The city of Raleigh will consider putting a six-month pause on new data centers after weeks of discussion.
On Tuesday, city leaders held a closed session and announced they had agreed to move forward with drafting a six-month moratorium on data centers. The city attorney is working on the proposal, which will be up for formal discussion during next month's City Council meeting.
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Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell spoke with WRAL News on Wednesday morning about the proposed moratorium.
"As soon as you write a rule and you adopt an ordinance, that could be out of date within a short period of time," Cowell said. "So, all of that I think just said, OK, why don't we put a pause on this? And I will also say, as an elected official, it's hard to even have a conversation about this because there's so much emotion and ... of course, we're also getting into election season, so you've seen this nationally, but I think we all felt like getting a pause gives us a chance to actually have a conversation, do the work, and maybe lower the temperature."
WRAL News has been following conversations inside Raleigh City Hall about data centers for months. The City Council met in August after a developer pulled plans for a new data center in Southeast Raleigh.
Raleigh city staff said there are eight data centers within city limits, the majority of which are considered smaller scale and under 10,000 square feet.
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The move comes after several cities and counties, including Durham, Greensboro and Charlotte, approved similar pauses on data center development. The Triangle has an established reputation as a hub for the technology sector, and Cowell said that growth and innovation play a role in the city's approach.
"This is a tech center," she said. "We are home to NC State University, which is a STEM university. And we've got a lot of federal offices here as well. So, we definitely want to protect those that are already operating and not disrupt existing research and development or companies that have located here. And then we want to have a very rational, careful approach that protects individuals who live in Raleigh and, you know, and still be known as a tech, right, innovative city."
Raleigh is currently the largest city in North Carolina without such a moratorium. City leaders in Fayetteville are considering one, too.
The draft of the moratorium will be out next week.
The moratoriums are not bans on data center development. Instead, they are temporary pauses — some lasting only weeks and others much longer — intended to give local governments time to study how new projects should be regulated.
Those discussions have been driven in part by concerns over the amount of land, electricity and water large data centers can consume.
►Read more: As AI demand rises, North Carolina considers new electricity rules for data centers
Mayor Pro Tem Jane Harrison has said she wants Raleigh residents to better understand the city's process for approving or denying data center projects.
City staff noted that so-called "edge" data centers, which are less than 10,000 square feet and use relatively little power and water, can be built by right in any zoning district in the city.
The process is different for larger data centers, including hyperscale projects. Those facilities can only be built in areas with Industrial Mixed Use or Heavy Industrial zoning and require a special use permit from the Board of Adjustment.
Harrison previously said she also wants the city to do more to alert residents and the council when large data center proposals come before the board.
“I appreciate staff just helping to inform our community when these are coming so they’re not a surprise to anyone,” Harrison said in August.
People will be able to share their input on the proposed moratorium at the Oct. 6 City Council meeting. A public hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m.