By Will Atwater
Earlier this month, Northampton County joined a growing list of North Carolina communities that are adopting data center moratoriums.
Commissioners approved a 32-month pause, but getting to that unanimous vote wasn’t easy.
Before the monthly meeting on May 4th, word began to circulate that the meeting documents showed commissioners planned to vote on a proposed 12‑month ban, rather than first hearing residents’ push for a longer pause during the public comment portion of the meeting. That suspicion was confirmed when County Attorney A. Scott McKellar read the proposal aloud.
Northampton County resident and community activist Belinda Joyner pressed the commissioners on that point during the public comment period.
“Why are you saying you’re having a public hearing when you’ve already made your decision?” Joyner asked. “So what we say doesn’t make any difference.”
By the end of the evening, commissioners had come around to the community’s point of view that a longer pause was necessary.
In Northampton County, the vote capped a volunteer effort that culminated in Joyner delivering a pro-moratorium petition with about 300 local signatures to commissioners at the May 4 meeting. Many county residents say they have repeatedly been kept in the dark about major industrial projects and incentive deals. Now they’re watching to see whether commissioners follow through on promises of transparency — or repeat past mistakes made behind closed doors.
Northampton’s moratorium vote mirrors what’s happening across North Carolina — and across the country. Residents from counties as disparate as Stokes, Chatham, Durham — and now Northampton — are pressing local officials for more say over where data centers go, how much water and power they consume, and what communities get in return.
Transparency issues
Once commissioners opened the floor for public input, Southern Environmental Law Center Attorney Kasey Moraveck told officials that a moratorium would give the county time to amend the zoning code to address data centers and to study their impacts and write rules that are “fair, transparent and aligned with community values.”
Moraveck pushed commissioners to require special‑use permits and to limit data centers to heavy industrial districts so residents and local officials, not developers, decide whether projects go forward and to ensure continuous noise, heavy resource use and warehouse‑style buildings don’t reshape rural or residential areas.
“This will help to isolate their impacts from Northampton County residents and will prevent the data centers’ massive warehouse buildings from transforming landscapes that are rural, agricultural or residential in nature,” she said.
Another speaker, retired judge Alfred Kwasikpui, said the idea of a community advisory board was welcome, but noted it had already been approved once and never created.
“This is why people have problems with transparency,” Kwasikpui said. “The Planning Board on March 11 approved a motion for a committee to be created to assist in the development of a data center ordinance.”
He added that by the April 18 meeting, the committee still didn’t exist, yet the planning director and a board member had already drafted ordinances “favorable toward the data center developers” and “not strong on protections for our county.” Kwasikpui said those drafts would allow clusters of data centers that could overwhelm local electrical substations and aquifers and envisioned a community benefits committee made up only of county officials, without citizen seats or independent experts. That approach, he said, would turn what should be firm, upfront standards into last‑minute deals to smooth over public anger.
Commissioner Melvetta Broadnax Taylor responded the moratorium “reads well” but questioned who would make sure the county actually carries it out this time.
She reminded colleagues that during an earlier moratorium on solar development, “we didn’t do due diligence,” and asked, “Who’s going to be in charge of making sure that this is implemented? I don’t want any gray areas.”
Keedra Whitaker, another commissioner, acknowledged missteps by public officials in the past that have contributed to residents’ distrust. She said she would not vote for a 12‑month moratorium and argued that commissioners should give people the longer pause they had asked for.
“I don’t see the point in agreeing to a year [moratorium] that we’ll have to go back and extend,” Whitaker said. “I just believe in sticking to your word and listening to our citizens.
“We’ve had committees where our stakeholders weren’t at the table. We dropped the ball, and we can’t continue to do that,” she added.
Looking ahead
After the meeting ended, Whitaker explained why she pushed for a longer moratorium instead of the initially proposed 12‑month pause. “I’m very in tune with the citizens that we serve, and so as I hear their concerns, I do my research,” she said.
“The reason I felt that [the moratorium] needed to be extended is because we have to show our commitment, our trust, our transparency to the community that we serve in showing them that we are not wanting to bring any harmful industry to an area that is already distressed.”
Northampton County residents leaving the meeting applauded the commissioners’ vote and their pledge to establish an advisory committee that will include residents along with public officials during the moratorium. They expressed hope that the group will learn more about data centers and help draft guidelines that will benefit the community if and when an agreement to host a facility is reached.
“There’s this question about, will these data centers be viable down the road?” Kwasikpui said after the 32‑month moratorium was approved. “What’s going to be the impact on the community?”
He said he was pleased with the extended pause, “but we’ve gotta work during that time.”
Part of that work will involve rebuilding trust between the community and public officials, residents said. They’ve voiced disappointment over past decisions involving the county’s economic development office and the kinds of industry Northampton has attracted, including a solar farm project.
Several said nondisclosure agreements left them feeling shut out of negotiations between industry and the county.
It’s a tall order for rural counties to attract environmentally friendly employers that offer more than a handful of decent‑paying jobs that don’t require advanced degrees.
Northampton County Economic Development Director Derrick Bennett, who has held the post since 2023, said by email that some negotiations with potential industry partners must remain confidential under state law.
He noted nondisclosure agreements are meant to protect companies’ proprietary information and incentive offers so they can compete, not to hide deals from the public. From the county’s perspective, he added, sharing too many details too early could scare off potential investments and jobs, which is why state law allows some economic development talks to happen behind closed doors.
“While a non-disclosure agreement may be misconstrued as a lack of transparency, its main purpose from the county’s perspective is to safeguard competitive offerings to attract capital investment and job creation,” Bennett wrote. He noted that economic development contracts and agreements must ultimately be discussed and approved in open session, and that citizens can offer comments during public hearings before the board votes.
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