Davidson commissioners ask staff to draft moratorium on hyperscale data centers, set public hearing

DAVIDSON COUNTY — The Davidson County Board of Commissioners on July 16 directed planning and legal staff to draft a temporary moratorium aimed at hyperscale data centers and scheduled a legislative public hearing for the board’s Aug. 24 meeting.

The move followed more than an hour of public comment and commissioner questions about the local impacts of large data centers, including water use, electric-grid demand, and continuous industrial noise.

"Data center is being treated as a single scary category when it shouldn't be," said Travis Curry, a county native and IT professional who urged commissioners to distinguish smaller colocation facilities and hospital or municipal servers from hyperscale cloud or AI campuses.

Residents pushing for a moratorium cited experiences from other counties. "These facilities can consume as much electricity as entire cities," Janine Sperduto told the board, saying rural communities elsewhere have lost farmland and seen pressure on water systems.

Commissioner Mizell, who opened the discussion, said a moratorium is intended to buy time for study and ordinance changes rather than to ban development indefinitely. "If there are data centers that have gone well, all for getting that information. If there are those that have caused issues, let's gather that information as well," Mizell said.

Planning staff briefed commissioners on the legal process for a development moratorium under North Carolina law (statute cited in the meeting materials: 160D‑107). Staff explained that a moratorium is a temporary measure that must be adopted with public notice and a plan to study land-use and zoning amendments.

Commissioners debated the length of a moratorium. Some members favored six months as a focused research period; others asked for 12 months to allow additional study and public input. The board settled on instructing staff to draft an ordinance (the draft will include scope and any exemptions) and to notice a legislative public hearing for Aug. 24 so the community can comment. The board also agreed to move its regular August meeting to Aug. 24 to accommodate scheduling and notice requirements.

Supporters of the moratorium said it would allow the county to assess local infrastructure and to consider protections for ratepayers and water users. Those urging caution said the county should avoid unintentionally blocking small local data operations such as hospital servers, college computing facilities, and small colocation centers.

Planning staff said the county has received inquiries from site-acquisition representatives but had not yet received any formal permit applications for hyperscale facilities.

Next steps: Planning and legal staff will draft a moratorium ordinance, notice the legislative public hearing as required under state law, and present the draft to the board at its August meeting. The hearing will give residents and business representatives an opportunity to comment before any moratorium is adopted.