Northern Piedmont neighbors push against data center

MEGAN KIMBALL | SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER

Chad Bailey leans against the fence at the Baileytown cemetery in Stokes County, North Carolina. The cemetery sits on property county commissioners rezoned for a data processing center.

Stokes County residents are joining the growing list of North Carolina communities to resist a data center they say will put cultural sites and the environment at risk.

A lawsuit filed last week in Stokes County Superior Court by community groups and residents against the county aims to protect the Dan River corridor from the rezoning of 1,845 acres to accommodate Project Delta, which plaintiffs contend will cause pollution and disrupt cultural  assets and increase pollution. 

Stokes commissioners overrode the county’s planning board’s recommendation to deny the rezoning by a 3-2 vote in January before an operator was identified or details about the project’s scale and infrastructure were disclosed to the public. The county,, which is located north of Winston-Salem on the Virginia border, approved opening more than a dozen mostly rural sites to potential future centers.

“Our foreparents are buried on the data center site,” said Robert Hairston, board chair of the National Hairston Clan, one of the plaintiffs. “Not history in a book — real people, in the ground, and it bothers me deeply to think of those gravesites as being disturbed. We strive to be good stewards of that land so their families can always come back to them. If they were your foreparents, would you want them moved? Run over? When you walk that land now, you can almost hear and feel that they were there. They deserve to rest in peace, and we will not let that be taken from them.” 

Stokes County officials acknowledged the lawsuit in a statement.

“We recognize that land-use decisions can have significant impacts on residents, and the County remains committed to transparency, public participation, and the fair administration of all zoning and planning processes,” the county said. “Stokes County will not comment on specific allegations contained in the complaint at this time, but will provide additional information when appropriate and permitted.”

Hyperscale data centers like Project Delta are specialized facilities that house computer systems, servers, and store infrastructure to manage, store, and process digital data for cloud computing and artificial intelligence workloads. They consume massive amounts of electricity to support thousands of servers and water for advanced cooling systems that prevent overheating. Because they operate continuously, their presence also generates constant noise and pollution. 

In addition to residents suing to stop the project, plaintiffs are cultural and environmental nonprofits National Hairston Clan; Charlotte-based CleanAIRE NC; Dan River Basin Association; and 7 Directions of Service. They argue Stokes commissioners acted without procedural safeguards, required by North Carolina law, and want both zoning results struck down. 

“Projects like hyperscale data centers can bring significant air pollution from the large arrays of generators needed to keep them running,” said Jeff Robbins, CleanAIRE NC’s executive director. “Communities along the Dan River — including historically Black neighborhoods like Baileytown and families such as the Hairstons and Baileys with generations of roots, churches, and cemeteries here — deserve real protection for their air, their health, and the places that hold their history.”

More North Carolina communities are pushing back against data centers. Apex unanimously voted last week for a one-year moratorium. Chatham County, Gates County and the town of Canton in Haywood County have done likewise.  

In Stokes County, residents have turned to the courts.

“For Indigenous people of this region, the Dan River corridor is not just land — it is a living cultural landscape tied to the Saura and other Siouan-speaking nations who have lived along these rivers for centuries, said Crystal Cavalier-Keck, co-founder of 7 Directions of Service. “Our organization was founded to protect sacred places and defend the lands and waters that hold our ancestors’ stories. Data center development that threatens burial grounds, cultural sites, and the river itself is not just an environmental issue — it is a threat to Indigenous heritage and the responsibility we carry to care for these lands for future generations.”

Stokes commissioners amended the zoning ordinance to add data centers as a permitted use throughout heavy manufacturing districts, extending the possibility of facilities to more than a dozen largely rural sites across the county. 

“The Dan River watershed is one of the most important natural resources in this region and decisions that could affect it should be made with careful study and public transparency,” said Tiffany Haworth, executive director of the Dan River Basin Association. “For projects of this scale, municipalities need to carefully evaluate potential impacts on both the citizens they serve and the environment, while ensuring residents have meaningful opportunities to engage in the planning process and a voice in the final outcome.”

Plaintiffs contend in the lawsuit that Stokes commissioners never properly provided notice of the zoning changes, failed to assess the center’s environmental impacts such as noise, air quality, water, and sacred sites tied to Saura tribal history and Hairston Plantation, where descendants of people who were enslaved there still live and maintain nearby cemeteries. 

Project Delta developers contend the campus will pump $20-40 million into the county’s annual tax base, more than three times what Duke Energy, Walmart and RJ Reynolds contribute combined.

“It’s almost impossible to visualize the sheer scope of this project,” said Anne Harvey David, chief counsel for environmental justice at Southern Coalition of Social Justice. “That the commission approved it without full consideration of the impacts on the community — particularly on the Hairston Clan, Bailey family, Saura tribal descendants, and other residents whose rural lives will be forever altered — is another instance of burdening the historic Walnut Cove community for the purported benefit of Stokes County. 

“Zoning law exists to protect communities from exactly this kind of rushed and ill-informed decision.” 

Said plaintiff Tim Mabe: “We live in a house built 40 years ago by the hands of our family, surrounded by our relatives, on land we’ve been on for three generations. We grow our own food and live a life we cherish on this land. This project and rezoning threaten not only our ability to exist here but also the meaningful existence of the community we love.” 

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