Macon County Planning Board sends data center amendment forward

The Macon County Planning Board recommended the Board of Commissioners move forward with zoning amendments designed to prevent AI data centers from being built in the county. A brief discussion at the Planning Board's Aug. 6 meeting saw three of five board members vote to recommend amendments to the county's High Impact Land Use Ordinance. These amendments were initially proposed by county attorney Eric Ridenour and Planning Director Joe Allen to tighten changes made in 2023 designed to make it more difficult for cryptocurrency-mining facilities to establish. The Board of Commissioners held a public hearing on Aug. 11 for public input on the recommended change. According to Allen, the land use ordinance would require a developer to meet several requirements to get permission to operate. These requirements have been historically applied to air fields, asphalt and concrete plants, chip mills, slaughterhouses and other such businesses. In 2023, commissioners amended the ordinance to include "cryptocurrency mining facilities" and similar "server-based facilities." The 2026 revision states "cryptocurrency mining, data centers and server-based facilities" to more clearly restrict data centers. The ordinance requires such facilities to implement mitigation practices to reduce the impact of light, noise and dust and to establish sizable buffers from streams and neighboring properties, including in some cases a "vegetative buffer" next to some businesses. The ordinance states high-impact uses could operate from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and data centers hours of operation are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Allen said these restrictions are designed to make it so unprofitable for a prospective developer to build in Macon County that it isn't worth the effort. Ridenour said at the Aug. 6 meeting the goal of the ordinance amendment is not to outlaw data centers mostly because an outright ban would likely draw the county into a lawsuit, which he wants to avoid. Nonetheless, several speakers both at the Board of Commissioners' July 14 meeting and the Planning Board's Aug. 6 meeting were concerned the amendments do not go far enough. Amy Patterson, Highlands commissioner and liaison to the Planning Board, said it was the preference of the Town of Highlands the board also recommend a full moratorium on data centers while the Planning Board considers whether the language in the amendment is strict enough. "I don't think I can sit here, or Marnie or Mark or Joe or anybody can sit here and say 'OK, I know this will work,'" Patterson said. "The only way we can do that and have ourselves time, if it's six months, if it's a year, whatever, is to actually say 'OK, yes, let's research this a little bit. Let's see what the technology is.'" Heather and Sarah Johnson both spoke during the public comment period. Heather Johnson said, "I think it's important that we as the taxpayers know if any of the elected or appointed officials like the planning board or the county commissioners, the attorney of Macon County, has signed an NDA with a technology company or real estate company or their representatives regarding putting any type of tech facility in Macon County." Sarah Johnson encouraged board members to consider data centers' reputation for light pollution and the impact a center would have on Macon County's dark sky tourism as one of the darkest places in the eastern U.S. She also said, "I do have concerns with a member of this board having a history in Berkeley County, South Carolina. Residents of Berkeley, South Carolina, have had a Good Data Center put in and they have reported water problems and a lack of transparency surrounding local utility agreements. I don't want our power bills to go up either." Johnson was referring to board member Marc Hehn, who is a former employee of Berkeley County. Three board members were present for the meeting: board chair David Culpepper, Marty Kimsey and Marc Hehn, with board members Luke Jakushev and Larry Lackey absent. Culpepper said the board could consider a moratorium if recommended by the board of commissioners, but he was only interested in discussing the business on their plate already. He encouraged members of the public interested in a moratorium to speak to their commissioners about requesting discussion on one. Kimsey said people are not only concerned with data centers' environmental impact, but a "continuing surveillance system that's being built in the country and around the world," and said implementing the proposed changes to the ordinance will "move us in the right direction." Hehn said he believes a data center like the ones the public is concerned over would require resources Macon County does not have the capacity to provide. "There's not enough capacity for water or sewer to serve one … I don't know what we're worried about, really there's nothing at all," he said. The three present board members voted to recommend the changes to commissioners. Shelby Powell can be reached at reporter@thefranklinpress.com.

Macon County Planning Board sends data center amendment forward

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