The Fayetteville City Council narrowly voted Monday to pause its work on a proposed data center ordinance and instead seek more information about a possible data center moratorium—a decision reached after a heated debate and amid loud, organized public opposition.
The move places Fayetteville squarely inside a fast‑growing statewide, national and global debate over how communities should respond to the industry’s rapid expansion.
While city staff urged the council to advance the ordinance to a public hearing, a slim majority opted to slow down, citing unanswered questions and a desire to get a more comprehensive view of the issue.
About 20 residents filled the chamber holding signs such as “Growth without damage,” “Moratorium Now,” “Protect our water,” and “Stop subsidizing billionaires.”
The turnout reflected months of organizing: teach‑ins, public‑comments, and repeated calls for both the city and Cumberland County to be transparent and block data centers from being built.
City Staff Urges Action
Demetrios Moutos, a senior planner with the city, delivered a highly technical briefing on the draft ordinance. He recommended the council move forward with the ordinance as written and schedule a public hearing.
“The problem that we’re fixing with this is basically it’s just a simple code gap,” Moutos said. “The ordinance does not currently clearly define and classify this as a use, so the city could end up in a posture, if we don’t have one, of interpretation instead of true governance.”
He said the goal was to set “clear rules up front” so applicants, the public, and the city all know how proposals will be handled. The ordinance, he said, was neither a ban nor a giveaway but a “governance package” built around impacts residents actually feel—noise, buffers, and separation from neighborhoods.
Staff presented five possible paths for the ordinance:
- Move forward as‑is and schedule a public hearing.
- Revise the ordinance, then schedule a hearing.
- Pause and study a moratorium instead of advancing the ordinance.
- Send the ordinance back to the city Planning Commission.
- Take no action for now.
Audience members began shouting for a moratorium after the presentation. Mayor Mitch Colvin warned that anyone disrupting the meeting would be removed.
“This is not the place for that. You got your signs. Anyone who disrupts will be asked to leave,” Colvin said.
Statewide Fight Grows Louder
Fayetteville’s debate mirrors concerns across North Carolina, where communities are increasingly vocal about the pace and scale of data center development. Kings Mountain, Chatham County, Gates County,Canton, Boone, and Wendell have all enacted moratoriums since the start of the year.
Others—including Apex, Swain County, Haywood County, Orange County, Rowan County, Clyde, and Cumberland County—are considering them.
On Monday in Rural Hall, a town in Forsyth County, the town council unanimously passed a resolution opposing a proposed data center after passionate pleas from the public to shut it down. In Stokes County, Walnut Cove residents and community groups have sued over rezoning tied to a massive hyperscale project.
The issue has become one of the most contentious land‑use debates in the state.
Gov. Josh Stein’s office is also questioning whether North Carolina should continue offering broad tax exemptions to data centers.
Data centers across North Carolina now receive an estimated $50 million a year in tax exemptions, up sharply from about $4 million in 2015, according to figures shared by the N.C. Department of Commerce at an April 8 meeting of Stein’s Energy Policy Task Force. That figure could climb above $400 million annually, plus up to $2.3 billion in construction-period equipment exemptions, if every project in the state’s pipeline is built, the commerce department found.
In an April 6 memo to the task force, Stein’s office floated options to repeal or scale back the tax breaks.
Yet even as some communities hit pause, the industry continues to expand across North Carolina the state. Tech giant Google recently announced a $1 billion investment in its Lenoir data center operations northwest of Charlotte, and Microsoft has confirmed plans for a new data center in the Person County Mega Park.
McMillan Moves to Study a Moratorium
In Fayetteville, Councilmember Shaun McMillan made the motion that ultimately carried: direct staff to prepare a presentation for council on a potential moratorium rather than advancing the ordinance.
The moratorium would be a temporary pause on accepting or approving data center proposals while the city studies the issue and decides what rules, if any, should be in place.
He said the city should use the pause to consult experts, study grid capacity and water impacts, assess ratepayer effects, and “hear the voices of communities most affected.”
“The urgency of the moment is not the same as the wisdom of the decision,” McMillan said.
When Colvin began summarizing the motion, McMillan objected, accusing him of “manipulating” it. Colvin said he was trying to ensure the minutes were clear.
Despite the exchange, Colvin initially supported the motion. “I’m in support of the motion to hear the rules around it and to do the other due diligence,” he said. “I do want to hear more information about all of our options.”
Hondros Pushes Dual Track; Ferguson Urges Balance
Colvin asked staff what happens now if a developer comes to the city with a plan to build a data center. Development Services Director Gerald Newton said that without clear standards in an ordinance, the decision falls to the city manager.
“It’s an informed decision based on all the material that’s presented,” he said, adding that the decision can be appealed.
Staff has previously told councilmembers that developer interest is not hypothetical.
At an April 6 work session during a staff presentation on data centers, Senior Planner Craig Harmon told council that in late summer 2025, the city began receiving inquiries from multiple developers interested in building data centers.
Harmon said staff told them they had two options: apply now and see what happens, or wait for the city to develop an ordinance.
“And they came back to us and said, well, we’ll wait and see what you come up with,” Harmon said.
Against that backdrop, Councilmember Deno Hondros argued Monday that the city should adopt baseline protections now and still study a moratorium.
“We have zero protections in place,” he said. “Putting these protections in place is not a finish line. It’s a starting point.”
Councilmember Antonio Jones agreed and asked McMillan to consider amending his motion. “If someone came tomorrow while we’re waiting, there’s nothing we can do to stop it,” he said.
The suggestion to amend the motion did not make it into the final version.
Councilmember Stephon Ferguson said he supports exploring a moratorium but urged residents and colleagues to “take a more balanced approach.” He said many opponents approach the issue from “a one‑sided view” and conduct research only to strengthen their argument.
While he supports looking at a moratorium, he noted that only a small number of municipalities have enacted one.
“What I’ve heard over and over again is look at other communities who have instituted moratoriums,” he said. “What you have is that 99.7% of the municipalities across North Carolina have not instituted a moratorium in response.”
McMillan pushed back, saying it was frustrating that Fayetteville is “a ‘can‑do’ city until it comes time to do something for our people like this.”
The Vote and What Comes Next
The motion to seek a moratorium presentation passed 5–4, with Colvin, McNair, Hondros, and Thompson opposed.
After the meeting, Colvin told CityView that Hondros’ suggestion—adopting some protections now while studying a moratorium—“made sense to have something rather than nothing.”
He clarified that he supported learning more about a moratorium, not necessarily implementing one.
City Attorney Lachelle Pulliam said her office is prepared to brief the council on how a moratorium could be implemented.
Government reporter Rachel Heimann Mercader can be reached at rheimann@cityviewnc.com or 910-988-8045.
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