The Planning and Zoning Commission once again addressed the issue of placing a moratorium on commercial data centers in Moore County. Chair Dexter Golden announced to the commission that County Attorney Bill Reider has drawn up the proposed verbiage for the moratorium.

The moratorium would begin on April 20 and run for two years. That would give the commission time to study the issue, conduct impact studies, and get public input, after which they could develop a permanent ordinance. In the meantime, it will prevent any action from being taken with plans for a data center. The commission voted unanimously (with Angelica Lightfoot absent) to send the issue back to Metro Council, now that there is specific verbiage.

Moore County is not alone in its concern over large data centers. The growth of these centers is rapidly expanding. There is one to be built on AEDC’s property in the near future. The centers are huge consumers of both electricity for running the servers and water for cooling systems. Data centers run 24/7, resulting in a constant drain on resources. Backup generators are loud, often resulting in noise pollution complaints from neighbors.

The moratorium and possible future ordinance will not affect small data centers, such as the one at Moore County High School. It would not affect a small business coming into Moore County from having a private data center for their own use. The focus is on large, commercial data centers.