City Council scheduled to consider rezoning and annexation requests on September 15

BY MIKE FUHRMAN

West Iredell showed up and spoke out on Tuesday night.

Faced with the prospect of a large data center being built on a 350-acre tract of land off Stamey Farm Road, residents packed Statesville City Hall to express their opposition to the project during the Statesville Planning Board meeting.

Speaking during a 90-minute public hearing, opponents of the Compass Data Centers’ project pleaded with the Planning Board to reject that location, to delay a decision until more research can be done to learn about environment and public health impacts of data centers, and to allow the Iredell County Board of Commissioners to be part of the final decision. They also jeered and heckled residents who voiced support for the project and accused the Planning Board and City Council of being corrupt. A few residents left after being “invited to exit” the meeting room for being disruptive.

After listening to all of the comments, board members voted unanimously to support the rezoning request from residential-agriculture and highway business designations to light industrial with conditions. Board members determined that the conditional rezoning request was consistent with city and county land-use plans and the city’s mobility plan — and was in the public’s interest. The action is non-binding, but will be considered by the City Council — along with the planning staff’s endorsement and additional public comments — on Monday, September 15.

According to plans filed with the City of Statesville, Compass Data Centers wants to construct up to five buildings of approximately 270,000 square feet each with 40 backup generators per building. A substation will be constructed on the site for electrical service, which will be provided by Duke Energy. In addition, a temporary concrete batch plant may be located on the property during construction. Once construction is completed, each building would house 20 to 40 employees.

The project, which Compass officials said is valued at $1 billion or more, would generate millions of dollars in new tax money annually for the City of Statesville and Iredell County. That money could be used for new fire departments, road improvements, school construction, a courthouse expansion, a new health department and other capital projects.

Public Comments

Residents, many of whom only learned of the project earlier this month when Compass Data Centers held a community meeting two weeks ago, filled the council chambers to capacity – and others watched on a video feed in the first floor – on Tuesday.

Echoing concerns raised at the community meeting – from the impact on the quality and quantity of local water supply and the significant demand for electricity to noise and light pollution, they pleaded with the Planning Board to protect their rural quality of life as well as their health from the knowns and unknowns associated with the data center.

Sheila Shuford, a nurse who lives on Mount Hermon Road said, said she was very concerned about the impact on children and other residents with health issues like asthma and COPD.

“There’s got to be a better place for it than in the middle of a community with three schools,” she said.

Thomas Hamel, who lives on Kentwood Drive, likened the project – which will have 200 biodiesel generators to provide backup power, to building a large bomb near a school.

“What are you going to do if this place catches on fire?” he asked. “The West Iredell Fire Department isn’t going to put it out.”

Hamel also questioned why the City of Statesville had jurisdiction over the land-use since the proposed project site is an unincorporated area of Iredell County. And he refused to accept that it would become a reality when so many are opposed to it.

“This is going over like a fart in church,” he said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “We’re not having it. … This is retarded, just retarded.”

Cody Blizzard, a Mooresville native who moved to the area to escape the over-development, said the project was more properly suited for the industrial areas of the city.

He predicted the data center would be the beginning of the end of West Iredell as it is today.

“Once that ball gets rolling, there’s not stopping it,” Blizzard said. “Before you know it, all of West Iredell will become industrial.”

Dale Warren, who owns farm nearby, said he was concerned about the environmental impact of the project – and what that would mean for his cattle, who get their drinking water from a creek that runs through his property.

“I’ve spent my life savings” on this farm, he said. “I’m not going down without a fight.”

Jeff Byers, who lives off Greenwich Drive, said he was skeptical about just about everything associated with the project.

“I don’t trust anything a developer tells me,” he said. “I don’t trust anything a politician tells me.”

The city has not followed through with promised road improvements after the Statesville Regional Airport, he reasoned, so why would anyone trust what city officials have to say about the data center.

“Don’t hand me this pie-in-the-sky crap,” he said. “Not one of you live in the vicinity of where this.”

Aside from the project itself, the opponents – nearly all of whom live in the county – said the city should not be involved in land-use decisions for property not in the city limits.

Jeff Tucker, who lives on Ashbrook Road, asked the city to at least work jointly with Iredell County to ensure that the project is thoroughly researched and residents’ concerns are addressed.

“We want to see a full report from other data centers,” he said. “We don’t want a pig in a sack here. We deserve full disclosure.

“It needs to be a county decision from we the people – not county politics as usual,” he add. “We’re going to have to live with it forever.”

A handful of the 20 speakers during the hearing voiced their support for the Compass Data Centers project, reasoning that it supported vital industry and consumer services like banking and e-commerce.

Citing the negligible impact on overcrowded schools and traffic, they said, it’s better than a 600-home development or another fulfillment center.

Tony Henderson, a retired Air Force colonel who owns the River Oaks Golf Club off Sharon School Road, said he supported the project because it would provide help run essential consumer services like cell phone, software applications, and streaming video providers like Hulu. Beyond that, he said, the data centers support air traffic control operations, merchant ship navigation and autonomous driving vehicles. The U.S. military relies on AI for its weapons systems, he added.

“I’m 2.5 miles away from the data center and I whole-heartedly support it,” he said of the project.

Combat veteran and Purple Heart Homes co-founder John Gallina also expressed his support for the plan and rezoning request.

The Stamey family, he said, has the right to sell their property to developers and this planned use will have much less impact than another large residential subdivision.

“It’s good for our community. It’s good for our tax base. It’s good for the future of our kids,” said Gallina, who lives nearby.

Paula Huffman, who has lived on property adjacent to Stamey Farm for 28 years, isn’t excited about the prospect of living next to a data center, but she said change and some type of development is inevitable.

“I want you to think what else could go in there,” she said. “Before you say no to the data center, I want you to think about the alternatives.”

Compass Data Centers VP addresses community concerns

Representatives of Compass also addressed the Planning Board during the meeting.

Katy Hancock, the company’s vice president for public relations, assured the Planning Board that the project would not be a drain on the region’s water sources. Unlike some other data center operators, she said, Compass uses an air-cooling system to maintain temperatures in its facilities.

In addition, she said, Duke Energy has also confirmed that it can handle power generation for the data center. The utility company plans to build another substation on the property.

Residents’ concerns about noise and light pollution are unfounded, Hancock said, comparing the sound levels to a dishwasher and residential air-conditioning unit. The company will follow all state and local noise ordinances, she added. All of the lights on the property will be downcast and located on the perimeter of the property.

Attempting to address other concerns, she said, the biodiesel fuel used for the generators burns 70 percent cleaner than standard diesel fuel. The company has also agreed to setbacks and provide buffers between its buildings and any adjacent homes. In addition, 40 percent of the 350 acres will be open space.

“We’re not new to this. We’ve been around for 15 years. We do what we say we’re going to do,” Hancock said.

Planning Board Action & Response

Board members engaged in very little discussion about the project before the unanimous vote.

Roger Bejcek, who made the motion to approve, said the proposed data center was consistent with city and county land-use plans for the area. And it was better than another subdivision, which would require building more schools, he explained.

“To me, this checks all the boxes,” he said.

Joel Mashburn, another board member and the former Iredell County manager, said it was a difficult decision and one that he knew would not be universally popular.

But like cell phone towers, which were opposed in the early days, the data centers are “needed and beneficial,” he explained.

“I don’t understand all of it,” Mashburn added before the Chair Alisha Cordle called for the vote, “but I think it is going to be part of what our future is going to be.”

Related

♦ Statesville Planning Department recommends approval of rezoning request for Compass Data Centers project