Despite Residents' Concerns, Granville County Commissioners Consider Land Use Amendment Regulating Data Centers

At their meeting on Monday, August 3, Granville County Commissioners will consider a proposed ordinance to regulate data center development in the county. While the Granville County planning board approved the amendment, many residents are concerned that the ordinance does not go far enough to protect the community from large-scale data centers.

Down Home Granville member Fred Johnson explained it this way:

"When you read it carefully, it really isn't for a data center - it's for a warehouse," Johnson said of the proposed amendment. "[Data Centers] are noisy, they require a lot of space and they provide very few jobs." Johnson added that he's concerned the amendment is designed to avoid raising red flags for potential developers and contains "wishy-washy language to make the community think it's protected."

Background

On July 16, the Granville County Planning Board held a public hearing on the proposed amendment at the Granville County Convention and Expo Center. Stem resident Brittany Moore attended the meeting and said that everyone who spoke during the 45-minute public comment period was against data centers. “Speakers were concerned that the amendment language is too broad, does not adequately protect the county’s water supply and does not sufficiently address concerns about noise. Some speakers felt that the setbacks (25 ft. for a 40,000-foot site, 50 ft. for sites over 50,000 feet) were insufficient,” Moore said. 

Here’s what you need to know about the proposed amendment: 

• The amendment would establish a “Data Center General Industrial Conditional Zoning district (DC-GI-CZ). This is important because it means data centers must go through an approval process rather than being allowed to build "by right" on properties zoned I-2.
• Prospective data center developers would propose a project, and it would then be considered by the Board of Commissioners through the normal process. 
• Only properties zoned I-2 are eligible to request a rezoning to DC-GI-CZ (note: the original text of the amendment said only properties currently zoned as I-2 are eligible –. this change means that properties not currently zoned for industrial use could be considered for data center use if zoning is changed in the future).

The amendment outlines standards that must be met by developers seeking approval to build a data center:

• Applicants to DC-GI-CZ zoning must provide written documentation from “each applicable utility confirming that adequate water, sewer, electric, and any other utility service necessary to serve the proposed data center is available and committed to the proposed development.”
• No well shall be used to supply water for the business process or cooling systems of the data center. No wastewater, cooling-system discharge, or other effluent from the business process of the data center shall be discharged to or disposed of through a septic tank or other subsurface disposal wastewater system. 
• Data centers shall meet the noise standard in Section 32-384 ("Noise").
• Minimum setbacks for data center building(s) that are 40,000 square feet or less shall be 50' street, 25' side and 25' rear. Minimum setbacks for data center buildings that are more than 40,000 square feet shall be 100' street, 50' side and 50' rear. 
• Accessory uses and buildings shall meet the standards in subsection (1)-(5) of Section 32-163 (“Accessory uses, nonresidential"). 
• Buffers shall be required to meet the standards in Section 32-264 ("Buffer between zoning districts -Buffer standards.") when a property boundary of land that has a data center located on it is adjacent to residentially zoned property.

See full text of the amendment language below.

Amendment document is available here. 

Both Moore and Johnson raised the proposed setbacks as being of particular concern. "[Data Centers] hum 24/7 and you can hear them up to two miles away," Johnson said. Under the proposal, a data center could be built within 50 feet of an existing home or business.

The Planning Board will present the Amendment for a vote at the Granville County Commissioners meeting on Monday, August 3 at 7:00 p.m. The meeting is at the Granville County Convention and Expo Center at 4185 US Highway 15 in South Oxford and is open to the public. You can also view the meeting live on the county’s YouTube channel.