About 50 protesters gathered in front of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center to organize against new data center development ahead of a public hearing Tuesday night.
They held signs that pushed for a data center “ban,” citing concerns about air and water quality. One cardboard sign read “What’s gonna be left,” scrawled in black marker. Three people held up pages of the nearly 6,000 signatures on a petition to stop the expansion of American Towers’ proposed data center in east Charlotte.
Charlotte City Council is considering a 150-day moratorium on data centers, a move that would give the city time to analyze the impacts of new development, which opponents fear will raise electricity bills, guzzle water and contribute to climate change. Two large projects are already underway in their jurisdiction: Digital Reality is building a 400-megawatt campus north of the Charlotte Douglas Airport, and PowerHouse is building a 300-megawatt facility in University City. Once constructed, these would be among the largest data centers in the state — larger than any that currently exist in North Carolina.
The council hosted a public hearing about the moratorium at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center.
During the protest, Action NC political director Robert Dawkins described the actions the nonprofit would like to see adopted during a moratorium, including mandatory onsite renewable energy generation, strict water-use limits and community benefits agreements.
Inside the main chamber
During the public hearing, attendees packed the main chamber of the Government Center, and 36 people signed up to speak. Catawba Riverkeeper Brandon Jones testified on the lack of transparency in data center water usage.
“We are concerned that the growth of local data centers may overallocate our limited resources and decrease our ability to respond to drought,” Jones said.
Some speakers advocated not only for a moratorium but also for specific protections the council could implement during a moratorium. Kasey Moraveck, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, suggested that the City Council add a new land use category to the Unified Development Ordinance.
“Today’s hyperscale data centers are industrial facilities driven by enormous computing demands and water and energy needs,” Moraveck said. “They should be considered an emerging land use that can be regulated as a new industrial use under the UDO.”
She also recommended that the city council require hyperscale data centers — those that are used for artificial intelligence or cloud computing — to obtain a special use permit. Right now, a public hearing occurs only if a rezoning petition is required. But a special use permit would give the public a chance to weigh in outside the current rezoning framework.
Other speakers included concerned neighbors of proposed data center projects and educators who struggled with artificial intelligence in the classroom.
A forum for data center fears
The rezoning petition that telecommunications company American Towers filed last year has become a focal point of local concern over hyperscale data centers, although its proposal to expand operations on Hood Road is much smaller and would not fit that archetype.
“If the groundwater’s affected, who’s going to help me pay those thousands of dollars to be connected from the street to my home?” said Nia Anderson, a 61-year-old east Charlotte resident who lives half a mile from the proposed data center.
Some speakers pushed not only for a moratorium but also for a retroactive rescission of approvals granted to data centers under construction. Antoinette Mingo, a University City resident, expressed concerns about the heat generated by data centers.
Other speakers asked the City Council to impose environmental and human health impact assessments, limits on data center size and mandatory closed-loop cooling systems to reduce water consumption.
In Charlotte, data centers have inherited many of the frustrations and misgivings that residents have with local governments. For some, data centers represent shadowy developers making deals behind closed doors.
“We cannot rely on data center companies or the for-profit utilities that supply them to monitor or regulate themselves,” said Damien Williams, an assistant professor of data science at UNC Charlotte.
Bad actors, like the xAI facility in Memphis, Tennessee, have colored perceptions of data centers in North Carolina. Speakers referenced a data center in Fayetteville, Georgia, that used 30 million gallons of water without paying for it, which led to nearby residents experiencing low water pressure, news outlets report.
A raucous hearing for all those who oppose
While the majority of speakers supported a moratorium, at least three speakers opposed it, citing business and development concerns.
Attendees were openly hostile toward data center proponents, interrupting speakers by shouting and booing. Land Use attorney Collin Brown struggled to make his comments against a moratorium heard over the crowd.
“I do think the data centers are becoming critical infrastructure,” Brown said. “I think they are becoming just like utilities and roads.”
City Council could vote on a moratorium on June 8.
