Residents urge commissioners to deny rezoning for proposed Rural Hall hyperscale data center

Several residents urged the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners on June 25 to deny a rezoning request for a proposed hyperscale data center near Rural Hall, saying the project would be incompatible with county planning documents and harmful to the town's rural character.

The public-comment period featured sustained opposition from six speakers who live near the proposed site or advocate for Rural Hall's planning vision. Robin Smith, who identified her address in Royal Hall, said the developer's comparison of a smaller Wells Fargo data center to the proposed project was a "false analogy," noting the proposed campus would be hundreds of megawatts larger and would require substantially more generators, cooling infrastructure, water, and could create noise, vibration and other environmental impacts.

Adjacency and plan consistency were central themes. Jonathan Kissenberg, an adjacent property owner, urged commissioners to "follow the county's adopted planning policies" and to deny the rezoning because planning staff and the planning board found the proposal inconsistent with the Rural Hall plan and the county's Forward 2045 growth framework. Kissenberg said the area plan recommends mixed-use development, not a single industrial campus.

Other speakers amplified those concerns. Deborah Demsky argued the developer and its partners lack experience with hyperscale data-center construction and cautioned against relying on untested promises of long-term benefit. David Frell described local organizing to "keep Rural Hall rural," called the project an "industrial encroachment," and urged either denial of rezoning or a short-term moratorium while the county updates rules. He noted House Bill 1189, which would impose a two-year moratorium at the state level, had been introduced in the legislature.

Speaker Scott Bo, a retired police officer and adjacent property owner, emphasized that the Forward 2045 plan is the county's long-term blueprint and asked the commission to honor it. Marcy West, a candidate for county commissioner, told the board that water resource limits, reservoir status and cumulative river impacts should be considered before approving large new water consumers.

None of the public commenters presented formal technical studies at the meeting; they asked commissioners to weigh the planning staff's findings and the planning board's recommendation of denial when deciding the rezoning request. The county's formal review and any subsequent hearing scheduled on the rezoning application will govern whether the proposal advances. The commissioners did not take a zoning vote during the meeting; the comments were recorded during the public-comment portion of the June 25 agenda.