Charlotte mayor casts decisive vote to stop public hearing on data centers
The Charlotte City Council isn’t ready to consider a pause on data center developments as it stands apart from a growing number of North Carolina jurisdictions hitting the brakes.
A motion that could have fast-tracked a moratorium decision narrowly failed during Monday night’s council meeting. Mayor Vi Lyles cast the tie-breaking vote.
“I just don’t feel comfortable talking about something without having some research and some information around it, so I am a no,” Lyles said.
Charlotte does not have regulations specific to data centers or a big-picture plan for where they should go. They’re currently allowed in several zoning districts without city approval. A moratorium would place a temporary pause on those developments until Charlotte creates regulations for the energy- and water-intensive facilities.
Lyles said she will include a data center discussion on the May 11 meeting agenda, but the council won’t be able to vote on the issue.
The majority decision frustrated some council members, including JD Mazuera Arias, whose District 5 in east Charlotte has a pending rezoning request from a telecommunications company with plans to build a data center near a residential area.
In an impassioned speech at the end of the meeting, Mazuera Arias said he was “deeply frustrated” by council’s lack of action “on any pressing, urgent issue.” He questioned whether council’s processes make it easier to advance the priorities of developers than to elevate the concerns of families.
“It seems like we want to ‘roll’ with every problem that faces the working people of this city every single time,” Mazuera Arias said. “How many more conversations do we need to have about something before action is made on it, especially conversations that we’ve been discussing for years?”
Mazuera Arias approached the city attorney about data centers as soon as he took office in December, he said. At-large councilwoman LaWana Slack-Mayfield flagged it back in 2023 as a topic worth their attention.
But city staff only recently began taking a serious look at the issue. They won’t have recommendations for another three to six months, Lyles said.
The City Council is scheduled to vote on the east Charlotte data center request as soon as May 18. If approved, the American Tower Corporation could build a 40,000-square-foot facility about a mile from Reedy Creek Nature Preserve.
The project has caused uproar among residents who worry about its effect on their electric bills or the environment.
Why did City Council block public hearing on data centers?
At-large councilwoman Dimple Ajmera, who lives near the proposed data center, introduced a motion to hold a public hearing about data centers in addition to the planned council discussion. The issue requires “urgent, immediate attention,” she said.
“This feels like the wild west right now, and we need some guardrails in place,” Ajmera said. “It’s great that we can have a discussion, but what I’d like to see is an action.”
A public hearing is a prerequisite to taking a vote, according to City Attorney Andrea Leslie-Fite. Moratoriums longer than 61 days require public input before council can implement them.
The motion drew a tie vote: Ajmera, Joi Mayo, Mazuera Arias, Slack-Mayfield and Victoria Watlington voted for it, while Dante Anderson, Ed Driggs, Malcolm Graham, James Mitchell and Kimberly Owens voted against it. Renee Perkins Johnson was absent.
Lyles, who only votes in cases of a tie, shot down the motion.
Council members who voted against the hearing indicated they were open to considering a moratorium in the future but felt they needed more discussion before they could make an informed decision.
“To slam on the brakes like this, again, I think it’s the right thing. I have a more of a process concern that we don’t know the implications of imposing that moratorium. We don’t know what projects are in the pipeline,” said Driggs, who represents District 7 in south Charlotte.
Owens, who represents District 6 also in south Charlotte, said she didn’t feel comfortable hearing from a room full of people before she fully understood her own thoughts on the issue.
“A moratorium is something that really sends a message, and I don’t know if that’s where we need to be on this issue because I quite honestly don’t know enough about it,” Owens said. “I have expressed a concern that pushing these offshore is a greater risk to our citizens than having them well-located, and I’m not saying within our residential areas. I’m not saying that at all.”
Where North Carolina communities stand on data centers
Charlotte is far from the first jurisdiction to consider a moratorium.
Gates County, in the northeastern edge of the state, was among the earliest communities to enact a one-year pause in December, according to the Triangle Business Journal.
A slew of others followed suit, including Chatham County, Apex and Brevard. Just last week, Orange, Rowan and Swain counties also set moratoriums.
The developer behind the Chatham County data center filed a lawsuit on April 23 over the temporary ban. The company, Eco TIP West, claimed state law doesn’t authorize local governments to set development moratoriums on new zoning regulations, according to The News & Observer.
State law is ambiguous about how long a local government can set a moratorium, The News & Observer reported. Statute says the duration “shall be reasonable in light of the specific conditions that warrant imposition of the moratorium,” and it “may not exceed the period of time necessary to correct, modify, or resolve such conditions.”
Leslie-Fite told council members they would have to study “the unique pieces” necessitating a moratorium and determine the “least restrictive amount of time possible” if they wanted to implement one.
This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 9:53 AM.
