Jackson County commissioners are putting a one-year pause on new data center development, joining a growing number of communities across Western North Carolina that have moved to temporarily halt the facilities while local governments figure out how they want to regulate them.
Commissioners approved the moratorium Aug. 18, putting a hold on data center development in the county’s planning and development jurisdiction through Aug. 18, 2027. The moratorium prohibits the county from issuing permits for data center development, including zoning, development, building and demolition permits, as well as accepting certain related site plans. It also prohibits rezoning property for use as a data center.
“The moratorium is probably really appropriate in this day and age,” said Jackson County Planning Director Michael Poston. “Once you get a data center into your jurisdiction, that’s when we get into this issue we’ve had before about creating nonconformities and, ‘Is it a downzoning’ and, ‘Do we have the ability to make changes to that?’”