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Minutes note:
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Chair Robertson opened the public hearing for to consider a temporary twelve (12) month moratorium on the permitting of data centers, data processing facilities, cryptocurrency mining operations, and any other associated uses within the unincorporated areas of Chatham County, pursuant to N.C.G.S. §160D-107.
Planner II Hunter Glenn presented an overview of the proposed temporary moratorium on data centers and related uses. Glenn explained that, under N.C.G.S. 160D-107, a moratorium is a temporary legal pause on certain development approvals, allowing time for local governments to evaluate impacts and update regulations accordingly.
Glenn stated that the Board of Commissioners previously initiated action on January 20, 2026 meeting to consider a moratorium on data centers, data processing facilities, cryptocurrency mining operations, and all associated uses.
Glenn outlined the necessity of the moratorium, citing significant operational demands and potential impacts, including: high energy consumption (approximately 50–1000 megawatts), substantial water usage (estimated 1 to 5 million gallons per day), and environmental considerations and noise concerns.
Glenn reviewed the statutory requirements for adopting a moratorium, explaining that the ordinance must include: a statement of the conditions necessitating the moratorium and alternatives considered, identification of the development approvals subject to the moratorium, a defined duration with justification, and plan and schedule for addressing the identified issues.
Glenn further explained that the proposed moratorium would apply broadly to all related uses, including AI computing, web services, cryptocurrency mining, and other data-processing activities. Glenn noted that the proposed duration of the moratorium is up to one year, from February 11, 2026 through February 11, 2027, which is considered necessary to complete research, policy development, and regulatory updates.
Glenn outlined the work plan during the moratorium period, which included: initial study of impacts during the first four months, development of land use regulations to mitigate identified impacts, and completion of the text amendment and legislative process over the remaining six to eight months. Glenn concluded by reviewing the next steps, including conducting a public hearing to receive comments and the consideration of a motion to adopt the ordinance establishing the temporary moratorium.
Board Members inquired whether properties located in the unincorporated county could avoid the moratorium through annexation into a municipality. Staff clarified that the proposed moratorium would apply only within unincorporated areas and would not apply to properties annexed into a municipality, which would instead be subject to that municipality’s regulations.
Board members asked additional questions regarding the County’s ability to address emerging and evolving impacts, including water usage and environmental concerns, and whether future regulations could remain adaptable as technology and industry practices change. Staff responded that the Planning Department is actively researching ordinance language that would allow for flexibility and future updates while remaining legally compliant.
Board members questioned whether other jurisdictions have adopted similar regulations. Staff noted that while some communities, such as Apex and jurisdictions in Virginia have begun addressing data center development, many are still in early stages, and Chatham County is working collaboratively with regional partners to evaluate best practices.
Board members further inquired about staff capacity and resources to complete the work within a one-year timeframe. Staff stated that, with support from regional partners such as Central Pines Regional Council and other jurisdictions, sufficient resources are available to conduct the necessary research and develop recommendations within the proposed period.
Additional discussion focused on stakeholder and agency coordination, including the role of utilities and infrastructure providers such as Tri-River Water and Duke Energy, as well as the need to incorporate input from regulatory agencies and the Planning Board during the ordinance development process.
Board Members asked about potential impacts on property values; staff indicated that information is still being gathered and would be presented in future analysis.
The following comments were received in person:
Mary Roodkowsky
I'm Mary Roodkowsky, a property owner at 833 Langdon, Pittsboro, which is in Farrington Village. I'm speaking in my personal capacity, as the Planning Board has not yet had an opportunity to discuss how to best manage data centers in Chatham County. The proliferation of data centers in the United States provides a major opportunity, but with very significant challenges to our county. On the one hand, they would provide much-needed commercial tax revenue. We need to increase this revenue to avoid either higher property taxes, or cuts in services, either of which would threaten equitable growth and our standard of living and future well-being. On the other hand, data centers pose enormous environmental challenges, including energy generation, the cost of energy, water safety, and noise. We already have very many interesting proposals on how to mitigate these problems, the contribution from the Southern Environmental Law Center, which they sent out is particularly helpful. In addition, some jurisdictions are imposing size limitations on such centers as a way of managing their impact. I support a moratorium to examine these challenges, learn from what other jurisdictions have been doing to mitigate these challenges, and to adopt ordinances that implement them. We can seek strategies that will address several of the environmental problems at once. Some that other jurisdictions are using or discussing include sufficient acreage for the installation of solar, geothermal, and other renewables to cover the highest possible percentage of energy usage. These will also help with noise mitigation. Replacement of diesel generators with big batteries and new batteries will reduce noise and emissions from carbon-based fuels. Next generation solar energy storage is evolving rapidly, including new technologies, including flow batteries, to provide large-scale storage possible for industrial applications. Furthermore, such moratoriums should actively seek measures to insist that any data centers take steps to enhance, rather than destroy our environment and standard of living. This could include requiring them to offset their energy usage through the promotion of and subsidies for renewable energy, such as solar power for municipal buildings, and make the adoption of solar power generation and storage more possible for middle- and lower-income families. This would shield these residents from potential increases in power rates in two ways, by helping them generate their own electricity, and by reducing the overall demand on the grid, including during power-straining events. In some, we need to use a moratorium on the building of data centers to find and enact environmentally sound measures so that these centers will benefit, not burden Chatham County. Let's work to see if there is a way to responsibly welcome them. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Kirk Bradley
I am speaking against the moratorium as an economic development advocate and private landowner. 1. No need for a moratorium in order to compare code changes. a. Have you considered this as an alternative? 2. Others will address the items of the Statement of Necessity, but as to noise concerns, wouldn’t the County’s noise ordinance adequately address? If not, couldn’t this be easily addressed? 3. Data Centers are going to happen whether in Chatham or not. Please try to find the balance in your UDO changes that allow this unprecedented economic development opportunity to come to Chatham and benefit its citizens. 4. With an asset investment of $2-3 Billion, the property tax revenues would provide much needed revenue and relieve the pressure on the residential taxpayer. If you proceed with a moratorium, please do it in six months vs. 12 months. 5. I’m a manager of the LLC that owns Triangle Innovation Point West. The site has been zoned heavy industrial since 1969. Our investors spent over $11.3M to receive permits and invest in on and off-site infrastructure, including exporting contaminated material and importing clean fill to the site. This was done under the zoning applicable at the time of acquiring these permits and investing this capital. As a result, this would make Triangle Innovation Point West exempt from any proposed moratorium and changes to the UDO.
Patrick E. Bradshaw
Madam Chair and Commissioners, my name is Patrick Bradshaw. I practice law at 128 Hillsborough Street in Pittsboro, and I appreciate the opportunity to address you this afternoon. There are probably not many sites in Chatham County that have the proper zoning and where it is otherwise feasible to construct a substantial data center as of today. One site where it is feasible, however, is the 339-acre Triangle Innovation Point West, or TIP West, which is owned by my client, Echo TIP West, LLC. TIP West is owned heavy industrial and is part of the Moncure mega-site. The site has a history of industrial use, including a manufacturing use that had a wastewater discharge permit from the state for up to 244,000 gallons per day of water flow. The site has public water and sewer and proximity to electrical power infrastructure. Under the current zoning regulations, data processing, hosting, and related services is a use allowed by right on the property. If you impose a moratorium on permitting data centers, TIP West will be exempt from that moratorium. General Statute Section 160D-107 provides that development for which substantial expenditures have already been made in good faith reliance on a prior valid development approval is exempt from moratorium. The owner of TIP West has spent approximately $11.3 million to prepare the site for development of a data center in good faith reliance on prior valid development approvals, including stormwater permits, sedimentation and erosion control permits, water and sewer line extension approvals, and private road construction approvals. Even if there were no exemption, and you adopt a moratorium, and during that moratorium, you change the regulations applicable to development of a data center on the TIP West property, when the moratorium is over, the owner of TIP West will have the right to choose whether to proceed with the development of the project under the zoning ordinance that is in effect today, prior to a moratorium or under whatever amended regulations are adopted during the moratorium pursuant to General Statute Section 160D-108 and 143-755. TIP West currently has a development permit application pending before the county. That means that when the temporary moratorium ends, TIP West will have the option to proceed under the current zoning ordinance in which data, processing, hosting, and related services is a use allowed by right. Finally, if you adopt a moratorium and amend the zoning ordinance in a way that removes data processing, hosting, and related services as a use permitted by right at TIP West or decreases the development density allowed on the land without the written consent of the owner, that would be an illegal downzoning under General Statute Section 160D-601D, and would not be enforceable. I'm sharing these thoughts with you before you adopt a moratorium. In an effort to be transparent about my client's intentions with regard to its property and a development project in which it has already invested very substantial expenditures.
Boz Kaloyanov
Hi, I'm Boz Kaloyanov, a resident of the Highland Forest neighborhood. My wife and I moved here just over a year ago, and we love Chatham County. I'm a software engineer, so I see the benefits of AI first-hand every day. It makes me more efficient, I use it to learn new things, and more specialized models have even shown promise in scientific research. These AI models require incredible computational power, which is where data centers come in; however, building these sorts of facilities should not be taken lightly. I support the moratorium. I’d like to highlight two lesser talked about concerns related to data centers: Jobs and Noise. An August 2025 McKinsey report estimates that a typical large data center can create 1500 jobs during the construction phase, but only 50 jobs on an ongoing basis. Additionally, a Business Insider article from March 2025 notes that tech and construction companies inflate job creation numbers in general. Loudoun County, Virginia, is home to 199 data centers. A BBC article from October 2025 interviewed people near such data centers, who talked about the constant hum of the data centers and massive electrical infrastructure built alongside them. A longtime resident literally said "There are no birds around here anymore," noting that the hum scares away local wildlife. I'll grant that data centers will be important for AI buildout and also for more general-purpose website hosting. There is a time and place for them, and the moratorium can allow us to more carefully weigh their pros and cons. If we spend this time thinking about building more electrical/water infrastructure, then maybe in a year we'd be in a better position to build data centers. One last caveat, I see far fewer benefits of explicitly designated *cryptocurrency mining facilities*. These would just burn through electricity and water in service of a resource with benefits I'd label dubious at best. Right now, cryptocurrency's top use cases seem limited to speculative investment…or buying illegal drugs online. Commissioners, thank you for setting up this special session, and for allowing residents to make our voices heard.
James C Garbutt
Good day. My name is JC Garbott, I'm at 595 Oakberry Lane, Pittsboro, and I spoke to you before about this a couple of weeks ago, and provided some information about technical elements, which I'm sure you're getting lots of information. So today, I really wanted to kind of give a large overview and really strong support of the moratorium. I think it's very wise for Chatham County to take time and think through what is potentially, you know, tremendous industrial advancement, but also a tremendous industrial concern for small counties, and counties that are developing as rapidly as we are. You know, the impact on water, electricity, other things people have said. So I think a moratorium makes sense, we need it. There's a freight train coming down towards us, and we need to figure out how are we going to handle it? So, I fully support the moratorium, and I wanted just to let you know that. Thank you.
Michael Smith
Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the board. Thank you for your time this afternoon. My name is Michael Smith, and I'm president of the Chatham Economic Development Corporation. My address is 964 East Street here in Pittsboro. I was born here in the Triangle. I've been an economic developer since 1999 here in North Carolina. I love this state; I love this region. Our state has had multiple data centers now for a number of years. Recently, I spoke with a colleague who is in one of those communities that's had data centers for multiple years. He talked about all of the benefits that his community has enjoyed, thanks to that transformational investment in his community. You know, one of the things today is the average household has 17 different connected devices. The demand for data centers is only going to decrease. New data centers are going to come to this region, whether they come to Chatham County or somewhere else. Here in the county, we're considering only heavy industry HI sites only. We're not looking at any sites, like, for example, in Loudoun County, you see those images of data centers next to, major subdivisions. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about existing sites, heavy industry sites only. We are also, one of the consistent goals for our organization is trying to, help change the tax base that we have now. Right now, it's 90% residential. We're trying to move it more towards, commercial and industrial distribution center that would come to Chatham County would likely be a $2 billion investment. Which translates to $12 million in new tax revenues in our county every year. That's $12 million that would be the largest taxpayer by a wide margin. For example, the private sector taxpayers we have now, the two largest combined, are $3.5 million. And you think about how much larger this would be if something like this came here. Another unique project for this is Duke Energy requires a very large upfront investment. That way, then you… it buys a new company. And that's a way to ensure that the company is serious, and a way they keep the costs down for residents. We don't know what the marketing conditions certainly are going to be a year from now, so at this moment with the way things are set up, it's really important to consider a heavy industry site for this type of development. My final point is that any new data center that would come to Chatham County would very likely be one of those handful of companies that we all know, very large name-brand companies. Those companies are not about to put that kind of money into a site and not do… not work very closely with us to make sure it's the kind of development that everybody would be happy with. So, thank you very much for your time this afternoon, and thank you for consideration of this important topic.
John Geib
Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak on the proposed data center moratorium. I am John Geib, founder of the Kilowatt Collaborative, a firm focused on electric utility consulting. I reside at 8404 Trolley Court, Oak Ridge, North Carolina. My comments today are intended to bring balance and inclusiveness to the conversation about data centers becoming part of our economic landscape. These are large projects with comparably large impacts. Some of these impacts are very positive, and others require a little more scrutiny to ensure that downsides are mitigated. With careful planning, each of the negative impacts can be resolved. On the benefit side, data centers bring substantial capital investment, often in the billions. That investment expands the local tax base and can provide stable property tax revenue for decades. For many communities, this revenue supports schools, public safety, and infrastructure without significantly increasing the burden of those same services. There are challenges. A large data center facility will require a tremendous amount of electricity, comparable to the power needs of thousands of homes. That level of demand can require significant upgrades to electrical generation and wires infrastructure. The community, its host power company. And that power company's regulators must consider who ultimately bears those infrastructure costs. And what impact this has on electric reliability and the rates for existing customers. Last year, Duke Energy put forth new service rules in North Carolina for ultra-large power consumers. These rules were the first step in ensuring that the risks of serving these customers are minimized and that costs associated with serving them are borne exclusively by the large customer. I work with a number of U.S. utilities, and I can assure you that the same effort is going on around the country. Water usage for cooling is another common concern. Though subject to much debate, these facilities today use roughly the same amount of water as a large textile mill and new technologies are evolving, which will reduce that consumption even more. Noise from fans or on-site generators, land use intensity, visual impact, and the long-term opportunity cost of dedicating large tracts of land to a single industrial use should also be part of the conversation. In my view, this decision should not be framed as simply for or against data centers. Rather, it should be about conditions, ensuring grid readiness. Bare cost allocation, environmental stewardship, transparency and incentive agreements, and compatibility with long-term community planning. A thoughtful, data-driven approach, whether that results in a moratorium, targeted zoning, or structural approvals, will serve this community better than either rushing forward or closing the door entirely. Thank you for your time this evening.
Keith McLaurin
Chair, Commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I want to address the rapid growth of data and AI centers across North Carolina, and what it means for Chatham County as we consider our long term climate and community goals. Data and AI centers are not inherently bad. They can bring investment, they can strengthen our tax base, and they can help diversify our economy. But they also bring enormous energy demand, significant water use, and real noise and air quality impacts if we don’t set clear expectations up front. My goal tonight is not to oppose development, but to make sure that any development aligns with the future we want for Chatham County. First, we need to recognize the scale of the energy challenge. A single modern data or AI center can draw hundreds of megawatts of electricity the equivalent of tens of thousands of homes. Across the Southeast, this new demand is already delaying coal plant retirements and pushing utilities toward new gas generation. If we allow large facilities to connect to the grid without conditions, we risk locking Chatham County into decades of higher emissions and higher energy costs. That is not consistent with our climate resilience goals. Second, we must address backup power. Many data centers rely on fleets of diesel generators or gas turbines. These are loud, they emit harmful pollutants, and they concentrate environmental burdens on nearby communities. Diesel generator farms are one of the most disruptive aspects of data center development, and they are completely unnecessary today. Battery based backup systems, lithium ion or emerging sodium ion technologies are now mature, quiet, and emissions-free. They respond instantly, they stabilize the grid, and they eliminate the noise and pollution that diesel brings. Chatham County should adopt a clear standard: no diesel, no gas turbines, and a requirement for battery based backup power for any large data or AI facility. Third, we should insist that any new data center load be matched with new carbon free energy, not paper offsets or unbundled RECs. If a company wants to bring 200 megawatts of new demand into Chatham County, they should also bring 200 megawatts of new clean generation into the region. That could mean long term clean power purchase agreements, direct investment in local solar and storage, or participation in Duke Energy’s carbon free procurement programs. Growth should make our grid cleaner, not dirtier. Fourth, we should keep an eye on the future. As a nuclear engineer, I want to emphasize that small modular nuclear reactors, SMRs, are one of the most promising carbon free, high reliability energy sources available. They pair extremely well with large, steady loads like data centers. SMRs offer high reliability, zero emissions, and a small land footprint. While they are not yet widely deployed, Chatham County can signal openness to future SMR powered campuses and encourage partnerships between utilities, universities, and industry. We can position ourselves as a county that welcomes innovation without compromising our climate goals. Finally, we must protect our water and our communities. AI heavy cooling systems can use millions of gallons per day in hot months. We should require full transparency on water use, limits on peak day withdrawals, and a preference for air cooled or closed loop systems. And we should adopt strong noise standards, setbacks, and community benefit agreements so that residents are not asked to absorb the impacts of facilities that create relatively few local jobs. In closing, Chatham County does not need to choose between economic development and climate responsibility. We can have both but only if we set clear expectations now. We can welcome investment, but insist on clean power. We can support innovation, but reject diesel and gas turbines. We can grow our tax base, but protect our water, our air, and our quality of life. This is a moment to lead, not react. Let’s make sure that any data or AI center that comes to Chatham County strengthens our resilience, aligns with our climate goals, and contributes to the wellbeing of our residents.
Jane Mac Neela
Greetings, my name is Jane MacNeela, I live at 500 Stonehill Road, Chapel Hill, in the Highland Forest neighborhood in North Chatham, and I've been there for almost 25 years. Thank you for all you do on behalf of all Chatham residents. I appreciate the opportunity to speak in support of the proposed temporary moratorium. Per an article I read last night regarding Microsoft's technological advances to improve data center operations or electrical density by using new superconducting cables. In this article, it said U.S. government research shows that data centers' electricity may consume 12% of national power supplies by 2028, which would triple the demand from 2024, and clearly requires substantial increases in infrastructure to generate and transport power. A single data center campus being built right now will use approximately 1 gigawatt of electricity, which is comparable to power supplied to 150,000 homes. While I acknowledge that technology is advancing at unanticipated rates, our local infrastructure cannot support such enormous demands on power generation, water and effluent management, and increased pollution due to air and water contamination from operations of these high-tech facilities. First of all, Duke Energy, which is Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress serving North Carolina, South Carolina, and surrounding states, is essentially a monopoly. Most residents don't have a choice in terms of purchasing residential power, but they bear the rate increases that our Utilities Commission typically approves for such unforgivable infractions as the coal ash spill in the Dan River in 2014, and a whole long list of other things. They wrote a 2025 Carolinas Resource Plan submitted to the North Carolina Utilities Commission at the end of last year, and stated that between now and 2040, customer needs, energy needs across the Carolinas are expected to grow by 8X. Compared to the rate over the past 15 years. This projected increase is more than double the growth forecasted when they submitted their 2023 support, 2023, report. One of the things about Duke Energy is that they claim to be very, you know, environmentally friendly, etc, but their renewable energy consists of 1.9% of their total power generation. They want to expand coal power plants and ask for 22 more years to operate current plants to extend power support. Building data centers and related facilities that will surge the demand for dirty power is a significant health risk for all of us. The other thing is that we are currently experiencing severe drought in this area. Anyone who's driven over Jordan Lake recently has seen this critical water source at its historically low level, similar to a prolonged drought in 2008. It serves Orange, Chatham, Durham, and Wake counties, but all of us know that population increases and business matches in all of these counties has spiked water demand and will continue to do so. A review paper that I read said that the frequency duration of moderate to severe droughts has increased and will continue to increase.
Sara Stephens
Madam Chair, Board, thank you so much for allowing me to speak today. My name is Sarah Stephens, I'm District Manager for Duke Energy. Our local operations center is at 72 Hadley Mill Road, Pittsburgh. That is where the line folks that are keeping the lights on for you all. I am by no means a data center expert, but my job is to help connect the dots and provide information necessary to make decisions. I work with local leaders such as yourself and economic development officials to help power your economy in a manner that matches your local vision for your community. So whatever industry you want to attract, we'll work with you to deliver the necessary power to support your economic growth. I ask that your… as your utility partner, we are included in any upcoming data center conversations so we can answer any energy-related questions that you might have. As we know, data center conversations are happening everywhere right now, and I've heard a few things throughout the last couple of weeks that I want to make sure that is clear here to you all, sort of like this myth-busting thing that we're on. To protect residential customers. Our contracts with large load customers, such as data centers, include provisions that require these facilities to pay the full cost associated with delivering service to their sites. Data centers and other large load customers help lower costs for customers by spreading fixed service expenses across a broader customer base. And at the same time, it's worth noting that we do not offer discounted energy bills to data center as a recruitment incentive. So, thank you so much for your time today.
Kyle Shipp (read aloud by Phillip Thompson)
My name is Kyle Shipp. I live at 295 Hillsboro Street in Pittsboro, and I’m here today in my capacity as a resident of Chatham County and as a construction professional who has been involved in large-scale data center and mission-critical infrastructure projects for the past fifteen years. I want to begin by acknowledging that the concerns driving this discussion are real. Infrastructure-intensive projects require thoughtful planning, and communities have every right to consider long-term impacts carefully. From my professional experience, I would offer two perspectives. First, even within the same use category, impacts can vary significantly depending on who the developer and long-term operator is. To use a simple analogy: Starbucks and Aromatic Roasters are both coffee shops. But their footprint, community presence, traffic patterns, and long-term integration can look very different. The label alone does not determine the outcome. The same is true for large infrastructure projects. Two facilities that look identical on paper under a zoning definition can have very different community impacts depending on who develops them, how they engineer them, and how they engage with utilities and neighbors. That distinction — the quality of the partner — is very difficult to fully regulate through zoning language alone. It often requires collaboration, transparency, and a willingness to work with developers who are serious about long-term partnership. Second, I understand that this moratorium is likely to pass. Given that reality, my encouragement is that the work that follows move deliberately but quickly. A moratorium is a significant step. Even when targeted and temporary, it sends a signal beyond the specific use being paused. Businesses evaluating where to locate or invest respond to predictability and stability. Prolonged uncertainty can influence how a community is perceived more broadly. Developing clear standards does not necessarily require the full twelve months if there is strong coordination among planning staff, community stakeholders, and industry expertise. A collaborative, coalition-driven process can produce better outcomes — and do so efficiently. My hope is that this process moves expeditiously, engages both community voices and technical expertise, and ensures Chatham County continues to signal that it is a confident, collaborative, and predictable place to invest and partner. Thank you for your time.
Jessamine Hyatt
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. My name is Jessamine Hyatt; I live at 114 Bynum Hill in Bynum. I'm here to speak in support of the proposed moratorium on data centers and cryptocurrency mining in Chatham County, and I'm grateful to you for considering this option. I wish it could be a permanent moratorium, but let's start where we can. We only have one opportunity to protect what matters, and that is before we destroy it. Of course, we are faced with that one opportunity again and again as the destroyers move in with their next scheme of destruction, which is almost always disguised as a service that will make our lives better. I am convinced that most of us, especially here in Chatham County, where many of us are farmers and lovers of the outdoors, did not ask for the services that these data centers will supposedly provide, nor will we benefit from them. In fact, we will lose mightily. We are already struggling to have adequate potable water here. Given the existing industrial pollutants, our utility bills have already been rising. With the extreme need for water and electricity represented by these data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations, these costs will rise exponentially. I know everybody speaks in favor of them as saying that this is happening no matter what, and we have to stay with the times. I say we have to wake up to the position we are in. The hardest part for me to deal with all of this is that we are, at this moment, facing the mounting realities of climate destabilization, which is affecting our farmers, our natural resources, and all of our existing infrastructure. And we are supposed to be finding ways to cut back on our use of energy and the production of CO2. And now this. Single buildings that rival the energy of… energy use and CO2 output of entire cities. We have to be wise. Once we destroy it, we can't put it back together. We have to take the time to craft legislation that will protect our planet and our people. This does not happen overnight, so at a minimum, we need this moratorium. Thank you.
Keely Puricz
Thank you very much for allowing me to speak. My name is Keeley Puricz. I'm at 363 Angel Road. I'm in Sanford, right over the Deep River. I commend you for considering a moratorium and allowing more North Carolinians counties. I urge you to reconsider a 24-month moratorium and review the Southern Environmental Law Center report. Coming from a military family, we practice the four P's - Prior planning prevents problems. Thank you for practicing the four P's and considering a 24-month moratorium. In Lee County, we are waiting for the crypto billionaire, Dan Spooler, to use fracked gas from a pipeline that was drilled in the 80s for his crypto data center. You're brave to put this forward, because Lee County Commissioners won't even listen to an agenda from Southern Environmental Law Center. Thank you for listening to your constituents and moving forward for this.
Mark Ashness
Good afternoon, board members and staff. Mark Ashness with LJ Engineering, 367 Freedom Parkway in the Mosaic Development. I am against the proposed moratorium. I am supportive of any permitting modifications to your current ordinances to ensure that the data centers that might consider Chatham County would be required to follow under those. Specific to the TIP West project, we've been involved with that project since the inception. On October 30th of last year, we received a will-serve letter from Tri-River for the project as a proposed data center. We also received a zoning compliance on that same day from Chatham County. Later in December, we had an individual meeting with the county inspections and the fire marshal to talk about specific aspects of the data center site, and just today, we made a pre-submission to the county staff with some of those changes based on that December meeting. TIP West, we're not proposing to bring a water hog to this site. We'll be utilizing newer technology, which uses recycling systems to reduce that demand. That demand will actually be lower than the prior user of that site. Allied Fiber had a permit, as mentioned previously, for about 244,000 gallons per day, and our proposed demands would be less than that for the project. Ironically, in the mid-90s, I had the opportunity or the privilege to serve the county as a Public Works Director. At that time, I was on the Emergency Task Committee, and that committee was basically set up, it's a statewide committee, and every county has one internally to deal with emergency responses. Well, a lot of those responses were really associated with potentially some kind of act that might happen at the Sharon Harris facility. And as we know, we all rely on Sharon Harris for energy purposes. And, I can remember in those discussions, the original Sharon Harris footprint was actually going to straddle both Wake County and Chatham County, and in that time, Chatham County elected to oppose that project, and that facility moved entirely into Wake County with that tax base. At the end of the day, we still had the same task force issues that Wake County had with that facility in Chatham, but all the tax revenue went to Wake County. So I encourage you, in looking at things to make the rules more stringent, so that the types of these centers that may come to Chatham County will be high quality. Thank you.
Susie Crate
Madam Chair, Commissioners, and all present, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. Susie Crate, 235 Bynum Church Road in Bynum, where I've lived for 30 years. I do not claim to be an expert in data centers. I think that sitting here and listening to everyone, we realize that there is a lot of different information we have. I'm in full support of at least 12 months, if not 24-month moratorium, so that we can dig deep and understand the full impacts. I agree that we have a very, Special county here that we need to do our best to preserve. We have 50,000 people coming to Pittsboro alone with Chatham Park and numerous other developments across the county. There are a couple moments, a lot of people have said what I have here. I just wanted to emphasize a few things about what I have done and what I have found out in my research that our monthly electricity bills will increase. And we will be paying for these new power plants and infrastructure needed for these big data centers. This is controversial to what some people have said, so I do believe we really need to study this and understand it deeply. In terms of the water, 5 million gallons of water every day, which is equivalent to the use of 50,000 people, and it has to be pure water. The data centers cannot use recycled water because that will corrode the equipment and breed bacteria. So, we are talking a lot of water. Also, the PFAS issue is huge. We already are dealing with that issue, we're trying to deal with that issue, and so I believe we need to really look at that and study that more deeply. Also, I would tend to argue that not everyone wants AI connectivity. I, for once, really prefer other ways of finding out my information. So, just to say that on a personal scale. And then, of course, there is the problem of noise and land use. We have to think about what communities are these data centers going to be adjacent to. Is it going to be the wealthy people who have the huge plots of land? No, it's going to be the less fortunate people in our county. So, I think there's a lot to think about, and I hope that you do adopt a moratorium, and I also would like to vote for there being some community involvement in this research and understanding process, that it be something that we can also know about as you're moving through it, if you adopt the moratorium, and that we can provide our input. As we can. Thank you very much.
Diana Hales
Good afternoon. I'm Diana Hales, and I live at 528 Wilby Lane, Siler City. And I've come to support a moratorium on the permitting of data centers in Chatham County. There are currently 93 data centers in North Carolina. Including 17 in Raleigh, 9 in Greensboro, 4 in Durham, and 1 in Roxboro. Urban and rural areas across the state are in play. As we consume more data, and expect faster speeds, and want our stuff immediately relayed to the cloud, we, the people, have created this voracious monster. These are large facilities; 4,000 square feet is typical. That hires few people and creates heat that is gobbling electricity and water, just so a photo on your cell phone gets delivered in less than 2 seconds. We are exhausting both our water and electrical generation capacity. We can make more electricity. Plenty of coal is still left to burn, but we cannot make more water. Data centers have a thirst for water, and their rapid expansion threatens freshwater supplies. Only 3% of Earth's water is fresh, and only 0.5% of all water is accessible and safe for human consumption. Freshwater is critical for survival. On average, a human being can live without water for only 3 days. Increasing drought and water shortages are reducing water availability. Meanwhile, data center developers are increasingly tapping into surface and underground aquifers to cool their facilities the environment, Environmental and Energy Study Institute estimated that approximately 17 billions of gallons of water were used in 2023 to cool these centers. A typical center needs 5 million gallons a day, or enough water to supply a town of 10,000 to 50,000 residents. We already know how our estimated population growth affects water supplies. Do we need another facility that requires as much as a small town and employs very few people? I encourage the in-depth study that is being proposed of whether a data center, no matter what its purpose, is not an economic engine this county wants or needs. If our rural character is important, a data center may not be the solution, just a much larger problem. Thank you.
Kate O’Brien
Good evening. A strange-looking microphone. The comments that I wanted to make have been covered, I am in support of a moratorium. I would be interested in, I was. I've learned a lot just from hearing the comments this evening, and I was not aware that the coal ash problem had been cleaned up, or sanitized or shipped to another area, which, of course, poses its own issues and problems of exporting pollution. I'm just wondering if there has been so many investments made by, some members, of this courtroom, if there is any, consideration going forward of making, a different use of that, property, such as, You know, at the business meeting, last evening, there was a discussion about how we need to have more, like a tourism site or, different kinds of amenities that would welcome families and, I don't know if once something is designated industrial, if we could expand that classification, or if there could be things like, the roller rink, the swimming pool, other kinds of things that could also generate income, and if we could designate that land for another purpose all together. Thank you.
Rosemary Sanozky-Dawes
Good afternoon. My name is Rosemary Sanozky-Dawes, and I live at 5128 Beckwick Drive in Fuquay-Varina. I've been involved in opposition to the New Hill Data Center, and have listened to a lot of things, and we've researched I just have a few items I'd like to mention, in support of your moratorium. The lady mentioned about water, our most essential and finite resource. When servers are cooled in a data center, they release toxic PFAS. And the powers that be want North Carolina to become the next data center alley. So eventually, we'll all be downstream of data centers, and we won't have any clean water anymore. Now, the appeal of tax revenue has been mentioned, and I think that is an illusion, because there are a lot of secret deals going on. Our state senate and our legislature passed Bill 266 last year that will transfer the operational costs, of the energy that takes the data center to the residents. Which was huge. We didn't know that was happening. So, they will not have to pay for their energy. Duke Energy is making deals to raise our rates. And we also found out that these end users are setting up vehicles to mitigate the risk. Because data centers are very high risk, they are setting up LLCs and also, planning to rent servers instead of own servers, so that they won't have to pay property tax. Also, someone mentioned about how data centers are in neighborhoods and they don't really matter, but size matters, because the powers that be, like the end users Google and Amazon, they don't want the small data centers anymore. They want hyperscale data centers to promote their generative AI. That's what it's all about, is AI. And, I think people should think about the malevolent aspects, the impossible malevolent aspects of AI. There were too many unknowns. We've gone through this in New Hill, there's so many unknowns, and there's… you have to have a lot of time to look into all of these, because if you proceed, then it might be too late to go back. So, I think that it's very prudent that you're doing this moratorium. And when you were asking about the infrastructure under the umbrella for the moratorium, you might want to consider BESS, the Battery Energy Storage Systems. Because in New Hill, they are proposing to use lithium batteries, which are very high risk for fires. Those fires cannot be put out. There is no fire extinguishing material known to be able to put out lithium battery fires. Thank you.
Nita Dukes
Thank you for listening to me. I didn't come prepared to speak, but I am going to have to. I live in Siler City, I'm at 194 Hillcrest Road. I have lived there for twenty years, we have had two mandatory restrictions on water, and a voluntary one last year. We also, this winter, had a request from Duke to please lower our requirements for usage. So I am here to say we need to get a moratorium until we work out, and I would like to know from these people who are in favor of it. I would like them to explain where our water is going to come from if we do not have it. And where is the electricity going to come from if we are already trying to decrease it. We had a thing in Mountaire, where we had, I think some people here understand this experience too. When we had Mountaire come in, there was a big kerfuffle over the water. And we were, it was a constant item for quite a few years of how much water, where the waste was going. So, I do not think we need to relive that, and that's a big consideration, especially for our side of the county. And I just wanted to bring that to these people's attention, because I probably will not see these people that are advocates, again, I just wanted to say my piece. And, in case they did not know our history. Thank you.
The following comments were received in writing:
Travis Cline
The rapid expansion of data centers across the United States, driven by the generative artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto boom, presents one of the biggest environmental and social threats of our generation. This expansion is rapidly increasing demand for energy, driving more fossil fuel pollution, straining water resources and raising electricity prices across the country. All this compounds the significant and concerning impacts AI is having on society, including lost jobs, social instability and economic concentration. The harms of data center growth are increasingly well-established, and they are massive. They include: Enormous electricity consumption: A tripling of data centers in the next five years would result in data centers consuming as much electricity as about 30 million households. Unsustainable water consumption: A tripling of data centers would require as much water as is used by 18.5 million households – simply for cooling the computer servers. Contribution to climate change: 56 percent of the electricity used to power data centers is sourced from fossil fuels. Skyrocketing electricity costs: Electricity rates have increased 21.3 percent from 2021 to 2024 – drastically outpacing inflation – driven largely by the rapid build-out of data centers, something that could continue to escalate over time. Job losses: According to an AI executive, AI could negate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next five years and spike overall unemployment by up to 20 percent. The rapid, largely unregulated rise of data centers to fuel the AI and crypto frenzy is disrupting communities across the country and threatening Americans’ economic, environmental, climate and water security. We urge you to join our call for a national moratorium on new data centers until adequate regulations can be enacted to fully protect our communities, our families, our environment and our health from the runaway damage this industry is already inflicting. Limited community benefit - very few job created outside of initial construction, limited tax revenue. Not only do we not NEED this technology, it is terrible in every aspect for our society. That combined with all the negative impacts to the communities where the data centers are physically located makes there not a shed of doubt in my mind that there is no place for them in Chatham (or surrounding) counties. Not only do we need a moratorium on their construction, we need an outright ban. Thank you for your time and including my thoughts in the minutes!
Rita M Dealy
I am a resident of Chatham county and vote every opportunity presented. I am writing to express my strong support for a moratorium on data centers and crypto mining. We need to know more about how these industries will impact our electrical usage and environmental standards. I say a moratorium is an excellent way for the county staff, commissioners, and the community at large to better understand the ramifications of these industries. My family for one can not afford higher electrical rates.
Beth Beebe
I am writing to have it known that I am opposed to any Data Centers, Data Processing Facilities, Cryptocurrency Mining Operations, and any other associated uses within Chatham County. Please place our residents and wildlife above these operations. In kind regards from a resident of Chatham County that would love to remain a long-time resident (as long as this county avoids these types of operations listed above).
Thelma Sharon Garbutt
I am writing to voice my support for you to enact a temporary moratorium on the permitting of data centers, data processing facilities, cryptocurrency mining operations and any other associated uses within the unincorporated areas of Chatham County, pursuant to N.C.G.S.160D-107. I have learned that these facilities can have substantial adverse impacts on the quality of life of residents, can do irreparable harm to the environment, can deplete necessary resources such as water and available power resources, and can actually cause a loss of other businesses, jobs and income for residents and the County as a whole. These facilities also provide low employment relative to the amount of resources they devour. Our County staff and elected officials need time to study the potential impact of these industries on our County and to decide how best to protect Chatham County and its residents from the harmful impacts these industries are known to cause. I hope you will pass a moratorium soon to protect our County and its citizens until adequate regulations can be developed and passed.
Kasey Moraveck
We write in support of the proposed temporary moratorium on the permitting of data centers, data processing facilities and any associated use, and cryptocurrency mining operations, which on February 11, 2026, will be the subject of a public hearing. We commend Chatham County for taking this important step to protect the public interest and welfare of Chatham County residents until standards regulating these uses can be adopted. As you have already recognized, data centers and cryptocurrency facilities are resource intensive—significant quantities of water, power, and land are required to maintain their onsite operations to store, process, and distribute data. They disrupt communities by converting rural landscapes into massive industrial campuses, threatening water resources, increasing air pollution and climate-warming emissions from burning fossil fuels, and producing a constant, low-frequency noise that interrupts residents’ lifestyles and sleep. A moratorium is therefore critical to give the County sufficient time to study these impacts and to develop land use regulations that address the harms data centers and cryptocurrency facilities present to communities. Several other local governments in North Carolina are enacting or pursuing moratoria on data centers or cryptocurrency mining operations due to concerns about the significant impacts these facilities can have on communities. Among others, these include Gates County, the Town of Canton, and Clay County. If Chatham County likewise adopts the proposed temporary moratorium, we encourage the County to pursue text amendments to its zoning ordinance that preserve local control and public input over data center and cryptocurrency development, mandate transparent water and power use and source reporting, and support the nationwide and statewide transition to clean energy. We have attached a list of potential measures that Chatham County could consider for adoption, with examples of regulations enacted in North Carolina jurisdictions as well as other states (Attachment 1). Additionally, we have attached the Southern Environmental Law Center’s recent report providing guidance on local approaches to data center development, emphasizing local governments’ important role in safeguarding communities, public health, and the environment (Attachment 2). Thank you for your consideration of these comments in support of Chatham County adopting a 12-month moratorium in the permitting of data centers, data processing facilities and any associated use, and cryptocurrency mining operations.
Shelley Colbert
I write to you in complete support of the proposed temporary moratorium before you this evening, February 11, 2026. I urge you to adopt it unanimously and without delay. I have seldom seen a moratorium more worthy—or necessary- for developing more thoughtful planning regulatory framework than this one. I have read Mr. Glenn’s summary and the proposed timeframes for addressing the complicated issues associated with the planning uses subject to such a moratorium. One of my concerns, apart from the myriad potential negative environmental consequences, is also the extent to which such projects could represent significant lost economic opportunities for Chatham, by displacing higher and better economic zoning uses. That deserves thoughtful analysis and scrutiny as part of the moratorium process. I look forward to seeing this pass this evening- it is urgent.
Tom Vanderbeck
Why a moratorium of data centers? They demand for massive amounts of energy, which drive a cash crop for fossil fuel expansion, new gas pipelines, coal plants and nuclear facilities; while draining needed potable water sources that cannot be safely recycled. (PFAS pollution) Who mostly uses these centers? Military, surveillance, big oil, cryptocurrency money laundering exchanges and AI porn. Of the 63% of internet worldwide usage (2022); 38.5% is from human traffic. Search bots, scrapers, crypto hacking tools and human impersonators account for the remaining 61.5%. In 2026 90% of online content will be AI generated. Traditional AI has been around since the 1950s. Generative AI, very new creates new content from learning patterns from large amounts of existing data, which requires a more vast amount water and energy increasingly dependent on computing power and storage capacity needed. Thereby necessitating demand for scarce or easily resourced land, infrastructure, power and water. There are currently over 100 data centers operating in NC with 7 more proposed with more on the way. Impacts: Massive energy demands destabilizing the grid, resulting in brown and black outs leading to increasing our already ever growing monthly energy bills. Union of Concerned Scientists reports the nearly $1 trillion in energy costs will be attributable to data centers over the next 25 years. In November Duke Energy submitted a request to raise rates for both NC utilities; while asking for a $1 billion increase, affecting customers’ bills while increasing shareholders’ take. Fresh drinking water used, lest reclaimed coolant could corrode equipment and breed bacteria, using up to 5 million gallons/day (equivalent usage of a 50,000person town), which cannot be recycled due to persistent PFAS (forever chemicals) content critical to cooling computer servers. Other chemicals of concern, florinated gases, some of which are used in cooling systems can be 10,000 X a more potent greenhouse gas have been produced in Chemours plant in Fayetteville, NC. Noise/pollution: Data centers running 24hr/7da/year can generate harmful noise exposure to humans. Pollution from diesel back-up generators in the form of dangerous particulates, both of which contribute to adverse medical conditions and attendant costs. Land: Recently, in Stokes Co., commissioners approved a plan for 1,800 ac. data center (or about 2.8 sq. mi.) and on farmland in New Hill a proposed 189 ac. for a 300 MW data center. In many cases, local officials/residents don’t know buyers until a deed Is recorded...and land value is being pegged to MWs rather than population. US Dept. of Defense is now seeking private AI data center developments on military bases, 734 ac. in Fort Bragg forests of mixed pine and hard woods. Jobs: In terms of jobs /energy used, these data centers create 100 times fewer jobs. Tax revenue: In Stokes Co.; e.g., as Greensboro News and Record reported from a proposal PowerPoint, current tax value $7,833 versus $40M tax revenue generated annually from a 24/7 data center at full build out over 1,000ac. As estimated by the developer. What is not highlighted, NC is one of 38 states providing sales and usage tax exemptions for these centers...public schools funded primarily from sales and property taxes. NC fails to fails to disclose these exemptions. A google center in Lenoir paid only 5M in county taxes/10 years, receiving $73M back in in rebates with the city abating $51M in 2017-2024. * The above text has been culled from parts of a recent speech by Dr. R. Masri There is good reason to try and get ahead of this during a moratorium. Could our resources be better apportioned? (available drinking water, affordable housing, agriculture, family farms. How much do we value our health? Does it make financial/economic sense? Energy legislation recently filed in SC would bar future sales tax breaks for data centers.
Kevin Russel
We worked together in the Triangle Leadership class around regional sustainability. As a technologist of 40 years, (IBM, Prodigy, BBC ...etc.) deeply experience in the subject of meetings subject. I wish I could have made it. Given the purpose of the meeting is legislative public hearing to consider a temporary moratorium on the permitting of data centers, data processing facilities, cryptocurrency mining operations, and any other associated uses within the unincorporated areas of Chatham County, pursuant to N.C.G.S. §160D-107 here are my comments and concerns 1. Increased electricity costs for local and regional population citizens 2. Increasingly poor local and regional power factor effects on adjacent and surrounding home and business grids 3. Increased air pollution environmental impact 4. Increased light pollution environmental impact 5. Increased Noise (HVAC and exhaust) 6. Labor and taxes from human employee income AI agents don't pay them (currently) as they do 'work', extracting revenue leaves from the county and region. I'm all to aware of the historic issues in the Data Center alley in and around Washington DC and VA. suburbs. MIT linked work has produced some of the clearest numbers so far on how much electricity AI uses, both at the data-center level and per interaction. Here are the key takeaways and orders of magnitude. Big picture electricity demand. An MIT Technology Review analysis (with MIT affiliated researchers) estimates that AI specific servers in U.S. data centers used about 53–76 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2024, out of roughly 200 TWh used by all U.S. data centers. That AI slice alone is comparable to the annual electricity consumption of millions of U.S. homes, and by 2028 AI specific loads are projected to rise to around 165–326 TWh, or roughly 6.7–12% of all U.S. electricity use in some forecasts.research. Per-query / per output energy cost. MIT Technology Review’s package on AI energy reports that running large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT typically takes on the order of 114–6,706 joules per text response, depending on model size and configuration. A separate MIT Sloan piece quotes MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Vijay Gadepally: processing one million tokens (roughly a “dollar of compute” in some cloud settings) emits carbon comparable to driving a gasoline car 5–20 miles, implying non trivial electricity use per heavy workload. For generative media, the same report estimates a 5 second AI video can require ~3.4 million joules of energy, over 700× the energy to generate a single high-quality image, again underscoring how video is far more power-hungry than text or images. How this translates to “everyday” use: An MIT linked analysis summarized a hypothetical user session: 15 chatbot questions, 10 images, and three 5-second AI videos would consume on the order of 2.9 kilowatt hours (kWh), similar to running a microwave for about half an hour to an hour, depending on power level. Another MIT sustainability discussion notes that a single conversation with a large model like ChatGPT uses about as much electricity as charging a smartphone once, while generating one image is roughly comparable to using about a bottle of water for data-center cooling. Data center and training cluster perspective: MIT’s “Explained: Generative AI’s environmental impact” highlights that a dedicated generative AI training cluster can consume seven to eight times more energy than a typical (non AI heavy) data-center setup, due to billions-parameter models and large GPU clusters. Facilities sized at 50–100 megawatts of continuous power draw driven largely by workloads for systems like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are now common, putting real stress on local grids. Cost side: “cost of AI = cost of energy”: MIT sustainability experts quote OpenAI’s Sam Altman’s line that the cost of intelligence (AI) will increasingly converge to the cost of energy: when models are deployed at scale, electricity becomes the dominant marginal cost after hardware is in place. This is already visible in grid planning discussions: serving on the order of a billion LLM queries per day for a year can mean ~109 GWh of electricity, enough to power roughly 10,000 U.S. homes for a year before even counting images and video. MIT led mitigation and optimization work. MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Supercomputing Center caps GPU power use at about 150–250 W (around 60–80% of max) for both training and inference, which cuts total power and cooling needs while only modestly impacting performance. MIT and Northeastern built Clover, a software tool that shifts workloads in time and chooses lower carbon or lower power options when possible, achieving 80–90% reductions in carbon intensity for some operations in experiments. If you tell me whether you care more about per query costs, model training runs, or grid scale planning, I can walk through some concrete back of the envelope calculations tailored to your use case.
Chair Robertson asked if there were any more speakers, hearing none, she closed the public hearing.
Chair Robertson called for a motion to approve the Ordinance Instituting a Temporary Moratorium on the Permitting of Data Centers, Data Processing Facilities, Crytocurrency Mining Operations and Any Use Associated with Data Processing Facilities within Chatham County pursuant to General Statute 160D-107.
Following the vote, Commissioner Delaney stated that he would have preferred additional discussion prior to the vote being finalized. Chair Robertson confirmed that the motion had passed.
Commissioner Delaney clarified that while a motion had been made and brought to a vote, he believed further discussion could have occurred before voting. Chair Robertson again affirmed that the motion had passed.
Commissioner Delaney then inquired of County Attorney Emily Meeker whether the Board had the ability to reconsider or reverse the vote to allow for additional discussion. Attorney Meeker responded that the Board had already taken action by voting.
Commissioner Delaney clarified for the record that his vote on the motion had been in the affirmative.
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