The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) is suing Colleton County, South Carolina, for passing a zoning ordinance that would make it easier for data centers to be constructed in rural areas.

The county passed the ordinance in November, adding data centers as a ‘special exception’ to two rural development zoning districts. This makes it possible for prospective developers to build a data center in the Ashpoo-Combahee-Edisto Basin, or ACE Basin.

According to SELC, data centers would threaten the “legacy of conservation” protected by the Basin’s large conservation easements, as well as the “rural character cherished by residents.”

The lawsuit, filed by the SELC on behalf of two Colleton County residents, alleges that the ordinance “violates state law, the county’s comprehensive plan, and the county’s zoning code.”

The SELC also claims that the county failed to provide proper public notice prior to the passage of the ordinance.

This lawsuit will directly impact the fate of real estate developer Eagle Rock Partners, which applied to construct a nine-building, 859-acre, 1GW data center campus in a rural part of the county after the passage of the ordinance.

The county’s Zoning Board of Appeals considered Eagle Rock Partners’ land rezoning application in a testy public meeting on December 18, but a decision on the application was not made at the time.

Colleton County is located in the southern portion of South Carolina, between the cities of Savannah and Charleston. Although South Carolina has not traditionally been a data center hotspot, the demand for computing power has brought several data center-related projects to the state.

Last October, the US Department of Energy advertised an opportunity for data center companies to build and manage a campus at the Savannah River Site, which was used to produce materials for nuclear weapons.

That same month, Google made a $9 billion investment commitment in the state, with the money funding the expansion of an existing campus in Berkeley County and the continued construction of two new campuses in Dorchester County.