Charlotte's city council voted unanimously Monday evening to impose a 150-day moratorium on new data center and telecommunications facility applications, pausing all new approvals while staff develops regulations that council members said current city policy is not equipped to provide.
The vote capped a months-long arc. An April 27 motion to hold a public hearing ended in a 5-5 tie, with Mayor Vi Lyles breaking it against moving forward. Council reversed course May 11, scheduling the hearing for May 26. Monday's action followed.
All 11 members voted in favor. The moratorium covers the city's jurisdiction and extraterritorial jurisdiction, takes effect immediately, and runs 150 days under North Carolina General Statute 160D-107, through approximately November 5.
Before the vote, City Attorney Andrea Leslie Fite read the moratorium's legal limits into the record. State law exempts any project with a valid building permit; any special use permit application already accepted and complete; any development with an approved site-specific vesting plan; any project where substantial expenditures have been made in good faith reliance on prior approval; and any project with a complete application for developmental approval already filed.
"This is not a city council policy," Fite told council. "This is state law. And any attempt to apply a moratorium to any of these projects that I have just listed would be a direct violation of state law."
Council Member Dimple Ajmera, who sponsored the motion, cast it as a deadline Charlotte had been running toward.
"A 150-day pause today can prevent years of unintended consequences tomorrow," Ajmera said. "The question is not whether data centers are good or bad. The question is whether Charlotte has the right policy framework in place to manage them responsibly."
Council Member J.D. Mazuera Arias, whose District 5 includes an active rezoning application for a 40,000-square-foot data center, put the legal backdrop in plain terms. The applicant already holds a by-right approval for a 10,000-square-foot facility that would survive any rezoning denial. Beyond that, the city's unified development ordinance allows data centers by right in seven zoning districts, and state law on downzoning further limits local authority.
"As much as I wish we could live in what New York City is experiencing right now, we do not live in that reality in the good old state of North Carolina," Mazuera Arias said.
Council Member Kimberly Owens raised a series of specific questions for staff: review project scale thresholds, set neighborhood buffers from homes and schools, assess water and energy demands, examine equity impacts, and evaluate diesel fuel storage from backup generators.
"We do not have the legal authority for projects that have already been approved, and they will move forward unaffected by the moratorium," Owens said. "This pause is about shaping the future."
Council Member Lawana Mayfield, who said she first raised concerns about large-scale data centers in 2023, reminded residents where the real policy leverage sits.
"I cannot say that there are going to be no data centers," she said. "But what I can commit to is working with staff for us to figure out where is the best location, as far away from students, as far away from our elders, as far away from residents as possible."
Council Member Dante Anderson flagged the General Assembly's authority to override any local framework. Noting that data centers have operated in Charlotte since 1990, he called for patience with staff as the work begins.
"There really is no rubric around how you actually specifically deal with this," Anderson said. "We are learning as we go."
Council Member Renee Johnson offered one measure of the ground covered.
"There was last year this time, I used to call moratorium the M word," she said. "We wouldn't have mentioned this. And so this is huge."
After the vote, Lyles added her own punctuation: "The people united will never be defeated."
Staff will develop a regulatory framework during the 150-day window. Johnson said she intends to meet with state legislators and county officials to explore intergovernmental approaches.
Related coverage: Charlotte Council's Data Center Pivot: From 5-5 Tie to Unanimous | On Data Centers, Mecklenburg County Wants a Voice It Mostly Doesn't Have