Whiteville City Council on Tuesday joined a growing number of local governments in putting the brakes on new data centers.
“There’s just a lot we do not know at this point,” said City Planner Robert Lewis.
Data centers create large, long-term storage of digital information and support structure through networked servers, according to Forbes Magazine. The growth of cloud storage, artificial intelligence and other tech expansions are driving the need for data centers worldwide.
Critics say data centers produce noise pollution, put a strain on the local electric grid and use excessive amounts of water.
City staff suggested a one-year moratorium be put in place on data centers so staff would have time to learn more about the operations as well as their impacts on local infrastructure.
Lewis said the growth of AI and cloud storage has created a demand for data centers,
Council asked Lewis about the potential for jobs, the physical footprint of the average facility, and parking. Lewis said those are questions the city staff wants to have answered before centers are permitted here.
During the public hearing on the moratorium, Cecil Nance encouraged the council to vote against the moratorium. Nance said that some data centers can create hundreds of jobs, and bring millions to the local economy.
“We’re talking about a billion-dollar facility,” he said. He said data centers bring high wages, IT jobs, more population, and increased businesses, as well as increased property tax revenue without raising taxes.
Nance said that enacting the moratorium “on something we don’t even have a request for funding on” would “put the community behind the eight ball instead of in front of it.”
On questioning by the council, Lewis said the city could withdraw the moratorium before 2027 if
The council voted unanimously to put the moratorium in place.
