In a joint meeting earlier this week, members of the Vance County Board of Commissioners and the county planning board reviewed progress on a particular section of the proposed unified development ordinance, from setbacks and traffic studies to noise thresholds and outdoor lighting fixtures.
During the Oct. 27 meeting, NFocus’s Michael Harvey walked the group through the different aspects of Section 5 of the UDO which deals specifically with data centers and reviewed recommendations that the planning board was making with regard to setbacks from external property lines and adjacent residential parcels.
Specific setback requirements would be in place for “sensitive use” parcels, a designation that includes schools, congregate care, retirement center, hospital, day care or place of worship.
Harvey said modifications have been made to fencing standards recommendations to address commissioners’ concerns that the fencing height was too low.
“We still recommend a 24-foot-high height limit on outdoor lighting fixtures and that there be a one footcandle limit at all property lines,” Harvey said. Footcandle is a way to measure a light’s intensity. “That is actually consistent with your current ordinance,” Harvey said.
What’s not in the current ordinance is a noise threshold, which Harvey said was recommended to be capped at 60 decibels.
“You don’t have noise regulations right now,” he said. “This would be brand new.”
The applicant is responsible for, among other things, paying for completion of a noise study. The applicant has to make sure a traffic impact study is conducted, too.
NFocus has recommended a 2,000-foot setback for data centers, no matter the size of the data center.
Following some discussion about small- and large-scale data centers, Harvey said NFocus could create text that would distinguish between major and minor facilities that would be available for discussion at the November planning board meeting.
That idea went over well with commissioners and planning board members, but Harvey reminded that distinctions would need to be based on power need and need for utilities.
Harvey said he’d prefer the planning board consider the concept now instead of waiting until later in the UDO process.
“What you don’t want to have happen – and it’s already going to happen on some level – is you don’t want to arbitrarily ignore or not impose reasonable regulation when you have that chance,” Harvey said.
Commissioners adopted a 60-day data center moratorium on Sept. 14. Harvey said he could have the information at the November meeting of the planning board, which then could be brought to the commissioners.County Manager Renee Perry said commissioners may need to hold a special called meeting if they would like to extend the moratorium.
