Overview:
• A moratorium would block zoning and building permits for data centers.
• Residents have sought a ban of up to three years.
• Commissioners have not decided on a length.
The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners on Thursday is scheduled to consider a moratorium on data centers, according to its meeting agenda.
A moratorium would stop the issuance of zoning and building permits to data center projects, County Attorney Rick Moorefield said in a memo to the board.
If commissioners decide to move forward with a temporary ban on data centers, they could schedule a public hearing as soon as May 4 or May 18, Moorefield said. Local governments are required to hold public hearings before approving ordinances much as the proposed moratorium.
Thursday’s meeting starts at 1 p.m. in room 564 of the Cumberland County Courthouse. It also will be streamed on the county’s website and on YouTube.
Three of the board’s seven commissioners previously voiced support for a moratorium after members of the public organized to call for a halt. In 2025, at least two large data centers were proposed for Fayetteville.
The draft of the moratorium will not include a duration for the ban as commissioners have made no decisions on how long it would be in place, board Chair Kirk deViere told CityView on Wednesday. Moorefield will present the board with a framework for a moratorium and the process of implementing one, he said.
“We’re going to receive an update on that from our legal staff as well as county staff at our agenda session this week, and then we’ll look to see what action the board wants to move forward from there,” deViere said at his monthly news conference on Monday.
A county data center moratorium would apply to areas outside Fayetteville and the other municipalities in the county. Further details of the county’s proposed moratorium were not available on Wednesday. The county attorney’s office was still drafting it, county spokesperson Diane Rice said.
Data centers store the expanding quantities of information that consumers and businesses use in their everyday activities and power the burgeoning artificial intelligence industry.
The facilities have drawn public criticism over concerns about high electricity consumption to power the vast fleets of computers, pollution from back-up generators, noise from cooling systems, and high use of water for cooling coupled with potential water contamination.
Cumberland County residents who are worried about the potential detrimental effects have asked officials to impose data center moratoriums of one to three years.
The county commissioners’ discussion on Thursday will come three days after the Fayetteville City Council voted 5-4 to consider a moratorium on data centers instead of imposing a proposed ordinance to regulate them. And it follows a public forum the county commissioners held on the topic on March 23 that had 33 speakers and 96 written comments.
Since January 1, at least seven local governments in North Carolina have issued moratoriums on data centers. The latest was Apex, where the Town Council voted unanimously on Tuesday for a 12-month pause.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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