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Black Mountain staff outline draft rules for data centers, citing noise, buffer and water concerns
Summary
Town planning staff said the planning board has recommended a text amendment defining 'data processing facilities' and imposing conditions — including 35-foot height limits, 25-foot buffers, a quarter‑mile separation from residences/schools/places of worship, acoustical studies and 55 dB/50 dB noise caps — while emphasizing water and energy impacts. Council asked staff to return with formal language.
Town planning staff briefed the Black Mountain Town Council on a planning-board recommendation to add a definition and rules for "data processing facilities" — a category that would encompass modern data centers and some cryptocurrency operations — and asked council for direction before formal text is brought forward for public hearing.
The planning board’s draft would permit the use only in the town’s heavy industrial district and impose a package of conditions: a 35-foot height cap, a minimum separation of one-quarter mile from any school, place of worship or residence, an acoustical-engineer study with noise limits (55 decibels during daytime hours and 50 decibels at night), at least 25 feet of vegetative buffering around the site, security fencing and a required decommissioning plan for electronic waste with an abandonment trigger if a…
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