Forsyth County, GA Data Centers & Crypto Mining: Data Center Noise Limits (2026)

10(g) and (h) set the county's operating noise standard for data centers, a use category the Unified Development Code did not separately address until this section was created on March 6, 2025 in response to a wave of large-scale data center proposals. The decibel limit is measured at the property line of the nearest residentially zoned parcel, not at the data center's own boundary, so the facility has to account for how sound travels across its own setback and buffer before it reaches a neighbor.

it tightens to 55 dBA to protect sleeping hours in adjacent neighborhoods. The rule is written as a performance standard covering the facility's aggregate sound, not just one piece of equipment, so cooling towers, chillers, transformers, and backup generators are all counted together against the same limit. Subsection (h) reinforces the ceiling structurally: all ventilation and cooling equipment must be contained within an enclosed building, subject to the same maximum height requirements that apply to the rest of the structure, with an allowance for ventilation openings at the top of the building where needed.

Hydro cooling systems face an added water-use layer: they cannot connect to or draw from the county water system without the Director of Water and Sewer's case-by-case approval, tying the noise-control equipment choice to a separate utility permitting step.