SOUTHPORT — A 15-month moratorium is in effect in Southport as the town decides how to address data centers in its unified development ordinance.
The board of aldermen voted unanimously on Thursday, Sept. 10, to adopt the freeze, as motioned by Mayor Pro Tem Karen Mosteller. Currently, there are no regulations in the city ordinance regarding data centers, such as districts they’re accepted in, required setbacks, and other allowances.
An amendment was previously drafted requiring data centers 1,000 feet away from homes, schools, places of worship, public spaces, daycares, playgrounds and farmland, as well as limiting decibel levels and focusing on environmental standards. The goal was to protect residents from noise, odor and light pollution, extreme water and electric grid usage, which have become common complaints from people living near data centers statewide.
READ MORE: Southport pushes for data center moratorium as it workshops zoning rules
However, the amendment to the UDO was tabled by the planning board in July because officials worried it wasn’t comprehensive enough. Thus, they recommended aldermen take action and update its guidelines on where they want to see data centers. To do so, they suggested taking 15 months to research how to address the needs.
Alderman Rebecca Kelley said at the Sept. 10 meeting it was important to get ahead of the game; upward of 100 data centers exits already throughout the state. Though the city hasn’t been presented with an application for a data center yet, she pointed to a hard lesson learned over Southport’s former extra-territorial jurisdiction two years ago. House Bill 911 transferred roughly 2,000 acres to Brunswick County control, meaning the the Southport Planning Board can no longer dictate development plans there.
“We learned when there is no zoning for something, they can do what they want,” Kelley said, also thanking a data center subcommittee made up of planning board members Larry Ashley, Doug Luehe and John Bove, and town staff Maureen Meehan and Wendell Biddle, who researched other town ordinances.
Locally in Brunswick County, Boiling Spring Lakes has a 12-month moratorium in place, while the towns of Shallotte and Leland have adopted language in their UDOs on zoning, setbacks and more.
Southport Planning Board Chair Ashley spoke before the aldermen during the moratorium’s public hearing last week. He said as the subcommittee dug into the details of data centers, they learned changes were coming at a significant pace. He mentioned how some of the large campuses also require 166 backup generators just to exist.
“I know you’ve all seen on TV those massive data center campuses that are over 100,000 square feet and sites on hundreds of acres of property,” Ashley said, reminding how models are shifting into smaller footprints as well, some on 10 acres of property. “Developers have changed directions and taken over buildings to rehab — think of a property like Walmart. … So yes it could happen here.”
Planning Director Maureen Meehan said the town needed time to evaluate impacts and develop land use categories and standards for data centers and similar uses in Southport town limits. The moratorium would provide staff and planning board ample duration to outline criteria, digital information uses and infrastructure, and the approval process for any applicant.
She noted General Statute 160D-107 gives the town the authority to adopt the moratorium.
Across North Carolina, around 11 counties and 17 municipalities have enacted some sort of data center moratorium, the North State Journal reported on Monday, Sept. 14.
Aldermen Lowe Davis homed in on extreme resident reactions that have called Southport’s moratorium only a freeze that will have the board approving data centers once it lifts.
“This basically gives us 15 months to get our act together and defend ourselves against it,” she said.
Mayor Joe Pat Hatem clarified it was about an appropriate timeline to set guidelines.
“We have zero — it’s like the vape shops,” he compared, regarding restrictions put on those shops earlier in the year. “They could have come in and been by a church if we didn’t list [against] it.”
Ashley also pressed the aldermen to suggest Brunswick County enact a moratorium until commissioners and planning decide on more firm regulations. Brunswick County allows data centers in the industry general zoning districts currently. Ashley mentioned land near Duke Energy’s nuclear plant, 2 miles north of Southport, being of concern; the plant is zoned heavy industrial and special-use utility.
Duke also has been onboarding data centers at the state level and at a rate that has Attorney General Jeff Jackson on high alert. Jackson released Monday a framework urging the Utilities Commission to create a new rate class for Duke Energy’s data center customers. This would ensure the companies pay their fair share instead of burdening resident energy payers with the costs.
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