City of Forsyth denies the approval of ‘Bitcoin Mining Facility’

FORSYTH, Georgia(41NBC/WMGT)— The construction of a ‘Bitcoin Mining Facility,’ was just denied by the city of Forsyth.

The approval to rezone the area for the facility was brought up to planning and zoning. Once approved it went to the city council members.

Monday night more than 60 people showed up to the meeting to discuss the facility up for consideration. With 11 people speaking in opposition, city leaders listened and denied the request.

But what is a Bitcoin Mining facility?

A Bitcoin Mining Facility uses special software to create bitcoins by solving puzzles. The facility ultimately works by consuming electricity to help mine cryptocurrency.

Janice Hall, Forsyth City Manager says the zoning for the facility was denied, because of it’s close proximity to neighborhoods. Stating the issue was noise. “Mr. Goolsby made the statement that he offered the motion to deny it based on this being a bad location, he did say that the city does benefit from power sales but that it was just too close to the neighborhood.”

Hall says there are no plans to reconsider the location of the facility, or to move forward with bringing a facility to Forsyth.