Vance County Board of Commissioners Chair Carolyn Faines has scheduled a special called meeting for Friday, Nov. 13 at 4 p.m. to consider extending the moratorium on data center development. When the commissioners and planning board held a joint meeting recently to discuss revisions to the unified development ordinance, the possibility of an extension arose from the conversation.

N-Focus’s Michael Harvey, who is facilitating the creation of the UDO document, said he would have Section 5 of the UDO – which addresses data centers specifically – available for the planning board to consider at its November meeting.

The planning board could then present its recommendations to the commissioners, but the moratorium most likely would expire before the revisions could come before the commissioners for action.

During the joint meeting on Oct. 27, there was discussion about small- versus 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.

The current data center application by Natelli Holdings is in the technical compliance review part of the process. This is the period of time when county staff reviews and checks on the proposed development and makes sure it complies with county zoning and other factors like roads, utilities and safety requirements.

The applicant submitted the plan in September in anticipation of the county’s approval of the UDO. According to Vance County Planning and Development Director Sherry Moss, the plan is still in review and revisions are being made, based on comments from the TRC review.

There is no specific timeline, since the proposed use doesn’t have to go before an advisory board or the board of commissioners, Moss explained.

She outlined steps that are included in this part of the process:

1. Plans are submitted to Planning Staff for TRC review.
2. TRC meets as necessary on the 1st or 3rd Tuesday each month for plan review and provide feedback.
3. Planning Staff compiles comments/feedback from meeting and distribute to TRC and applicant for any revisions.
4. Revised plan, per TRC comments, is submitted to staff/TRC members for review and compliance.
5. If plan is in compliance and TRC comments have been met, the zoning permit can be issued.