Recent polling shows growing opposition to data centers in North Carolina. That trend is being reflected across the state Monday, with three more cities and counties considering putting data project developments on pause, while a proposal to build one in Raleigh was withdrawn Saturday.
Greensboro City Council will hold a Monday public hearing as the city considers a 120-day moratorium on large data centers or similar facilities using more than 10 megawatts of electrical power. After rejecting a formal moratorium in July in a 5-4 vote, council members now say they need time to hear from the public and experts about the impact data centers would have on water, the energy grid, and the environment.
Greensboro Mayor Marikay Abuzuaiter said that there are currently no plans to bring or recruit a data center to the city.
Further west, Yadkin County will consider a 12-month moratorium on data centers.
A draft resolution that will be considered Monday evening by county commissioners states that the temporary moratorium would apply to “data centers, data processing facilities, cryptocurrency mining operations, and uses associated with data processing facilities not yet defined.”
The moratorium would also apply to artificial intelligence computing, weather modeling, genome sequencing, cloud storage and video and technical streaming services.
Yadkin County’s planning department is in the process of updating its land use plan and wants more detailed information before greenlighting such facilities.
“The County has determined that to simply allow this intensive land use to be permitted without regard to location, height, size, density, population and type of trade would be counter to the County and its citizens,” the draft ordinance reads.
Residents of Alamance County are expected to flood the historic courthouse in Graham Monday evening for a special hearing on data centers. Like residents in Greensboro and Yadkin County, residents are worried about the environmental impact of data centers in their community.
The North Carolina Environmental Justice Network and the Haw River Assembly are asking Alamance County Commissioners to approve a two-year moratorium on new data center development in unincorporated Alamance County. Proponents of the 24-month moratorium say that would allow time to complete a land use study, adopt appropriate zoning, and most importantly, confirm the area has a safe and adequate water supply for homes and farms already in the region.
If Alamance County commissioners approve a two-year pause, they would not be alone: Surry County commissioners also unanimously approved a 24-month moratorium last month.
The three local governments holding hearings Monday need to look no further than Raleigh to see how quickly public opposition to data center projects can snowball..
An annexation hearing for a data center in southeast Raleigh had only been public knowledge for a few days when the project came to an abrupt end on Saturday.
Citizens opposed to the plan flooded the email of city council members and quickly filled all 30 public comment slots available at Tuesday’s hearing. Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell told WRAL-TV that her sense was that the council did not view the project favorably.
The drumbeat of opposition to the project prompted the Raleigh city government to take the unusual step Saturday of posting on social media that the annexation hearing had been cancelled, noting it was the developer who withdrew the request.
Neither Mayor Cowell nor a spokesperson for the city immediately responded to NC Newsline’s request for comment on the cancellation.
While several Wake County municipalities have enacted data center moratoriums in 2026, neither Raleigh nor Wake County has considered one to date.
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