No Durham City Water Connections Or "Industrial Light" Land Use Approvals For New Durham County Data Centers!

Urge Durham City Council Members and the Planning Department to stand against the data centers that developers are trying to bring to Durham County, including a new 50 MW hyperscale facility, which is allowed under the County Commissioners’ moratorium loopholes. City Council members passed a much stricter citywide moratorium. They and the Planning Department actually have grounds to stop some of the ones wishing to come to the county. We just have to build the people power to ensure they do so!

What's happening and why?

A confidential developer has filed to build a 88,200 sq ft, 50 MW hyperscale data center in Durham County (with additional site plans to expand) with no oversight or regulation thanks to Commissioners Mike Lee (who works for agentic AI company Avalara), Wendy Jacobs, Steven Valentine, and Michelle Burton. Despite Durham residents' clear opposition to these facilities, which led to the City of Durham passing a strong moratorium against them, these four county "representatives" voted to pass the weakest moratorium in the state. Their loopholes allow data centers as large as 100,000 sq ft (the size of a Home Depot warehouse). This is considered hyperscale and can use 100 MW of energy–the same amount of power used to run 80,000 to 100,000 homes. This first new development under their fake moratorium has just filed its application. In August, the County Commissioners told us there were at least two in the pipeline.

TOGETHER WE CAN STOP THESE DATA CENTERS!

Urge City Council to stop these developments by denying the city water utility extension agreements that data centers in the county would need to run. Urge the Planning Department to deny these development applications as well since data centers are heavy industrial use facilities with massive impacts and should not be considered as “industrial light” land use, as is listed on the new application. The people of Durham deserve a say over what gets built here and how we allocate our shared and finite resources. Our people, ecosystems and futures must be prioritized over this dirty, dangerous, and extractive industry!