Charlotte town hall weighs in on data centers’ impact

CITY OF CHARLOTTE

Charlotte City Council member Dimple Ajmera is convening an Aug. 20 town hall on data centers' impact on communities.

A public forum on data centers’ impact on Charlotte – and its neighborhoods – is scheduled for Aug. 20. 

The town hall at Project 658, 3646 Central Ave., is open to the public, but registration is required at cltgov.me/ajmera. 

City Council member Dimple Ajmera, who is convening the 6 p.m. forum, said more than 200 people have signed up. City officials and technology representatives will be in attendance to answer questions related to data center proliferation as well as their environmental and economic consequences. An invitation was extended to Duke Energy, Ajmera said, but the Charlotte-based electric and natural gas holding company hasn’t responded.

“People have questions,” Ajmera said. “This is not about anti-growth or anti-development. This conversation is about who pays, who is benefiting, and where these facilities are located, because we currently do know that the facilities that are being built and have been approved in the crescent area, where minority communities live, and most importantly, we want to make sure that the community gets a voice in this decision.”

City council in June adopted a 150-day moratorium on data centers, joining a growing roster of municipalities across North Carolina. Proliferation of such facilities – driven by the need for enhanced artificial intelligence – has sparked public backlash connected to energy and water requirements that would drive up costs for consumers as well as potential for environmental disruption.

Another concern is location. In Charlotte, data centers tend to be built closer to lower-income communities of color where real estate tends to be less expensive.

“We are seeing concentration of these data centers in the crescent area, and where they are located (does) matter,” Ajmera said. “We cannot repeat a pattern where communities with the least political power carry the greatest infrastructure burden and environmental burdens. I’ve been doing state of our environment town halls, for many, many years now since I’ve been on the council. This one is focused on data centers because of the growth of the industry because every neighborhood, regardless of where you live, you should have clean air, clean water, and a good quality of life. 

“What we are trying to do is how do we create rules that protects our community, protects our residents, and protects the quality of life for our residents.”

Data centers aren’t new – they’ve been around since the dawn of the computer age in the 1940s – and nearly 100 are in operation in North Carolina. But the surge prompted in large part by AI-related industries has led to the planned construction of more than 20 new projects in the last year. Charlotte is taking a go-slower approach as public concerns over costs and resources resonate.

“If you look at where these facilities are located, residents have raised very valid concerns around water, around electricity, and ensuring that there is reliability – especially residents who live nearby – because these facilities, especially the hyperscale facilities can use as much power as thousands of homes, so that’s where we have to protect our electric grid,” Ajmera said. “We have to protect our natural resources like water. We are already in stage 2 when it comes to water restrictions, and I firmly believe growth should pay its own way, because many of these hyperscale facilities do get sales tax exemptions on the material that they buy to construct millions of square feet facilities.”

For more information on the forum, call (980) 579-2721.

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