Gates County workshop hears data-center briefing as residents and officials press for land-use protections

Joe Horace, a data/energy and infrastructure specialist and former town manager, told a Gates County workshop that ‘‘the data centers, they are coming,’’ and urged local leaders to prepare by deciding what size and type of development the county wants and by writing clear land-use and permitting rules.

Horace framed data centers as infrastructure-driven projects that prioritize power and connectivity and vary widely in scale. He cited national and regional counts, saying Virginia accounts for about 685 sites while North Carolina has roughly 113 data centers, of which he said 72 are operating and about 41 are planned. ‘‘They are really driven by power and productivity,’’ he said, adding that some centers use substantial water for cooling while others rely more on power and connectivity.

The presentation stressed the stages site selectors use — state-level factors such as tax and regulation, regional workforce and housing, and local site attributes such as usable acres, flat buildable land, proximity to fiber and nearby road access — and said local officials have most influence over the final, site-level selection. Horace listed practical mitigation tools communities can require: buffers and screening, noise attenuation, runoff controls, road widening and impact fees, and community reinvestment agreements tied to incentives.

County officials and residents voiced skepticism about inviting large data centers to Gates County. A committee member summarized recent outreach, saying roughly 60 residents had been contacted and ‘‘the people are very against this’’; that member said residents want to ‘‘keep that peaceful community’’ and emphasized trees, wildlife and small, local jobs as priorities.

Economic development staff urged leaders to weigh incentives against community needs. ‘‘You’re in control through your land use plan,’’ the staff member said, arguing that a comprehensive plan and zoning map let the county say yes or no to types of growth and protect preferred uses. Officials described a working purpose for a moratorium: to pause approvals while the county drafts or updates ordinances and public-facing standards.

Speakers also raised infrastructure constraints: Horace and officials noted a distressed water system in parts of the county and widespread concern about residential electricity costs, with several participants saying the county lacks the highway and rail buffers common to heavy manufacturing locations. One participant said data centers were ‘‘absolutely not near the top of the list’’ of desired uses and that light industrial or small-scale employers better fit community preferences.

No formal motion or vote was recorded during the session. Presenters offered contact information and encouraged workshops, public vetting of draft standards and site visits to communities with existing data centers to learn lessons before updating the county’s land-use code.

Next steps identified at the close of the meeting were public engagement and drafting regulatory standards: hold workshops, solicit public comment on draft standards, and consider a time-limited moratorium to allow completion of the county’s comprehensive-plan alignments and ordinance updates.