Pause new hyperscale data center approvals in Forsyth County
Forsyth County lacks zoning standards written specifically for hyperscale data centers. Join us in asking the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners to adopt a temporary moratorium while the county develops appropriate rules and protections for the community.
Petition To pass a temporary moratorium on hyperscale data centers in Forsyth County
Forsyth County signatures:
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Your signature has been recorded. We deliver your name, ZIP code, and comments.
Please now reach out to the commissioners and tell them why you want a moratorium for hyperscale data centers in Forsyth County.
Why it matters now
Forsyth residents deserve good industries that can operate here without undue pollution or excessive use of our water and power. A pause is a chance to make good decisions before another developer arrives. Commissioners who act now will be on record as planning for Forsyth’s future.
How we got here
Like many counties, Forsyth was caught off guard by the hyperscale data center. We have four non-hyperscale data centers today. They are permitted under “Services A,” the same category as barbershops, photo studios, shoe repair, furniture repair and small equipment repair. These data centers are not the same size as hyperscale data centers, and don’t have the same impact on communities. You can stand outside the 4th St. building in downtown Winston-Salem and never know it’s there.
What our rules were written for
Small, quiet facilities that look like any other business.
What was proposed in Rural Hall
A hyperscale campus on farmland next to town hall, with 80-foot buildings, heavy noise and a huge power demand.
On July 30, commissioners voted 5–2 to deny the rezoning for the proposed hyperscale data center in Rural Hall, citing the scale of the project, the noise, the utility demand, and the county’s own area plans. Residents won that fight. But the rules that would have let a similar project through are still on the books.
County staff say data centers are allowed in most nonresidential zoning districts through staff review, with no standards written for them. A developer on suitably zoned land may not need a public hearing at all. Developers are looking for sites in Forsyth County right now.
Why a pause
Most of the questions about these facilities aren’t really zoning questions. We need time to decide how Forsyth wants to handle:
- Land use
- Noise
- Jobs
- Water use and wastewater
- Backup generators
- Tax revenue
- Electricity demand
- Air, water and noise pollution
- Cost to emergency services
- Community benefit agreements
- Bring-your-own-power requirements
Forsyth doesn’t have industries that need their own power plants, so data centers don’t fit our city and county planning well. North Carolina law (G.S. 160D-107) gives counties the right to take a limited, temporary pause to work this out. Dozens of local governments have used it.
Won’t the county get sued?
That is the County Attorney’s concern, and it comes from Chatham County. There, a developer argued its project was already underway when the moratorium passed and should have been exempted. The judge agreed, and Chatham must pay damages.
The lesson is not that a county can’t pause. It’s that a pause must protect projects already in motion. We are asking for an ordinance modeled on the language Alamance County used, which says plainly that it does not apply to:
- existing data centers
- projects with a valid building permit
- projects with an approved vested plan
- applications already accepted as complete
- projects where the developer spent money in good-faith reliance on a prior approval
It also excludes ordinary server rooms in offices, schools, hospitals and businesses. Alamance’s commissioners adopted a one-year moratorium unanimously.
Forsyth wouldn’t be first. At least 30 North Carolina local governments have passed data center moratoria in recent months, including neighbors like Surry County (24 months, unanimous). We have found only one lawsuit, in Chatham, and it was about the exemption problem above.
What we’re asking for
- Protect the county from the next bad project. Pause approvals for new large-scale data centers while staff write real standards for siting, power, water, noise and emergency response.
- Protect the county from lawsuits. Spell out every exemption so no one can say a project already underway was caught by surprise.
- Keep it short and accountable. A fixed end date and a work program with deadlines: an inventory of current rules, consultation with utilities and emergency services, and options presented to the Planning Board and Commissioners.
The work goes beyond zoning
State law limits how much the county can tighten zoning on land where data centers are already allowed. The pause also gives time to study other tools that don’t depend on zoning. Other communities use these, and Forsyth can study which ones fit:
- Community benefit agreements: binding commitments on clean energy, local investment and bill assistance, with reporting and penalties if targets are missed.
- Tied incentives: tax relief linked to measurable water and carbon results, and fees for heavy resource use.
- Reporting: environmental impact reporting where state law allows, and public annual reporting of large buildings’ energy and water use.
- Utility conditions: working with utilities so power and water hookups depend on efficiency, peak-load management or recycled water.
- Cleaner power: on-site renewables or batteries to reduce reliance on diesel backup generators, and waste-heat recovery for public buildings.