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Swain County appoints member to data‑center moratorium committee; committee warns schedule is tight
Summary
The Swain County Board of Commissioners appointed a fifth member to its data‑center moratorium committee and heard the committee chair outline an accelerated work plan to make up lost time and gather outside expertise before recommendations are due.
The Swain County Board of Commissioners appointed a fifth member to the county's data‑center moratorium committee during its June 2 work session and received a report that the panel must compress its early work to meet the moratorium timeline.
Celia Baker, who identified herself as the committee's elected chair, told commissioners the committee held a kickoff meeting May 27 and unanimously recommended the candidate recorded in the minutes as Rob Hall to fill the vacant seat. The board voted to appoint Rob Hall by a show‑of‑hands vote the chair recorded as unanimous.
Baker said the moratorium clock began April 21 when the board adopted a 12‑month moratorium and that the committee is already more than a month behind the research schedule described in the moratorium document. She listed meeting dates the committee has scheduled — June 10, June 24, July 8 and July 22 — and said members will reach out to outside subject‑matter experts and review lessons learned from other counties that have approved large data centers. "We're trying to take a fact‑based approach," she said, and urged transparency and shared workload among committee members.
The committee chair highlighted two scheduling pressures: the lost time during the initial months that were intended for research, and the need to allow adequate time at the end of the process for public hearings, draft revisions and reposting if the committee's recommendations change. Baker said the group will request assistance from county staff to publish meeting notices and will contact community members with relevant expertise to serve as consultants.
Commissioners and the chair discussed logistics and public access to the committee's meetings. One commissioner encouraged public attendance so residents can follow the committee's work. Public comments at the meeting included expressions of support for the moratorium and requests that the committee carefully steward county lands.
The board did not set a date for receiving the committee's final recommendations during the work session. The committee will continue meeting on the schedule Baker described and report back to the board as work progresses.
