Charlotte residents packed a city council meeting this week to rally in support of a pause on data center development.
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The Charlotte City Council held a public hearing during a meeting on Tuesday to discuss a proposed 150-day moratorium. The public hearing was a prerequisite to a planned council vote on June 8.
The hearing comes after several weeks of growing public pushback against proposed data center projects in the city. Dozens of people were protesting outside, many part of activist groups, according to The Charlotte Ledger. Out of the 36 people who spoke up at the hearing, only five did not support a moratorium, the Ledger reported.
Citizens detailed their anxieties about the presence of data centers in the metro area, with some suggesting the centers be completely banned. They cited negative environmental impacts and increased energy costs stemming from what they called excessive water and power requirements.
Charlotte is facing drought conditions and water restrictions. But large data centers can use up to 5 million gallons of water each day, according to The Brookings Institution.
“We are concerned that the growth of local data centers may overallocate our limited resources and decreases our ability to respond to drought,” resident and Catawba Riverkeeper Brandon Jones said. “Sustainable water management requires careful planning and robust coordination between all users, including data centers.”
Some spoke directly against American Tower Corp.’s proposed data center in east Charlotte, which has seen opposition at every stage. The project would span 40K SF on a site planned off of Hood Road, near Reedy Creek Nature Preserve. The developer delayed its zoning request until June 15.
“The question for me is, how do we build a footprint that makes Charlotte a national leader in distributed, resilient, redundant infrastructure without devouring our land, our water and our power?” said citizen Craig Reynolds, a business executive, whose question was met with applause.
He asked council members to consider the sheer scale of data center projects, which he said can command “eight to 14 times the combined residential power” of a city.
Another local, Tina Shull, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said she is “deeply concerned” about the impacts of the American Tower data center in her neighborhood, as well as the two already approved hyperscale centers in the city.
“This is a request to stop and make a new plan for data centers entirely,” Shull said. “A 150-day moratorium and an environmental impact assessment are the first steps.”
Resident Larry Shaheen, a commercial real estate lawyer at The McIntosh Law Firm, spoke in favor of data centers, saying they provide “a significant amount of tax revenue that is going to go toward funding important needs of the city of Charlotte.”
He also said the council doesn’t have the authority to cease construction on an already started project or to change certain zoning classifications. His comments drew audible “boos” from the room.
There has been notable backlash against data centers in communities across the U.S. over the last year, including across the Carolinas. Moratoriums in the region are becoming increasingly common, with Durham passing a 60-day moratorium earlier this month, Apex passing a one-year moratorium in April, and Chatham County imposing a one-year moratorium in February.
Still, there are more than 90 data centers in North Carolina, according to Data Center Map, and 40 in Charlotte, according to WCNC. More are expected as the rapid artificial intelligence boom continues.
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