Let there be no doubt that the conversation about telecommunications and data centers is polarizing many in this community.
Some residents adamantly deplore data centers.
Others appear to see data centers as investments in a community’s economic future.
If you attended or watched the Fayetteville City Council on Monday night, you could see for yourself how this municipality is attempting to establish rules, regulations, and standards for what could be coming. Cumberland County commissioners are trying to come up with their own regulations.
Our elected city and county leaders, despite what some may believe, are not taking this data center conundrum lightly. The city, by a 7-3 vote Monday, is waiting until October about possibly imposing a moratorium, and the county in June imposed a moratorium until December 15.
“I was very interested that Rep. Szoka, while he’s for them and understands them, he also admitted that there were things that needed to be addressed that he did not see addressed,” City Councilmember Lynne Greene said after John Szoka spoke at Monday’s public hearing.
Green also said she believes the council should put stock in the words of Clarence Briggs, the Fayetteville business owner who has operated Advanced Internet Technologies, a small data center across the street from City Hall, for the past 25 years. And, Greene said, the city should give ample weight to the 15 “best practices sheet that was received at Loudoun County, Virginia,” where Ashburn, Virginia, is known as Data Center Alley, with the largest concentration of data centers in the world.
‘In the Right Direction’
Give a listen, if you will, to Szoka, the Cumberland County Republican, who served in the N.C. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2023. Szoka can tell you a thing or two about energy, water, and environmental issues. Today, Szoka is chief executive officer for the Conservative Energy Network, which is dedicated to reliable, affordable, and clean U.S. energy.
“The proposed ordinance moves in the right direction,” Szoka told the council Monday after Craig Harmon, the city’s senior planner, presented the city’s work to date regarding a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) for data centers. “It’s actually very good. It’s one of the best that I’ve seen across the 26 states that we operate in.”
But, he said, some questions need to be addressed.
“Water,” Szoka said. “It’s not really covered in detail in the proposed ordinance, but I would suggest you require developers to submit a detailed water management plan to the PWC (Fayetteville Public Works Commission) or the servicing water provider that discloses how much water they will use, where it’s going to come from, and requiring the servicing water provider to certify that adequate capacity exists without jeopardizing existing customers.”
He said codifying these disclosure requirements and water provider requirements would make those protections visible to residents. He said the proposed UDO standards for data centers have been well addressed by the city, but be sure to hold developers accountable to “fix problems” when necessary.
“Air quality needs to distinguish between emergency backup generators and on-site power plants that is in the ordinance,” he said. “The proposed ordinance does specify a special use permit is required if they’re going to jitter their power on the site.”
He addressed setbacks for data centers, which could impact neighborhoods.
“Don’t rely on arbitrary distances alone,” Szoka said. “This is one of those things where what’s arbitrary for me might not be arbitrary for you, so I suggest regulate the actual impacts of noise, visibility, and equipment location.” Leave that, he said, to engineering technology to solve.
And of most importance, Szoka said, is the impact of electricity required for operating a data center.
“I would suggest requiring data center projects to submit a utility service and capacity determination,” he said, “so the servicing utility that identifies expected peak electricity demand, necessary generation transmission, and substation upgrades.”
In other words, Szoka believes, protect utility ratepayers.
‘Fayetteville Can Do Both’
Szoka believes a large new customer such as a data center should demonstrate that adequate power can be provided reliably and that Fayetteville ratepayers should not be forced to subsidize infrastructure built primarily to serve a data center. PWC, Duke Energy, and South River internally are structured to accomplish this, he says, but codifying disclosure and coordination requirements would make those protections transparent and visible to residents.
Szoka says this city should remain focused on “perfecting an ordinance” that can be applied to all prospective data centers with strong, predictable, transparent rules that protect residents and ratepayers. If a company then meets the standards, give it “a clear path” to invest and build here.
“We don’t have to choose between protecting our community and participating in America’s technological future,” Szoka says. “With the right ordinance, Fayetteville can do both.”
‘How Do We Manage it Responsibly?’
Clarence Briggs, owner and founder of AIT downtown, weighed in this week on Good Morning Fayetteville hosted by Gilbert Baez on WFNC AM 640.
“We have to basically do this responsibly,” Briggs said about data centers. “It’s coming. It’s here. The question is, ‘How do we manage it responsibly?”
Briggs has been there for the city as it moves forward with UDO rules, regulations, and guidelines for data centers.
“It has to be handled carefully, deliberately and responsibly, but there’s no reason why we still can’t move forward,” he told Baez. “We just have to do so with that in mind… I think they’re doing exactly the right thing right now. They’re doing their research. They’re traveling. They’re visiting places.”
He understands the concerns of data center naysayers, but …
“We need to avail ourselves of it,” Briggs said. “Like I said, too fast, we mess up. Too slow, we miss the opportunity.”
The Best, and the Worst, Too
Greene isn’t alone in listening and learning from Szoka and Briggs as the data center conversation unfolds.
Councilmember Stephon Ferguson wanted to hear more from Fayetteville PWC, and so does Councilmember Deno Hondros.
And Hondros wants something more.
“We [some council members] visited one data center here, a couple in the Triangle, and a couple in Loudoun County, Virginia,” Hondros said Monday night. “Those were pretty much, for the most part, some of the better ones. There’s also some negative data centers that have been not such a pleasant experience, that were developed not so great.
“I think Michigan and Wisconsin has a couple that are very noisy, very not environmentally friendly, and I mentioned that to the manager, to you, Mr. Mayor, and the mayor pro tem. When can we go look at those?
“So, we saw the best-case scenario,” Hondros said. “I think it’s prudent to go look at the worst-case scenario, so we can make sure as we’re developing and firming up these standards we do (to) get it right.”
Epilogue
Let there be no doubt that conversation about telecommunications and data centers is polarizing many in this community.
We’re living in a fast-paced world of technology.
“That’s why the whole process needs to be as transparent as possible, so that people can get an understanding [and] wrap their head around what’s really going on,” Clarence Briggs told Baez. “Because when you’ve got doubt and uncertainty, you’ve got fear, and you know what happens [when] you’ve got fear, you get anger and people protest.”
We’ll learn more about data centers as this community drama plays out.
For now, we wait.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
