Georgia County Tables Site Plan for OpenAI's Project Camellia Data Centre

The application came from Octans GA LLC, an OpenAI affiliate. OpenAI announced the roughly $20 billion project in July. It is the second delay for the site plan: the vote was first set for September, and the developer asked for a postponement in mid-September.

According to WTOC, the formal plan covers about 1,347 acres across two parcels in the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub near Rincon. It includes six data centre buildings of about 42 feet each, a 100,000-square-foot warehouse, a 75,000-square-foot operations building, three on-site electrical substations and industrial chillers for cooling. Early conceptual filings showed four buildings.

County planning staff had recommended approval, concluding that the plan met the standards for the county's I-1 industrial zoning. Opposition has continued anyway. County mapping shows parts of the site in freshwater wetlands and FEMA flood zones, residents have called for a full moratorium on development, and legal challenges to the project remain unresolved. The Effingham Herald reported before the meeting that the vote fell one day before the public comment period closes on a federal permit to fill 72 acres of wetlands at the site.

The decision came on US Election Day, when data centre power use, water consumption and local opposition had become campaign issues in several states. For OpenAI, which is racing to add computing capacity, the Georgia site is another sign that local approvals can slow large AI infrastructure projects even after the zoning has been settled.