North Carolina Construction News staff writer
Charlotte City Council voted Monday to impose a 150-day moratorium on new data center development, pausing approvals while city staff develop updated regulations for the rapidly expanding industry.
The moratorium, which runs through Nov. 5, is intended to give the city time to gather more information, evaluate impacts, and draft updated rules governing where and how data centers can be built. After the pause ends, the City Council is expected to consider new zoning and environmental requirements for future projects.
It follows the city of Durham enact a 60-day moratorium in May after residents raised concerns about environmental impacts. Apex, Canton, Chatham County and Gates County also recently passed 12-month moratoriums.
“This is not a partisan issue when it comes to protecting our neighborhoods across the city,” at-large Council member Dimple Ajmera said at Monday’s meeting. “This is the issue about quality of life. This is about clean air, clean water.”
Council member Victoria Watlington said the pause is designed to ensure policy decisions are grounded in shared facts.
“When we can agree on the facts, then we can talk about good policy,” Watlington said. “I think that’s exactly what this 150-day moratorium will do; give us an opportunity to come to the table together to review and understand and align on the facts, and then decide what’s best for our community, because ultimately we determine how it grows.”
Dozens of residents attended Monday’s meeting, voicing concerns about energy, water use, and neighborhood impacts
There is growing concern about the impacts of large-scale data centers, including potential increases in electricity demand, higher water consumption, noise pollution, and environmental effects on nearby neighborhoods.
Residents and advocates have raised concerns about strain on infrastructure and quality of life if development continues without stricter oversight.
While the moratorium halts new approvals, it does not affect projects already approved prior to the vote, including two major data center developments, together totaling just under one million square feet, were approved before the moratorium and will proceed as planned.
Although the city has not released a single consolidated public list identifying them by name, planning records and prior public filings indicate the approvals are widely understood to include:
A large hyperscale data center campus in the University City area, part of a multi-building industrial development already in the construction pipeline and among the largest of its kind in Charlotte.
A previously approved east Charlotte data center project near the Reedy Creek area, associated with a telecommunications infrastructure company proposal that has moved through zoning or planning approval stages.
Council member Lawana Mayfield said the city cannot reverse earlier approvals but emphasized that the pause is necessary to shape stronger rules going forward based on community input.
“No, we can’t backtrack to 2023, but when we were having conversations about it, we didn’t hear from the community,” Mayfield said.
Mayfield called for stricter controls on water use by data centers, suggesting that access to Charlotte’s water supply could be limited to encourage more efficient internal cooling systems. She also said future data centers should be restricted to industrial manufacturing zones due to noise concerns.
“It is having an impact on our wildlife, on bees … these buildings have so many negative impacts on the environment that will be long-term for us,” she said.
Mayfield also emphasized the need for buffer zones between data centers and residential areas, including homes, schools, and senior communities.
“I cannot say that there are gonna be no data centers, but what I can commit to is working with staff for us figure out what is the best location as far away from children; as far away from our elders; as far away from residents as possible, so that we can try to minimize and what can we do to ensure we are protecting our water source so we don’t end up like other communities.”
During the 150-day moratorium, city planning staff will review existing zoning rules, assess infrastructure and environmental impacts, and draft new regulations for City Council consideration.
Once the pause expires in November, officials will decide whether to adopt new restrictions governing future data center development in Charlotte.
A data center is a facility that houses computers, servers, and equipment used to process, store, and manage digital data. Data centers vary in size and ownership, ranging from an IT closet in an office building to a stand-alone hyperscale facility.
Charlotte’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) refers to data centers as telecommunications and data storage facilities and defines them as a facility, accessed only by employees, that houses computer systems and associated components, related to the transmittal and receiving of information, including but not limited to telecommunications systems, telecommunication and telephone switching systems, cloud storage systems, and server farms.