Residents and One Hundred Miles Sue Effingham County Development Authority Over Closed-Door OpenAI Data Center Deal

On Sept. 21, 2026 (Effingham County Superior Court file stamp), One Hundred Miles, Inc. and Effingham County residents sued the Effingham County Industrial Development Authority, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center. The case number is SUCV2026000155. The complaint also names Octans GA, LLC, an OpenAI affiliate, as a defendant, but states the plaintiffs bring no claims against the company at this time.

The complaint alleges Open Meetings Act violations at the Authority’s July 21 meeting, where it executed what the complaint calls the nearly $900 million tax abatement deal: notice of the rescheduled meeting went out July 16, two days short of the notice the complaint says the Act requires; the agenda called the item only “Project Gateway”; the board discussed the memorandum of understanding in an executive session that, as alleged, lasted over an hour; and the Authority sold roughly 1,440 acres without a public vote on the purchase and sale agreements, which the complaint dates to May 14 and July 7, 2026. A fifth count, under the Open Records Act, alleges the Authority has not produced those two land-sale agreements after counsel requested them on August 18, 26, and 31. The complaint quotes an Authority board member explaining the secrecy: “If we’d have put it out in front of the public, they’d have said ‘No data center’.”

The plaintiffs ask the court to declare the vote approving the MOU not binding and the MOU null and void, to do the same for the land-conveyance documents, and to order production of the land-sale agreements. The Authority told the Effingham Herald it had not been formally served and would not comment on the claims.

The complaint attaches the MOU itself as Exhibit F, which puts the contract’s text on the record. Its payment-in-lieu-of-taxes formula applies 50% of fair market value, times 0.4, times the 2026 millage rate. The formula is a half-of-value base, which differs from earlier press descriptions of the terms. The purchase option carries an exercise price of $10, plus any outstanding recoupment payments and other amounts due. The MOU’s stated estimates are at least $20,000,000,000 in cumulative capital investment and at least 400 new jobs.

Context: this is the second suit over Project Camellia. See 2026-08-04–effingham-county-ga-residents-confront-openai-project-camellia for the earlier zoning-ordinance suit.