Royal 400 substation hearing moves to Nov. 16; Oct. 26 meeting canceled

There will be no Royal 400 substation hearing on Oct. 26. Alpharetta, Georgia, has canceled that City Council meeting, and the city’s revised agenda says the applicant deferred the data-center requests to the Nov. 16 council meeting.⁠[1]

The new date replaces the Oct. 26 hearing listed in our earlier report on the Planning Commission’s recommendation. The deferral is a scheduling change, not council approval of the proposed Georgia Power substation at 4905 North Point Parkway.⁠[1][2][3]

GI Partners seeks the substation to support a 60,200-square-foot data-center expansion at North Point Parkway and Kimball Bridge Road. The proposal would narrow the undisturbed buffer along the affected portion of Kimball Bridge Road from 100 feet to 40 feet and allow substation screening walls up to 22 feet tall.⁠[3]

The Planning Commission recommended approval 6–0 on Oct. 1, adding a requirement for a public sculpture at least 12 feet tall at the intersection, subject to Cultural Arts Commission approval. Other recommended conditions would limit the substation to serving this property and require a noise-compliance study before the expansion receives its certificate of occupancy. That study is a proposed requirement, not a completed noise finding.⁠[3]

Across Kimball Bridge Road, the recommended conditions would replace the applicant’s wall concept along Georgia Power’s existing substation with a 20-foot-wide planted buffer, subject to Design Review Board approval.⁠[3]

The power request has already affected construction, according to the city’s staff report. Citing the applicant, it says Georgia Power requested an on-site substation after expansion work began under an August 2024 land-disturbance permit. The applicant then stopped construction pending the substation request.⁠[3]