Two weeks after a 5-5 deadlock that required Mayor Vi Lyles to break the tie, Charlotte City Council voted unanimously Monday night to schedule a public hearing on a 150-day moratorium on new data center approvals. The hearing is set for May 26. Council could adopt the moratorium as early as June 8.

The reversal was total. On April 27, the same body split evenly on whether to even schedule a hearing. Lyles voted no, and the matter was deferred. On Monday, every council member who spoke supported the pause — including those who had voted against it two weeks earlier.

What changed was the information on the table.

What Staff Told Council

Deputy City Manager Allison Craig presented a detailed briefing assembled by an interdisciplinary team spanning Planning, Charlotte Water, the Attorney's Office, the Office of Sustainability, and Innovation & Technology.

The presentation laid out facts the council had not previously seen in one place:

Charlotte's Unified Development Ordinance contains a single definition of "data center" covering everything from a basement server closet to a hyperscale campus. Under that definition, data centers are allowed by right in eight zoning districts — commercial, office, research campus, manufacturing, logistics, innovation, mixed use, and uptown core. No special permit. No public hearing. No council vote required.

Two hyperscale campuses have already been approved. The Powerhouse project at 10800 University City Boulevard — up to 2.5 million square feet on 122 acres, with 300 megawatts of secured power — was approved in 2023. Morris Chapel, up to 3 million square feet on 156 acres, was approved in 2025. Both sit in the extraterritorial jurisdiction under I2CD zoning. Both are within 500 feet of residential zoning.

Every approved data center in Charlotte is within 500 feet of residential.

Water, Power, and What the Numbers Say

Craig's presentation addressed the resource questions that have driven community concern, and the numbers carry some context worth noting.

Data centers currently represent less than 1 percent of North Carolina's statewide peak electric demand. That figure is projected to reach 10 percent by 2030, though Craig noted the growth would be distributed across the state, not concentrated in Charlotte.

On water: the Powerhouse campus, at peak summer use, draws 1.2 million gallons per day — but of reclaimed water, not drinking water. Deputy Director David Zerr clarified that the supply comes from highly treated wastewater effluent from the Mallard Creek facility, the same source used by UNC Charlotte for irrigation. Morris Chapel uses 35,000 gallons per day of domestic water because its cooling is bioelectric, not water-based. Closed-loop cooling systems, Craig said, reduce water consumption by as much as 70 percent compared to open-loop designs.

For scale: total irrigation demand across Charlotte Water's entire service area is 11 million gallons per day. Data centers account for 0.4 percent of that.

Council Member J.D. Mazuera Arias challenged the closed-loop framing. He cited research showing that closed-loop systems require 10 to 40 percent more electricity than open-loop designs, increase greenhouse emissions, and require chemical additives — anti-corrosives and pH adjusters — that must be carefully managed to avoid environmental harm if leaks occur.

The Problem That Hasn't Changed

What hasn't changed is the structural vulnerability. Data centers of any size can be approved by right under the current UDO definition. The council has no prescribed conditions — no noise mitigation requirements, no energy or water conservation plans, no buffer standards adjacent to residential — beyond the general development standards that apply to anything built in those eight zoning districts.

And the state has limited the city's ability to fix that. Session Law 2024-57, known as Senate Bill 382, restricts municipalities from reducing development density or limiting permitted land uses. Craig was direct about the constraint: staff would have already proposed new standards, she said, but the law "severely limits local zoning authority."

Charlotte's position is additionally complicated by the fact that it already defines data centers in its ordinance. Craig noted that other municipalities that have enacted moratoriums did not have a data center definition in their codes. They used the moratorium period to create one. Charlotte already has a definition, which means any new restrictions risk being characterized as a downzoning under state law.

Chatham County's moratorium has already drawn a lawsuit from ECOTIP, the data center developer subject to it.

Council Members Push Further

Council Member Dimple Ajmera, who authored the original April 27 motion, framed Monday's discussion as overdue.

"This concern around data center did not start overnight," Ajmera said. She noted that Council Member LaWana Slack-Mayfield raised data center regulation in 2023, that Council Member Renee Johnson continued the questions in 2024, and that Mazuera Arias began pressing the issue when he learned about a proposed facility in Far East Charlotte.

"This is not about anti-AI or anti-technology," Ajmera said. "This is really about protections and putting guardrails in place."

Mazuera Arias delivered the sharpest argument of the evening. "There is more of a human risk in not acting now in protecting our residents," he said. "And legal risk should not take a precedent over human risk, especially when what we are considering right now with this moratorium is the right thing to do for the people."

Slack-Mayfield went further than any of her colleagues, asking that the moratorium cover not just future applications but existing approvals and pending permits. "We need to stop. We need to pause. We need to rescind. We need to halt until we know that there's no harm to our residents," she said.

The city attorney's response was careful: state statute 160D-107 is specific about what is exempt from moratoria. Approved rezonings are exempt once a moratorium takes effect. Applications already in the pipeline get what the attorney called "permit choice" — the option to proceed under existing rules or any new ones the council adopts.

What Shifted

Council Member Kimberly Owens, one of three who voted against the April 27 motion, was explicit about her change. "I was one of the people who voted to get more information on this before I was confident and comfortable making a decision," she said. She raised questions the presentation had not addressed — underground diesel storage tanks for generator backups, risks to the water table, and whether the 100-megawatt threshold for Duke Energy's nonrefundable impact fee is still appropriate.

Council Member Malcolm Graham, who also voted no on April 27, focused Monday on the General Assembly. Senate Bill 382 "is going to determine what we can and what we can't do," he said. He urged staff to ensure the city's input is part of any short-session legislation. Council Member Ed Driggs, the third April 27 no vote, asked detailed procedural questions about the moratorium's scope and effect but ultimately joined the unanimous support.

Council Member Dante Anderson called for the UDO's single data center definition to be expanded. "Our definition now is just one definition that covers five different types of data centers," she said. Council Member Victoria Watlington said the council needed to "move with the speed of progress" given how rapidly the data center industry is changing.

The political backdrop matters, too. Lyles, who broke the April 27 tie, announced May 7 that she will resign as mayor on June 30. The moratorium's adoption timeline — June 8 — falls within her remaining weeks in office.

What Happens Next

Monica Holmes, the city's Planning Director, told council that 150 days — through October — gives staff adequate time to research, develop policy options, and return with recommendations. The moratorium could be extended if more time is needed.

The path forward:

• May 26: Public hearing on the moratorium ordinance.
• June 8: Council could adopt the moratorium. The 150-day clock starts on adoption.
• Through October: Staff develops performance standards, application requirements, and potential UDO amendments under the constraints of Senate Bill 382.
• TPD Committee: The matter has been referred for ongoing policy work.

The moratorium, if adopted, would not stop the Powerhouse or Morris Chapel projects — those rezonings are vested. It would not stop the Digital Realty facility on Trade Street, which is proceeding by right at 40,000 square feet in the uptown core. The American Tower rezoning in East Charlotte has been deferred; its public hearing is now set for June 15.

What the moratorium would do is prevent new data center applications from being approved while staff develops the regulatory framework the city does not currently have.

Two weeks ago, half the council wanted more information before acting. They got it. Now the question is whether 150 days is enough time to build rules that can survive Senate Bill 382.