TO: Mayor and Members of City Council
THRU:
FROM: Council Member Shaun McMillan
DATE: November 2, 2026
RE:Title
City Council Agenda Item Request – Data Center Moratorium: Public Hearing and Work Plan – Council Member McMillan
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COUNCIL DISTRICT(S):
Council District(s)
All
b
Relationship To Strategic Plan:
Goal 3, City Investment in Today and Tomorrow: protects water, sewer, stormwater, and electric infrastructure.
Goal 4, Desirable Place to Live, Work, and Recreate: protects neighborhoods from noise, flooding, and air impacts.
Goal 5, Financially Sound City: tests the fiscal return and guards ratepayers from cost shifts.
Goal 6, Collaborative Citizen and Business Engagement: Data Center Task Force and district listening sessions.
Executive Summary:
Council consensus to direct staff to:
1. Schedule a public hearing on a temporary data center moratorium under N.C.G.S. 160D-107. Council sets the length at adoption. It ends once permanent rules are adopted.
2. Prepare the work schedule the statute requires, starting from the attached work plan.
The work plan answers the concerns residents have raised: PWC water, sewer, and electric capacity; household power bills; Cape Fear River supply and PFAS; flooding; Fort Bragg's needs; matching rules with Cumberland County; annexation and utility extensions near Eastover and Hope Mills; incentives and nondisclosure agreements; community benefits; projects already in the pipeline; enforcement; and a seat at the table for residents in every district.
Deliverables, each with time to draft and time to approve: (1) technical study, (2) Data Center Task Force report, (3) large water user ordinance, (4) community benefits ordinance, (5) incentives and disclosure policy, (6) non-annexation agreements and utility extension policy, (7) PWC large-user rate policy, (8) enforcement and monitoring plan, (9) matching standards with Cumberland County, and (10) final UDO amendments, adopted in the ...
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