Fayetteville Punts Data Center Regulations to Late October

The Fayetteville City Council, after a sometimes contentious meeting on Monday, voted 7-3 to have city staff revise proposed regulations for data centers and reconsider them by late October.

The council meeting, which also included a public hearing, included sharp words between Councilmember Shaun McMillan, who wants a data center moratorium, and Mayor Mitch Colvin, who has focused on first-hand research of the controversial computing warehouses that have rapidly spread across the state and nation.

Several times, members of the crowd yelled and police officers escorted them out for breaking the mayor’s requirement to maintain decorum during the hours-long meeting. None of the people were charged, police Chief Roberto Bryan said.

Political activist and data center critic Zachary Traylor gave Colvin and the council the middle finger as he left the podium after speaking at the hearing. He criticized Colvin and five other council members in his remarks.

Data center critic and Fayetteville resident Babette Augustin heckled Colvin after the council meeting adjourned. “More dead bodies for the funeral home, huh, Mayor Colvin?” she said. Colvin’s family operates a funeral home. “How many poisoned people have you—have you sent over the Rainbow Bridge?” she asked. Colvin looked at Augustin but did not respond.

‘No New Data Centers Here’

Before the meeting, around 60 people protested in front of City Hall against data centers and criticized how the city has handled the fraught topic. “Say it loud! Say it clear! No new data centers here!” they chanted.

Data center critics, some with signs, later filled most of the roughly 110 spectator seats in the City Council chamber plus an overflow room that has a capacity of 49 people. More waited in the City Hall lobby and others stood outside.

There were some data center supporters in the chamber. They and critics spoke during the public hearing.

The proposed regulations before the council on Monday would generally allow data centers on land zoned for industrial use, allow some in commercial areas with permission and restrictions set by the City Council, and prohibit them from residential areas. Those that adjoin residential areas would have to take steps to mitigate noise and other negative impacts on neighbors.

Councilmember Lynne Greene made the motion to revise the draft data center regulations and for council to consider them by the end of October.

City staff who are drafting the regulations are to incorporate information, ideas and suggestions the city received recently. This includes feedback from Monday’s public hearing, previous public forums, a visit the mayor and two council members made in July to “Data Center Alley” in Loudoun County, Virginia, and other sources.

Councilmember Deno Hondros called for more visits to data centers. Some councilmembers visited one in Fayetteville, several in Raleigh and several in Virginia. “Those were pretty much, for the most part, some of the better ones,” Hondros said. But some data centers “have been not such a pleasant experience” for their communities.

“When can we go look at those?” Hondros said. “So we saw the best case scenario. 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 get it right.”

Hondros can visit those data centers as the process of developing the regulations continues, Colvin told him.

As city staff make revisions in the coming months, Greene said, they should factor in ideas from former Cumberland County state Rep. John Szoka, CEO of the Conservative Energy Network; Clarence Briggs, CEO of Advanced Internet Technologies, which operates a small data center in downtown Fayetteville; and Michael R. Turner, vice chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. Turner has published a paper listing 15 recommendations for communities considering data centers. Loudoun County has around 250 data centers, and is considering whether to temporarily halt approval of new ones, the Virginia Mercury reported.

Data center opponents have criticized Fayetteville for not enacting a moratorium on the vast computing warehouses, and instead in April delaying consideration of a moratorium until August 25.

Meanwhile, the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners in June imposed a six-month moratorium on data centers outside city limits while the county solicits public comment and conducts research for an ordinance to regulate them. The county intends to enact its ordinance in December.

Fayetteville’s data center regulations would amend the city’s Unified Development Ordinance—the city’s land use regulations, including the zoning code and property subdivision regulations.

Colvin and Councilmembers Greene, Hondros, Malik Davis, Brenda McNair, D.J. Haire, and Derrick Thompson voted for Greene’s motion. Councilmembers McMillan, Stephon Ferguson, and Antonio Jones voted “no.”

What People Had to Say

Szoka described the proposed ordinance as “one of the best that I’ve seen across the 26 states that we operate in.”

He suggested it would be improved by a requirement for developers to report how much water they will use, where they get it, and for the providers to certify they can provide it.

Before the city approves a proposed data center, it should also require the project to report which utility will supply its electricity, the utility’s capacity to supply the power, the data center’s expected peak power demand, and any infrastructure upgrades the utility needs to make to supply the power.

Data centers, particularly those that operate artificial intelligence systems, are an economic driver and a national security issue, said Azim Lakhani of the Rockfish area of Hoke County.

AI tokens can provide an economic driver and a new source of taxable income for Fayetteville and North Carolina, Lakhani said, noting he purchased $9.23 worth of AI tokens to help him produce his presentation to the council. AI tokens are small bits of data that AI models need to operate, according to Nvidia. “AI tokens worth billions are being created and used every day,” he said.

If data centers aren’t built here, they will be built elsewhere, Lakhani said.

“Do you want an Asian country to build these data centers in the Middle East?” he said. “Do you want them to take our data and technology in the data centers and control us? Do you want China to take over artificial intelligence economy as they did our manufacturing economy? It is our obligations as Americans to keep our data and the billions of dollars generated by AI locally in North Carolina, and the United States.”

Data center critic Amelia Maxfield-Chavez of Fayetteville, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said data centers will pollute the water, pose health risks to neighborhoods, and will not replace lost jobs from the pending closure of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. factory just outside Fayetteville.

“No shade to it, your people are vulnerable. But a data center is not the solution,” Maxfield-Chavez told the council. “It’s a short sighted bargaining chip designed to benefit greedy tech companies, not the people of this city, and definitely not you sitting up there.”

Activists have collected more than 1,400 signatures in opposition to data centers, she said. “Over 80% of the people that we spoke to are against data centers, and specifically this legislation, which would recklessly open up our city to data center development before implementing any good faith efforts to solicit community input or develop sufficient regulations.”

Massive data centers will consume millions of gallons of water to cool the computers, said Carrol Olinger of Action NC, who lives near Hope Mills. “As water resources are drained, our local supplies dwindle, driving up water bills for families already grappling with rising temperatures, high electricity costs,” she said.

The city should enact a moratorium on data center projects, Olinger said.

“We want to be the ‘Can Do City,’” she said, using Fayetteville’s slogan. “We want to move forward, but not at the expense of our health. Can’t we just take a break?”

As she left the podium and moved with a walker down the center aisle of the audience, Olinger led the opponents in a short chant and applause: “Forward together! Not one step back!”

Police officers approached and told Olinger to leave for disrupting the meeting. She made her way to the door and left.

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.