Some Georgia homeowners say the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure is reaching far beyond technology campuses and power grids, forcing families to choose between selling longtime properties or risking having the land taken through eminent domain.
CBS News correspondent Skyler Henry reported that Georgia Power is planning a new 35-mile transmission line intended largely to serve data centers, and that the project requires the utility to acquire more than 300 parcels, including homes and rural properties where families have lived for decades.
Among those affected is Ansley Brown, whose childhood home sits on 2½ acres that her mother had hoped would remain in the family as a source of generational wealth. Brown said the property is more than an address or an asset, because it holds the greenhouse that helped feed the family, the yard where pets were buried, and memories stretching back to when the house was first built.
“It’s ours,” Brown told Henry. “It’s our family. We belong here.”
A Family Property Marked for a Transmission Line
Henry reported that Georgia Power has long operated near the Brown property, with existing infrastructure located beyond the tree line, but the latest expansion would require taking the land where the house itself stands.
Georgia Power says demand for electricity has grown beyond what its current grid can handle, making a new transmission line necessary. According to the utility, between 70% and 80% of the power carried by the line is expected to serve data centers, while the remaining 20% to 30% would support broader residential and commercial growth across the state.
That breakdown is central to the homeowners’ anger, because the project is being presented as public infrastructure even though most of its capacity is expected to benefit a fast-growing private industry.
Brown said her mother bought and maintained the property with the expectation that it would stay in the family and provide long-term security.
“True generational wealth was the idea,” she said. “And now it’s being stripped from us.”
The family’s experience reflects a larger tension surrounding the AI boom. Data centers may seem distant and abstract to the people who use digital services every day, but the electricity, transmission corridors, water systems, and land required to support them are increasingly producing direct consequences for communities.
Sell Voluntarily or Face Eminent Domain
Brown’s mother ultimately reached an agreement to sell the property to Georgia Power, but Brown said the choice never felt voluntary because the utility could have pursued eminent domain if the family refused.
Eminent domain allows private property to be acquired with compensation when the taking is approved for a project considered to serve a public purpose.
Georgia Power spokesperson Holly Lovett told CBS News that the company views eminent domain as a last resort.
“It’s something we never want to do,” Lovett said.
From the family’s perspective, however, the possibility of forced acquisition meant the negotiations took place under an unavoidable threat.
“To us, it’s theft,” Brown said. “It’s literally a billion-dollar company stealing land from smaller people, people who can’t fight back.”
She added that ordinary families do not have the same financial resources as a major utility and may be unable to sustain a long legal fight, even when they believe the project is unfair or the offered compensation cannot replace what is being lost.
That imbalance is difficult to ignore. A payment may reflect acreage, structures, and appraised market value, but it does not necessarily account for family history, nearby relationships, future plans, or the difficulty of finding comparable rural land in the same community.
Georgia Power Says Demand Has Outgrown the Grid
Georgia Power told CBS News that the transmission project is necessary because rising demand has exceeded the capacity of existing infrastructure.
The company also said it believes the acquisition process has been handled responsibly and that it has worked to negotiate in good faith, remain transparent, and make the transition as manageable as possible for property owners.
Lovett acknowledged that homes are deeply personal and said the utility understands why affected families are emotional.
“We see you and we hear you,” she said, adding that Georgia Power wants the process to be respectful and transparent.
Brown rejected the suggestion that the project could move through rural Georgia without causing serious harm.
“You can’t tear down 35 miles of rural Georgia and it not hurt something or somebody,” she told Henry.
She said using data centers as the main reason for the line felt like “a slap in the face” to residents, their communities, and the animals living on the affected land.
The company has not publicly identified the businesses behind the data centers, telling CBS News that it does not release customer lists because of safety and security concerns.
That lack of disclosure may be understandable from a corporate security standpoint, but it leaves homeowners facing the loss of their land without knowing which technology companies will ultimately benefit from most of the new power.
The Limits of Putting a Price on a Home
Henry’s report focused on a question that runs through nearly every eminent-domain dispute: how can a fair price be placed on property that an owner never wanted to sell?
Brown’s family had spent more than two decades building a life there, and the land held both practical and emotional value.
The greenhouse was part of how the family fed itself, while the yard contained the graves of pets and the ordinary landmarks that become meaningful only after many years in one place.
No appraisal can fully calculate those details, because they are not easily transferred to another house or replaced with a check.
Compensation is necessary when land is taken, but it does not make every taking feel just. The law may define a project as serving the public, while the family losing its home may reasonably see itself carrying a highly personal burden for an economic expansion from which it receives little direct benefit.
Brown said Georgia Power’s description of the process as responsible did not match what her mother experienced over the course of roughly a year.
She accused the utility of bullying the family and said the minimum her mother now wants is an apology.
Brown Takes the Fight to Social Media
After realizing the house was unlikely to be saved, Brown began using TikTok to share her family’s story and highlight other property owners facing similar pressure.
“My childhood home is being taken by Georgia Power,” she said in one post featured by CBS News.
Her videos expanded beyond her own land as she began visiting and describing other properties affected by the transmission route, including homes where large sections of yards could be lost.
Brown said she understands that her family’s agreement is already in place, but she hopes public attention may help prevent other homeowners from going through the same experience without support or scrutiny.
The effort also places a human face on infrastructure planning that is often discussed through maps, megawatts, and development forecasts.
A transmission route may look like a line on a planning document, but each parcel along it can represent a home, a business, a family farm, or land intended to be passed down through generations.
That does not mean power projects can never be built, but it does mean the public should understand who is paying the private cost for development promoted as a wider economic benefit.
A Request for an Apology
Brown said her mother is no longer asking Georgia Power to reverse the agreement or save the house.
What she wants now is an apology for the way she believes the family was treated.
“My mom wants an apology,” Brown said. “That’s it.”
When CBS News asked whether the utility would apologize, Georgia Power responded by emphasizing that it had worked to be transparent, negotiate in good faith, and make the process as easy as possible.
That answer addressed the company’s procedure, but not the family’s request.
The disagreement shows how far apart the two sides remain. Georgia Power views the project as necessary grid expansion, while Brown sees a powerful company using legal authority to remove a family from land it never intended to leave.
Both the state’s growing electricity needs and the homeowners’ losses are real, but the burden is not being shared equally.
For Brown’s family, the AI boom is not simply about new technology, investment, or faster computing. It means the disappearance of a childhood home, the end of a plan for generational wealth, and the knowledge that most of the electricity moving through the new line will be used by data centers rather than the surrounding rural community.
As Georgia continues expanding the infrastructure needed to support those facilities, similar disputes are likely to raise the same basic question: when private homes stand in the path of projects built largely for commercial growth, who decides what counts as a public purpose, and how much protection should families receive before their land is taken?
Ed spent his childhood in the backwoods of Maine, where harsh winters taught him the value of survival skills. With a background in bushcraft and off-grid living, Ed has honed his expertise in fire-making, hunting, and wild foraging. He writes from personal experience, sharing practical tips and hands-on techniques to thrive in any outdoor environment. Whether it’s primitive camping or full-scale survival, Ed’s advice is grounded in real-life challenges.
