Farmville town commissioners voted unanimously Monday to approve a 12-month freeze on data centers. During this time, the town staff will review ordiance language and develop standards for unique land uses.
The vote followed a public hearing during the board's regular meeting, where residents spoke out against the potential data center.
The town manager said the measure was proactive, and that no data centers have been approved by the town council.
East Energy Renewables plans to create a network of data centers in eastern North Carolina under the name East Energy Data, and already has a headquarters in Farmville. The company presented the idea of the data center to the town council in February.
"There's a lot of people here that are not wanting that data center here, for various reasons," said Farmville resident, Lynn Faircloth. "I don't want to see our environment ripped up for this."
Several other residents voiced concerns over rising energy costs associated with data centers.
Farmville mayor Alex Joyner said the one year moratorium gives the board time to gather more information before making a decision. However, they are not ruling out the possibility of a data center coming to Farmville.
"We need to make sure that if it even is the right decision here, we don't have enough data to do that," Joyner said.
