Unanimous Vote for Durham Data Center Moratorium
- Sound Rivers
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
On Monday, Durham City Council voted to put a halt on data center development in the city.
Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop was one of many people who spoke in support of a moratorium at the City’s Monday night meeting.
“Over 40 people spoke, and those speakers were representing neighbors, educators, environmentalists, healthcare workers and even those employed by Big Tech, and not one of those folks spoke in favor of data centers or opposed a moratorium,” Samantha said.
Though the approved moratorium only covers 60 days, a longer one is in the works.
“Initially the intent was for the Durham Council to decide on a 24-month moratorium — the longest yet in North Carolina — and this was an effort brought forth by a number of community organizations that formed a coalition: Community Land and Power, Clean Water NC, Neustro Barrio, Sound Rivers and many others,” Samantha said. “The moratorium was brought by those folks and introduced by Councilman Nate Baker, but at the last moment, on the day of the hearing, it was changed to a 60-day moratorium because the planning staff realized Durham’s unified development ordinance has a limit of 12 months on moratoriums.”
The City’s plan is to align with a 12-month moratorium that Durham County is currently considering.
“In the meantime, this 60-day moratorium is looking to buy some time so there’s no gap in coverage,” Samantha said.
While the majority of Durham’s City Council is pro-development, that doesn’t seem to extend to data centers.
“There seems to be a major difference in how they view data centers because the moratorium was unanimously approved, and the entire council seem to strongly opposed to data centers,” she said. “They brought up concerns about water quality, water quantity, noise, air pollution, increasing rate-payer costs and poor use of land. Even the pro-development council members objected to land being used for data centers that could be used for housing.”
Samantha said the 60-day moratorium is just a starting point.
“The real questions is how long the next moratorium will be and what will be accomplished while the moratorium is in place,” she said. “The City needs to use that time to get some answers about water usage, about what’s in the discharge, put permitting processes and enforcement mechanisms in place and pass protections for sensitive water resources — pass strong protections so those can’t be impacted.”
Samantha said there will be a future public comment period with the longer moratorium.
“We need to make sure that Durham planning staff answer the questions, put in place the regulations and put in place the protections,” she said.
Listen to Sam’s comments at the public hearing below. Like the work your Riverkeeper is doing to advocate for your waterways? We do, too! Donate today to support her work!
This article was first published by Sound Rivers.
Riverkeepers, Attorney Talk Land-Use Policy
Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop joined Haw Riverkeeper Emily Sutton and Southern Coalition for Social Justice Attorney James Huey to host a discussion about how to protect waterways from a policy standpoint this week.
Moderated by North Carolina Conservation Network’s Affiliate Capacity Manager Kate Fulbright,
“Designing Communities that Protect Our Waters,” the panel discussion was held at the SCSJ offices in Durham and drew a crowd of stakeholders in area waterways.
“This was the first event of its kind, that we’ve done, where we’ve talked specifically about regulatory policy and land-use planning policy and what specifically needs to be done to protect waterways in the context of state preemption and other challenges,” Samantha said.
The panelists each gave a short presentation on their work: Emily Sutton on stormwater planning and its opportunities in the Haw; Samantha on sediment pollution and strategies to prevent it; and James Huey on the basics of how Unified Development Ordinances and conditional rezonings work.
“We shared about how land use practices impact our resiliency, we talked about impacts in the context of climate resiliency, drought and flooding, land-use changes and how they impact water quality,” Samantha said.
Afterward, the three were asked a series of questions allowing a deeper dive into these issues, then the floor was opened for a 20-minute Q&A.
“There were a lot of great questions,” Samantha said. “People in the room really knew what they were talking about. There was a lot of energy, and it was clear a lot of people care deeply. Many of them were longtime residents who’ve seen in the changes in Durham over the last 30 years, and they are just heartbroken by what they’re seeing.”
The panel discussion was a precursor to the Unified Development Ordinance Gold Standard which Waterkeepers Carolina, the consortium of Riverkeeper organizations across the state, and SCSJ will launch this year.
Samantha said they’ll be planning similar events in the future.
“It was a good event, and it was a very good conversation,” she said. “We need to do more of those.”
Like the work your Riverkeeper is doing to ensure communities know how to protect their waterways through policy? We do! Donate today to support her work!
This article was first published by Sound Rivers.
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