FORSYTH, Ga. — After months of heated battles over hyperscale data centers, Monroe County commissioners passed a moratorium Tuesday night on new data center applications.

The application was passed while they work to rewrite zoning rules, and a citizen-led proposal modeled after a Connecticut town's ordinance is gaining traction as the potential solution.

The proposal, dubbed "the Groton solution" after Groton, Connecticut's 2023 regulations, would impose strict size caps, ban water cooling systems and mandate spacing requirements that would make it economically unfeasible for tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft and Google to build massive server farms in Monroe County, all without legally "banning" data centers outright.

Joshua Pruitt, a Monroe County resident who lives on High Falls L

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