Apex leaders voted Tuesday night in favor of putting a temporary, one-year suspension on a proposed data center development.
The Apex Town Council voted unanimously in favor of the one-year moratorium.
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In March, the town council moved forward with the moratorium on data center construction. The discussion came days after the developer, Natelli Investments, withdrew its plans for a data center in the Apex area. The development would have been called the "New Hill Digital Campus."
Community members showed up in numbers to protest the new development. Disapproval was one of the reasons the developer scrapped the plans.
"It's a big win," Michelle Hoffner O'Connor, a member of Protect Wake County, a group that protested the New Hill data center, said. "It creates a lesser pressure situation, but we do need to ensure that appropriate regulations are in place for our town."
Hoffner O'Connor said she supports the moratorium but wants to see community input opportunities and thorough research.
"I really want to see as much involve engagement and involvement with people as possible to ensure that everything is being covered appropriately," she said.
Apex Mayor Jacques Gilbert told WRAL News last month that the moratorium would allow the town to do more research about data centers, including impacts on water and electricity usage as well as effects on residents' pockets.
"Our hope is not only that the town has the right amount of resources in place in terms of their own staff and their own volunteer-based efforts, but that they are also appropriately consulting appropriate experts," Hoffner O'Connor said.
Apex is one of a handful of communities in the area that are moving forward with a temporary pause on data centers. Wendell held a public hearing on a moratorium for the facilities on Monday night. Last month, the Wake County Board of Commissioners talked about leading entities in plans and resources for data center developments.