Swain Weighs Extending Data Center Moratorium as Rules Lag
Board of County Commissioners • Swain CountyOctober 20, 2026
Locunity is an independent informational service and is not an official government page for this commission. All information is sourced from public footage and an analysis of official agendas with the aid of responsible, fact-checked AI. to report an error or omission.
Swain County's pause on data centers and other high-impact facilities may need more time. At an Oct. 20, 2026, public hearing, the county's moratorium committee asked the Board of County Commissioners for an extension to finish writing the ordinances meant to replace it. The only speaker said the county is close, but no North Carolina jurisdiction has yet produced a model worth copying.
- Public hearing held on extending the data center moratorium, with the chair describing it as 8 months, through Dec. 20, 2027
- Lone commenter backs the extension, saying the county still lacks protective ordinances
- Committee member says water and power concerns have shifted as data center technology changes
- No board vote on the extension appears in the available meeting record
Committee Asks for More Time to "Get This Right"
The basics: A moratorium is a temporary pause on certain types of development. It gives a local government time to study an issue and write permanent rules. Swain's pause covers data centers and other high-impact facilities. A volunteer moratorium committee has been drafting the ordinances meant to govern them.
Why it matters: Until ordinances are adopted, the moratorium is the county's only protection against data center and high-impact applications. If the pause expires before the rules are ready, the county could face proposals with no tailored standards in place.
Where things stand: The board opened the hearing after a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. The presiding chair framed the request: "the purpose of this public hearing is to receive comments from the public regarding the proposed 8-month extension of temporary moratorium on data centers and other high-impact facilities through 12/20/2027," said the Board Chair.
The two figures do not line up on their face. Eight months from the hearing date would end well before December 2027, and the hearing did not clarify which timeline the board is weighing. Residents tracking the item should check the final ordinance language for the actual end date.
Ken Hilliard, a member of the Swain County moratorium committee, was the only person to speak. He has owned property in the county since 2001 and has lived there full time for 10 years. He told commissioners the committee's research is nearly complete and that a starting-point document for the ordinances exists. Many of the ordinances themselves still need to be written, he said.
Hilliard said the county would be largely on its own in that work. Two counties have published ordinances, he said, but they are very general and not protective. A third has released only a draft. "Nobody has written ordinances that are published and in place in North Carolina," said Hilliard.
His bottom line: "We need some more time so that we can get this right," said Hilliard.
The other side: No one spoke against the extension, and commissioners did not deliberate publicly during the hearing.
Decisions and stakeholder impacts: No vote on the extension was recorded. If the board approves it, prospective data center and high-impact developers stay on hold, and residents keep the pause while rules are drafted. The committee would gain time to write standards from scratch rather than borrow from neighbors. A motion to adjourn was made and seconded. A show-of-hands vote was called, but the result was not recorded.
What's next: Watch for board action on the extension and its final end date. The committee's draft ordinances are the next major milestone.
The Data Center Debate Has Moved, Speaker Says
Why it matters: Water use and utility rates were the concerns that first drove the moratorium. If the technology is changing, Swain's ordinances may need to target different risks than the ones the committee started with.
Where things stand: Hilliard said early worries centered on two resources. On electricity, residents feared grid strain and rate increases to pay for new infrastructure. On water, they feared deep wells, river withdrawals, lake drawdown and pollution.
About six months into the committee's work, Hilliard said the picture looks different. Many data centers, including hyperscale facilities, now use closed-loop cooling with glycol and dielectric fluids, he said. Hyperscale facilities are the very large campuses run by major cloud and AI companies. In a closed-loop system, coolant circulates in a sealed system rather than drawing a steady supply of water. By his account, those facilities use water only for bathrooms and sinks.
On power, he said developers increasingly bypass the local grid with their own natural gas or nuclear generation. "A lot of them are building their own power plant," said Hilliard.
These claims are the speaker's own and were not independently addressed by commissioners or staff during the hearing.
Decisions and stakeholder impacts: A shift toward on-site generation would change what Swain's rules need to cover. Ordinances focused on wells and rate impacts would give way to standards on fuel sources, emissions and power plant siting. That matters for neighbors near any future site and for ratepayers. It also matters for conservation-minded residents concerned about rivers and lakes. Hilliard said that, whatever the technology, the core problem remains: "we don't have any ordinances to protect us."
What's next: Residents can press the committee on how its drafts address on-site power plants and closed-loop cooling. Those are the technologies Hilliard said now dominate new projects.
Looking Ahead
Key questions remain open: whether commissioners approved the extension, how long it runs, and when the committee's draft ordinances will reach the board for public review.