Public hearing set for August 17
Alamance County’s board of commissioners has agreed to hold a public hearing next month about a potential moratorium on new data centers in unincorporated parts of the county.
Yet the decision to seek feedback from residents doesn’t necessarily mean that the county’s governing board is raring to take a hard line on the regulation of these high-tech behemoths.
In fact, a majority of the commissioners seemed favorably disposed to new data centers when they addressed these much-talked-about facilities on Monday. At the same time, they recognized that a moratorium would give them the breathing room to implement guidelines for this fast-growing industry, which is currently unregulated in areas outside the county’s cities and towns.
“There need to be buffers and ways the minimize the traffic and the noise. And a moratorium…would give us the lead time to do that.”
– Alamance County commissioner chairman Kelly Allen
“There need to be buffers and ways the minimize the traffic and the noise,” declared Kelly Allen, the chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners, during that evening’s discussion. “And a moratorium…would give us the lead time to do that.”
The board’s potential approval of this proposed moratorium would make Alamance County the latest in a growing list of communities across the state that have taken a timeout from the development of new data centers.
Since the fall of 2025, more than two dozen jurisdictions in North Carolina have halted the approval of data centers for periods ranging from 60 days to more than a year in duration. Many of these measures have been prompted by complaints about the noise, water consumption, and energy use of existing facilities. In the meantime, these empirical misgivings have been magnified by heightened objections to generative AI, which has become one of the leading applications for data centers in the U.S.
In Alamance County, the push for a moratorium on data centers is also the byproduct of an ongoing debate over the county’s traditional approach to the regulation of growth and development.
In the absence of any zoning outside its cities and towns, the county has relied on a patchwork of ordinances to manage everything from heavy industry to residential subdivisions in areas that are subject to its direct planning authority. Over the years, these jury-rigged rules have come under fire for their failure to prevent a number of contentious industrial projects. More recently, they’ve been a source of chagrin for residents who are trying to prevent a pair of massive residential subdivisions from taking root near the unincorporated community of Saxapahaw.
At this point, no data center developer has expressed any interest in setting up shop within Alamance County’s rural reaches. Yet, the potential for just such a project to slip through the cracks has been more than a theoretical concern to county commissioner Pam Thompson.
A former Republican who is currently unaffiliated with any political party, Thompson has been the driving force behind the addition of data centers to the board’s meeting agenda. During Monday’s discussion, the board’s sole non-Republican made it quite clear that she thinks the county’s current, laissez faire approach to development has made it a soft target for any data center that can’t get around the restrictions in other parts of the state.
“We cannot keep thinking that this is just not going to happen here. We need to get ahead of the game.”
– County commissioner Pam Thompson
“We cannot keep thinking that this is just not going to happen here,” she appealed to her fellow commissioners that evening. “We need to get ahead of the game.”
The board of commissioners heard much the plea from a number of the residents who broached the issue of data centers during a general-purpose comment period that kicked off Monday’s proceedings.
Of the 11 speakers who approached the podium that evening, six had something to say about the county’s lack of restrictions on data centers. Five of the six ultimately concurred with Thompson’s position that the county would do well to get some rules on the books sooner rather than later.
“It’s not the data center that’s an issue. It’s the size of the data center, and the ones running AI are ginormous. . . So I agree that y’all need to put a brake on them just so you can see what’s appropriate.”
– Tom Schopler
“It’s not the data center that’s an issue,” insisted area resident Tom Schopler; “It’s the size of the data center, and the ones running AI are ginormous…So I agree that y’all need to put a brake on them just so you can see what’s appropriate.”
“It’s just pausing them long enough to get reasonable rules in place,” concurred Aidan McDuffie, before adding that unregulated data centers could drain the water table in rural parts of the county.
“Don’t be mistaken, data centers are [being built] to support AI. They’re coming for your water, while AI is coming for your jobs.”
– Peter Childers
“Don’t be mistaken, data centers are [being built] to support AI,” added Peter Childers went on to admonish the county’s governing board. “They’re coming for your water, while AI is coming for your jobs.”
In the end, the only speaker to express his support for data center development was Scott Ward, the county’s retired web master. Clad in a novelty shirt that proclaimed him an “AI Whisperer,” this former member of the county’s IT staff took the rather contrarian stance that the commissioners shouldn’t be regulating new data centers at all.
“We don’t need more rules for data centers. The free market is going to self-regulate…Data centers are run by companies that have a profit motivation…That’s why most of the data centers being built right now have solar farms next to them.”
– Scott Ward
“We don’t need more rules for data centers,” Ward told the commissioners. “The free market is going to self-regulate…Data centers are run by companies that have a profit motivation…That’s why most of the data centers being built right now have solar farms next to them.”
Ward’s anti-regulatory stance struck a chord with county commissioner Ed Priola, who insisted that the current fuss about data centers seems to him like it’s been ginned up by people with political motives.
“It shouldn’t be any secret that, around the country, there’s a campaign to cancel these data centers. But there’s no harm to having a moratorium so we can study [the issue] and do the right thing.”
– County commissioner Ed Priola
“It shouldn’t be any secret that, around the country, there’s a campaign to cancel these data centers,” he added. “But there’s no harm to having a moratorium so we can study [the issue] and do the right thing.”
The idea of a moratorium also seemed prudent to Steve Carter, the vice chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners, who nevertheless went on to tout the potential tax revenue that a new data center could bring in to the county’s coffers.
“Having a large data center come in would be a big boon in the reduction to your household property taxes.”
– County commissioner vice chairman Steve Carter
“Having a large data center come in would be a big boon in the reduction to your household property taxes,” the board’s vice chairman argued.
Meanwhile, commissioner Sam Powell, who serves as liaison between the commissioners and the county’s planning board, stressed that the planning board’s members have already floated a proposal to add data centers to the county’s ordinance for heavy industrial development.
Powell went on to recall some highlights from the planning board’s conversations that he said have eased his own mind about the latest generation of data centers. He noted, for instance, that the newer facilities are better sound proofed, more energy efficient, and less wasteful in their usage of water than some of their predecessors. He added that the county’s objective should be to attract these new and improved facilities rather than the old-fashioned server farms that have been a blot on the reputation of the whole data center industry.
“I know data centers have gotten a bad name – especially the very large ones. So, we need to make sure that what comes here doesn’t hurt the citizens, and maybe a moratorium will help.”
– County commissioner Sam Powell
“I know data centers have gotten a bad name – especially the very large ones,” he said. “So, we need to make sure that what comes here doesn’t hurt the citizens, and maybe a moratorium will help.”
In the end, the commissioners decided to conduct a public hearing on a proposed moratorium when they convene at 7:00 p.m. on August 17. In anticipation of a large turnout that evening, the commissioner have agreed to reserve Alamance County’s Historic Court House for those proceedings.
According to county attorney Rik Stevens, the commissioners can wait until the night of the hearing to decide how long the proposed moratorium should last. He added that, whatever the length, this temporary halt to new data center applications would enable the county to draft some formal guidelines to regulate future facilities.
