Stokes County commissioners approved a request for the rezoning of nearly 1,850 acres along the Dan River at the Virginia border for a data center, despite residents’ concerns about noise and other threats to the environment and quality of life.
The 3-2 vote Monday rebuffed an earlier recommendation by the county planning board to deny the rezoning request by the property’s owner, High Point developer David Couch. Instead, commissioners sided with Planning Director Eric Nance, who recommended approval of the rezoning as consistent with economic development goals in the county’s 2035 land-use plan.
Drew Nations, CEO of the project’s developer, Engineered Land Solutions, estimated the county would collect $40 million in annual property taxes from the project. The land’s current tax bill is less than $8,000 a year, he said.
“This county desperately needs the revenue that this data center could produce,’’ commissioner Rick Morris said during a meeting overflowing with opponents. In response to weeks of criticism, Nations said the Charlotte-based developer doesn’t plan to encroach on the Dan River floodplain.
“We are not developing the Dan River,’’ he said. Noting that more than 100 data centers are operating in the state, he added, “Our lives go on just fine.’’
The commissioners also approved an amendment to the county’s zoning ordinance to add data centers as a permitted use and “prepare Stokes County for future land use,’’ according to a meeting notice.
Like other data center projects across the state, Engineered Land’s proposal for 1,845 acres stirred critics. On Monday evening, whistling by opponents could be heard from outside the commission chambers.
“How pleasant would this meeting be with a vacuum cleaner running day and night?’’ resident Kenny Smith said. Others said they were upset about the potential disturbance of historic Indian land.
The proposed rezoning from residential/agricultural to heavy manufacturing with conditions has mobilized opponents rallied by nonprofit Clean Water for North Carolina.
Nations said the rezoning protects the property from development other than data centers. “This is narrowly confined to data centers only,’’ he told the commission. “There are no surprises down the road.’’
Spanning numerous buildings, data centers rely upon large amounts of water for cooling and the heavy usage of electricity for servers and other equipment.
The Stokes County project would initially draw from generators before connecting to Duke Energy’s grid. The Charlotte-based utility’s Belews Creek Steam Station is located near the data center site, which is attractive to Engineered Land due to the availability of utility infrastructure.
Engineered Land Solutions works with Fortune 500 companies to develop projects. Nations is a UNC Chapel Hill graduate who previously worked for Panattoni Development, an Irvine, California-based developer with 69 offices in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
Engineered Land Solutions was working with developers Crow Holdings and Crosland Southeast on a data center in southeast Mecklenburg County that was withdrawn in October after strong local opposition.
Stokes County has about 45,000 residents, many of whom work in nearby Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Mount Airy.
