence instead of an answer.

Redacted pages in a public zoning file aren't a technicality. Rezoning is the one moment a community has real leverage — before the concrete's poured, before the water and power contracts are locked in, before the tax abatements are baked into a decade-long deal. If the load projections, water use, or incentive terms are hidden behind 'trade secret' claims at that exact moment, the public is being asked to vote blind on the thing that will show up in their utility bills and their water tables for the next 20 years.

Marietta isn't unique — it's the template. Councils across the country are approving these deals on thin public information and thinner public patience for pushback. If there's a project like this near you, check our facility map to see what's already been approved nearby, and use our take-action page to find out how to actually get answers before your council's vote, not after.