Data center plan OK'd, hailed as 'great document'

Mount Airy’s data center ordinance is now gospel, having been approved unanimously after months of consideration — with one city official saying the issue was a done deal in another way.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned through this process is we don’t have the option to say ‘no,’’’ Mayor Jon Cawley said of an outright ban on the controversial facilities locating here.

“That is not an available option unless you want to go into litigation,” Cawley added regarding the fact data centers are legal enterprises.

The only thing a locality can do is adopt regulations ensuring the facilities operate in ways that don’t hamper its quality of life, city officials said, which the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners hopes was accomplished with its decision Thursday night.

If it failed to enact a data center ordinance, Commissioner Calvin Vaughn said then, one could have come into town under existing regulations, “which are more lax.”

Vaughn and other board members say the new ordinance protects Mount Airy in regard to various data center implications such as allowable locations and water usage.

“I think it’s a great document,” he said of the ordinance spanning 13 pages, “something other municipalities can use as a model.”

“It’s not that we’re anti-data center,” the board’s Chad Hutchens summed-up concerning the new regulations some might consider stringent.

“We just want to make sure we do it the right way.”

Also Thursday night, the city commissioners lifted a 90-day moratorium on data center development within the municipal limits which had been imposed on Sept. 3.

This occurred on the recommendation of City Attorney Hugh Campbell.

Surry County, meanwhile, remains under a two-year data center moratorium.

City Planning Director Byron Brown said after Thursday night’s meeting that no applications have been received from prospective data centers wanting to set up shop in Mount Airy.

A small one previously opened about five years ago in Piedmont Triad West Corporate Park off U.S. 601, which according to city officials has caused no problems

Commissioner Vaughn, who also has researched the matter thoroughly, did point to one convenient truth concerning fears some local residents harbor about the facilities.

“’Mega’ data centers will never come to Mount Airy,” Vaughn said of large operations that have caused problems elsewhere.

“We just don’t have the land for it,” which local officials have acknowledged all along.

Lengthy process

The adoption of amendments to the city zoning ordinance addressing data centers capped months of work by the Mount Airy Planning Board and the planning director.

That process delved into all aspects involved, including consulting applicable state laws and how other localities have handled the issue.

Limits under the new city ordinance include:

• Data centers being allowed only in M-1 (Industrial) B-4 (Highway Business) and B-5 (Medical Business) zones.

“Micro” data centers, less than 5,000 square feet, will be permitted in all three zones, with “small” facilities (5,000 to 20,000 square feet) allowed only in industrial zones along with larger centers exceeding 20,000 square feet.

In putting this into perspective with a smaller center, Vaughn said, “we’re talking about something around the third of a football field.”

• No data center may be located within 1,000 feet of an existing or approved public or private school, congregate care facility or day-care center.

Both commissioners and citizens said during an Oct. 15 meeting that they also wanted the same 1,000-foot distance from residences, but that ended up at 500 feet in the final product.

Brown explained Thursday night that the 500-foot distance is the same as that for other businesses, which commissioners said they could accept as a matter of consistency.

• A data center site must be enclosed by a security fence or wall at least eight feet high, with vegetative screening, or buffers, also required.

• Centers must be constructed to incorporate sound-mitigation methods sufficient to prevent noise levels emitted by the structures from exceeding permitted decibel levels during normal operations.

• Data centers are required to use public water and wastewater systems as opposed to wells and septic tanks, which will not stress the city’s water capacity or pressure, Public Works Director Mitch Williams has said.

A closed-loop cooling system is to be included, whereby the same water or coolant circulates continuously, limiting water withdrawal from a local supplier.

• Mount Airy can’t regulate electricity consumption, under the authority of the N.C. Utility Commission, Brown said. But the city ordinances states that generators are not allowed as a primary power source.

• Decommissioning and abandonment rules also are included for centers that have ceased operations for 12 continuous months.

Commissioner Vaughn, while saying he would support the measure, acknowledged that some residents might be opposed to any regulations opening the door to data centers.

“I’m going to vote for this and I know we have some citizens that are (saying) ‘no.’”