Residents in one North Carolina community say they believed they were evaluating a light industrial business park, only to find that the project proposed near their homes and farms was a much larger data center campus.
As NC Newsline reported, they are now asking local leaders to pause the development and make more records public about how it advanced.
What happened?
At Monday night's Lee County Board of Commissioners meeting, roughly 150 residents turned out to oppose the Sanford proposal, the outlet said. Nearly 2,500 people have signed an online petition calling for a county moratorium on data centers.
Residents say the 430-acre property on Lower Moncure Road had long been described as a "light industrial business park." But in June, Virginia-based PointOne Data Centers presented the same site as a $900 million, 90-megawatt technology park built around data center development, NC Newsline revealed.
Nearby residents say that change has been deeply unsettling. Among them is Jeff Kidd, a local farmer who told commissioners he had heard troubling stories from people living near a facility in Illinois.
"Sounds like a helicopter landing on your house," Kidd alleged, according to NC Newsline.
TCD Picks » Good Store Spotlight
Get 10% off your next purchase with code TCD10
Lee County planning board member Steve Baber expressed frustration at the bait-and-switch.
"We as citizens feel like we were snookered a bit, in that it was to be light industrial," Baber explained, per the publication.
Why does it matter?
People who live close to the site say the proposal could reshape everyday life around them, pointing to worries about noise, light pollution, water demand, pressure on the electrical grid, and possible effects on health, sleep, and livestock.
NC Newsline said speakers also cited research they said links low-frequency noise from data centers to stress, headaches, and sleep disruption for nearby residents.
Job creation is another source of skepticism.
"This isn't economic growth; it's an extraction of Lee County's resources," Eric Evenson, a Lower Moncure resident, said, according to NC Newsline.
The debate in Lee County also reflects a larger national tension over AI and the infrastructure needed to support it. Data centers power cloud computing and AI tools that can help optimize electrical grids, improve clean energy forecasting, and support more efficient systems.
At the same time, those facilities can consume enormous amounts of electricity and water, potentially increasing costs for households and adding pollution when grids rely on fossil fuels.
What's being done?
Residents want county commissioners to slow the process. As NC Newsline described it, the petition calls for a countywide moratorium on data centers and for records to be released showing how the project moved forward.
Some protections have already been put in place nearby. In April, the City of Sanford revised its Unified Development Ordinance so data centers must stay at or below 65 decibels at the edge of their property, according to the outlet.
Even so, opponents told commissioners those rules still do not go far enough.
"The zoning power handed to you by the people created a loophole that was exploited by outside investors, and it is to their benefit, not to the people," resident Heather Watson told the board, according to NC Newsline.
Commissioner Kirk Smith, however, does not fully agree. Smith wrote that the county needs the property tax revenue and argued that public support may extend beyond those who showed up to protest.
"We definitely do not need or want a data center so close to our homes," countered Chris Chezem, a lifelong Lee County resident, according to NC Newsline.
Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
