Lumberton City Council to consider data center ordinance for future development

The Lumberton City Council is set to consider an ordinance on November 9 that would establish regulations for a potential data center in the city, according to sunny943.com. The ordinance is intended to guide any future developments, though no data center is currently planned, city manager Wayne Horne said.

The proposed rules would apply specifically to the Southeast Crossroads Industrial Park, near the intersection of interstates 95 and 74. The ordinance focuses on a small data center due to site size limitations, covering aspects such as energy and water use, stormwater and natural resources, noise, air quality, setbacks, and buffers.

The site is currently in the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction, with annexation and rezoning efforts underway to allow data centers in the M-2 heavy manufacturing zoning district. City staff noted that the ordinance, annexation, and rezoning are interconnected processes.

One potential project, codenamed Project Alps, involves a site between 10 and 50 acres with a power demand of 50 megawatts. The investment could range from $550 million to $750 million, creating 10 to 20 full-time jobs. Councilman John Cantey expressed mixed feelings about the ordinance, noting the potential water use of 50,000 gallons per day compared to the city's water plant capacity of 20 million gallons per day, which currently handles 4 million gallons daily.