Cary could be the next Triangle town to temporarily pump the brakes on large-scale data centers, including those that power AI, following in the footsteps of neighbors Apex and Durham.
At the end of last night’s town council meeting, Cary Town Council members voted unanimously to direct town staff to prepare a report and recommended timeline for a data center moratorium.
What’s next: A public hearing will take place at a future council meeting, after which the council will vote on a proposed moratorium.
If approved, town staff would be authorized to study the potential environmental impacts of a data center, including on water and electricity use, for an agreed upon period of time and draft new rules governing the construction of any future data centers on property in the town.
“This matters a lot to Cary … because we do have some industrial areas and some greenfield space where a data center could be built, but more importantly, Jordan Lake is our watershed, it is our drinking water, 770,000 people rely on Jordan Lake for water in our region,” said Councilmember Lori Bush, who introduced the motion.
“It is a finite resource that we share with neighbors, so in order to be good neighbors, and because large scale data centers use a substantial amount of water for cooling, this is a wise decision.”
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