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Southampton County advisory members discuss whether zoning and rules should be updated for data centers
Summary
Committee members weighed whether the county's M1 zoning and comprehensive plan need updates to address data centers — including the existing 30‑acre threshold, infrastructure demands for water and power, and options such as conditional‑use permits or a moratorium — and asked staff to research other localities' approaches.
Members of the Southampton County advisory committee spent a substantial portion of the meeting discussing data centers, battery storage and whether the county's zoning and comprehensive plan should be updated to reflect the modern scale and infrastructure needs of these facilities.
Jay Randolph of the Department of Community Development told the committee that under current rules a data center is permitted by right in an M1 Industrial district if the site is at least 30 acres, but that the county has not adopted specific site standards for data centers. "It's a permitted by right if you have the 30 acre M District," Mr. Randolph said, and he recommended the committee consider refining the ordinance to add conditional‑use or size‑based standards so the planning commission can review the different scales of facilities.
Committee members raised infrastructure concerns — especially electric supply and water for cooling — and asked whether the county should prepare a site‑inventory or even consider a temporary moratorium to allow ordinance refinements, similar to an earlier moratorium used for solar projects. A committee member asked, "Do we need to put a moratorium on the side of the county for 12 months like we did to solar before we get an application?" Members noted the county may have limited 30‑acre M1 parcels and that larger projects would require rezoning. Several suggested staff study nearby jurisdictions such as Mecklenburg and larger counties with active data‑center markets to see how they regulate site placement, transmission needs and proffers.
Mr. Randolph said Southampton County is evaluating an industrial parcel on Rose Valley Road to make it more "shovel ready" for industrial uses and that the county could consider parameters — proximity to transmission and water availability, minimum acreage thresholds, or conditional‑use review — to avoid unanticipated infrastructure impacts. Members asked staff to prepare a report on how neighboring localities handle data centers and to return with recommendations the planning commission could use to craft ordinance language.
Next steps: staff will research other localities' approaches to data‑center siting and regulation, prepare a report with options (including the possibility of a moratorium or conditional‑use standards), and present findings to the planning commission and board as appropriate.
