Author: Tee Johnson

In a packed county meeting, 28-year-old Brianna Rice stood at the podium in a red shirt, her voice steady but urgent, as she fought for the survival of her family’s cattle farm in Coweta County, Georgia. The moment, captured in a video that exploded across social media, has ignited widespread outrage over the use of eminent domain to clear the way for power infrastructure supporting a $17 billion hyperscale data center project.

“I’m 28 years old. While most people my age are planning vacations… I’m fighting for survival of my cattle farm because a massive data center was approved just miles from my land — and I’m being hounded by Georgia Power to build transmission lines through my property for the data center,” Rice said of the Coweta County imminent domain case.

Coweta County imminent Domain Case: Farmer Speaks Out

She continued: “I’m a local farmer, not an industrial developer. These 500-kV lines aren’t for me. They are for the data centers that the boards and surrounding counties continue to approve. I have mail from lawyers stacking up on my kitchen table wanting to take my case because they know my land is being targeted for eminent domain. These easements are permanent. They affect my ability to graze my cattle, they lower my property value, and they destroy the rural character of this county forever.”

Why data centers are popping up throughout Georgia.

Rice emphasized the human cost: “This board makes decisions to approve these massive projects, but it’s residents like me — young people trying to build a life here — who pay the price.

You’re voting to turn our farms into a network of high-voltage wires and noisy industrial buildings. Every time you say yes to a data center, you’re saying no to a local farmer. We aren’t just numbers on a map. We are the future of the county, and right now you’re making that future impossible.”

The controversy centers on Project Sail, a sprawling data center campus developed by Prologis (in partnership with Atlas Development) on 829 acres of former rural conservation land southwest of Atlanta, near Newnan.

Approved by the Coweta County Board of Commissioners in a narrow 3-2 vote in April 2026, the $17 billion project calls for up to nine buildings totaling 4.34 million square feet and up to 900 MW of power capacity — enough to rival the energy needs of a small city.

To feed the explosive growth in data centers driven by artificial intelligence and cloud computing, Georgia Power is planning a 35-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line project. It will impact more than 330 private properties across Coweta and Fayette counties, including full acquisitions and demolitions of roughly 20-30 homes.

The utility says it will first negotiate purchases and easements but will resort to eminent domain if necessary to “strengthen the grid” amid surging electricity demand from data centers.

Critics, including Rice and dozens of other residents, argue the project prioritizes corporate tech interests over generational family farms and rural communities. Nearly 20 residents have already filed lawsuits challenging the county’s rezoning decision, claiming the land — designated as a “Most Significant Groundwater Recharge Area” — should remain protected.

State Senator Greg Dolezal has visited affected properties and publicly called eminent domain for data centers “absurd,” especially given the tax incentives Georgia offers to attract such developments.

Public opposition has grown rapidly, with residents organizing under slogans like “No Farms, No Food” and highlighting how permanent easements could forever alter the landscape.

Rice’s comments underscore a broader national tension. As AI demand skyrockets, utilities and developers are racing to build massive infrastructure, often in rural areas where land is cheaper and less regulated. Georgia has become a hotspot for data centers, but locals warn the hidden costs — lost farmland, disrupted communities, and strained power grids — are too high.

Rice closed her remarks with a pointed message to the board: “Respectfully, take that cow off the logo.”

Her words, now amplified across social media, have become a rallying cry for those who believe America’s heartland should not be sacrificed for silicon valleys of servers.

As lawsuits proceed and more families face the threat of losing their land, the debate in Coweta County is far from over. It raises urgent questions: In the rush to power the AI revolution, who truly pays the price — and at what cost to America’s rural way of life?