Developer outlines revised data-center plan, commits to no open-loop cooling and noise cap

Michael Fes, who said he represents the development team proposing the data-center campus across the street from Rural Hall, told the council the project had been revised in response to steering-committee feedback. He said the team moved a proposed Duke substation north, reduced the number of buildings from four to three and created a 17-acre green area adjacent to town-owned property.

"We've also reduced all the wetland and stream impacts to a single crossing with a private internal road," Fes said. He described site changes intended to move equipment yards away from residential areas and to buffer sound, and he told the council the developers would tie environmental and operational limits to zoning conditions that run with the land. "We're committing to a maximum 60 decel at the property line uh reading," he said, and the team told the council it would "prohibit open-loop cooling systems" as a condition of approval.

Town staff and residents asked for more detail on the claims. Fes said the team had taken noise readings at adjacent properties and invited regulators to review revised plans; he also said the project would be bound by enforceable zoning conditions "so that the town and the county have ongoing regulatory leverage," and that a larger share of equipment was shifted closer to existing industrial uses and away from the historic church and houses.

The presentation did not include independent verification of projected tax revenues or a final engineering design; Fes said the steering-committee process was continuing and the project was before the county planning boards for formal review.