Alamance County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously for a one-year moratorium on data center development in the county.
The board held a public hearing on the moratorium Aug. 17 as part of its business meeting.
The hearing lasted over two hours, with over 23 people speaking in favor of the moratorium.
“We need time to pause and address the issues that affect us locally,” one Alamance County resident said.
The county attorney, Rik Stevens, described the moratorium as a way to give the county time to research data centers and their potential effects on the county.
The five commissioners all expressed their interest in looking closer at the potential positive and negative effects of a data center in Alamance County, but also shared their concerns about regulation.
“Until we can figure out what needs to be done to protect ourselves against ending up with something that's not right,” county commissioner Samuel Powell said. “Then, I think we need to do that, and for that I agree with a moratorium.”
The moratorium includes deadlines for the county to meet to ensure progress is made on research. It also states that the commissioners must meet at least 30 days before the expiration of the moratorium to reevaluate and decide whether to let the moratorium expire or extend it.
Some members of the public shared their concerns about public officials signing non-disclosure agreements with technology companies which they said make building data centers financially beneficial for them. The board of commissioners explained signing an NDA would violate their code of ethics and Chair Kelly Allen and Vice Chair Steven Carter said they would both not sign one during a pause in between public statements.
“I absolutely agree that this needs to be done in the open,” county commissioner Ed Priola said. “Non-disclosure agreements I never liked, and they should be not part of government on the whole.”
The moratorium would last until Aug. 2027. The next business meeting for the commissioners is Sept. 21.