The Atlanta City Council has voted to approve the 2026 fiscal year operating budget, add funding to the Silver Comet Connector project, and institute environmental regulations on new data centers in the city.
The council unanimously adopted the nearly $3 billion budget during the full council meeting on June 2.
The budget includes a $975 million general fund budget, which will include $300,000 more for the Citizen Review Board to create two new community outreach positions and $50,000 each for the Atlanta Commission on Women, the Atlanta Caribbean Carnival, Atlanta Pride, and the Agape Youth and Family Center.
The budget will go into effect at the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1, 2025.
The council also unanimously approved a resolution allowing the Atlanta Department of Transportation to add additional funding of up to $250,000 to the Silver Comet Connector, a project with the PATH Foundation to connect the Atlanta Beltline with the 61.5-mile Silver Comet Trail, which runs from Smyrna to the Alabama border.
The council also unanimously approved an ordinance requiring special use permits for all new data centers citywide. The ordinance, introduced by Councilmember Dustin Hills, responds to concerns about data centers’ environmental impacts, as the special use permit application requirements will address a proposed data center’s water consumption, water conservation, energy consumption, and other environmental considerations.
These regulations are supported for all NPUs in Atlanta, except for NPU-W which opposed the City’s broad definition of a data center.
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