Key points
- Three residents sued Effingham County over data center zoning
- They say officials skipped a required public hearing
- OpenAI's Project Camellia is a $20 billion campus
- OpenAI announced $4.8 million for school meals the day before
Three residents of Effingham County, Georgia have sued their county commission over the zoning change that cleared the way for OpenAI's $20 billion data center, saying officials skipped a public hearing the law required. The suit was filed on September 3. The day before, OpenAI had offered $4.8 million to cover school meals for every student in the county.
The complaint says the commission added data centers to the industrial zoning code as an unconditionally permitted use without holding the hearing first, The Current reported. The residents want a judge to declare that zoning invalid. Greg Gilluly, the attorney who filed it, said the target is the process rather than the technology. "We filed the suit not necessarily to attack AI in general, but we filed it to attack the process here, because the people deserve transparency in their government actions," he said. The county is the only named defendant. Neither OpenAI nor its local affiliate was sued. The county said it "does not comment on any pending or ongoing litigation."
What the county approved
The project is called Project Camellia, a campus planned for the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub near Rincon under a 15-year agreement. The county's industrial development authority sold about 1,440 acres to Octans Georgia, OpenAI's local affiliate, and was holding about $350 million from that sale as of late August.
Local officials have approved transfers from the proceeds. On August 31 the authority approved an agreement worth up to $90 million over three years, with $21 million going to the county and $9 million to the school district within 30 days of the deal taking effect. That $9 million replaces the revenue the district gives up by cutting its tax rate two mills. The school board voted the same day to set its fiscal 2027 rate at 16.45 mills, two mills below the previous year's rate.
What OpenAI is putting in
The $4.8 million covers breakfast and lunch for every student in the Effingham County School District for the 2026/27 year. It is the first major commitment from the $80 million OpenAI has promised to spend for community benefit. Hank Evans, OpenAI's community engagement lead, said "school meals emerged as one way we can immediately help families."
The lawsuit reached a national audience on September 8, when CBS News picked it up. It lands in the middle of a broader fight over where these campuses go, one that's reshaping the US buildout ahead of the midterms and that has already produced a permit dispute at a Nebius site in New Jersey. OpenAI has committed to building far more of this capacity, against the about $1.4 trillion in infrastructure commitments chief executive Sam Altman has cited over eight years.
A judge will set the county's deadline to respond.
