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Edgecombe County commissioners voted 5-0 on Monday night to establish a two-year moratorium on the construction of data centers.

The vote followed a developer’s decision to withdraw a proposal to purchase county-owned land Kinsgsboro Business Park to build hyperscale data center.

According to Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman, the moratorium is a good thing for the community and the Tar River.

“The goal of a moratorium is to basically buy some time, so they are not getting any new applications in for large-scale data centers,” she said. “They have time to reassess their Unified Development Ordinance and other development-related ordinances, so they can better prepare for future proposals and better protect their community and resources.”

The moratorium is the result of recommendations from an advisory committee created by county government, a public survey and ongoing engagement by ENDCA (Edgecombe Neighbors for Data Center Accountability), a community group organized after Energy Storage Solutions, LLC proposed the construction of a 300-megawatt data center in 2025.

“A few of us spoke at the public hearing before the vote, who just wanted to put in some last words, including myself,” Katey said, adding that she spoke about regulations at the state level that not only need to address environmental and economic impacts from hyperscale data centers, but legislation that hampers local governments from determining development in their own communities.

“Nobody likes the downzoning law, so there’s hopefully a good chance that would no longer be an issue when the moratorium ends,” she said.

The Kingsboro community is no stranger to speaking out against industry that would threaten quality of life in the rural community. In 1995, Citizens for Responsible Zoning rallied residents to fight a proposal by IBP to build a hog-slaughtering facility — one that would process 30,000 hogs per day — in their community. The case was covered in the documentary, “We Can Do Better,” released on the 25th anniversary. Documentary maker Frederick Murphy was on hand at Monday night’s meeting, checking in with the community’s continued efforts to protect Kingsboro residents from big industry.

Katey said the five (of seven) commissioners present at the meeting engaged in no discussion before the vote.

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