City planners say existing zoning treats all data centers the same, but state law limits local options

City planning staff walked through Charlotte's zoning rules for data centers and said the city currently has no use-specific standards based on size or hyperscaler type; instead, data centers fall under the broader telecommunications/data storage definition used since 2011.

"As it stands we don't differentiate among the types size or scale of data centers," Mariah Wozniak said while outlining allowed districts (commercial, campus/office, manufacturing/logistics, innovation mixed use and uptown core) and standards such as setbacks, building height, screening and landscape yards. Staff also cautioned that North Carolina law SB 382 constrains the city's ability to change zoning in ways that would reduce existing allowable uses without owner consent, limiting the scope for unilaterally banning or downzoning data centers.