A metro Atlanta film production company is asking DeKalb County to let it move ahead with a data center on land it already controls in southwest DeKalb.
Shadowbox Studios filed suit in August, arguing that the county construction moratorium in place since July 2025 was applied to its project illegally. The company states that DeKalb had already approved the data center before the moratorium took effect and that it has spent about 30 million dollars on the project so far.
The next step comes on Sept. 9, when Shadowbox is scheduled to appear before the DeKalb County zoning board of appeals and ask the board to reverse its denial of the company's data center application. County records show residents have until Sept. 3 to submit written comments to the DeKalb County Department of Planning and Sustainability.
A separate proposal to commission an independent environmental health study on data center impacts across DeKalb is set to reach the county agenda in roughly two weeks. Supporters of the study want its findings in hand before any ground is broken, so that future county rules rest on measured evidence.
DeKalb sits inside one of the fastest growing data center corridors in the Southeast, where several metro Atlanta counties have paused or tightened approvals while utilities and local governments work through power, water and land use questions. The outcome of the Shadowbox appeal will show how DeKalb intends to treat projects that received approval before the moratorium took hold.
Source: Atlanta News First - https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2026/09/02/film-production-studio-wants-dekalb-county-allow-data-center-construction/