An Asheville City Council committee voted on June 16 to advance a proposed one-year moratorium on new data centers to the full council, reflecting growing unease in the western North Carolina city about the energy, water and noise demands such facilities can place on a community.
The Planning, Economic Development and Environmental committee forwarded the measure for a public hearing and a possible final vote at the council's June 23 meeting. If adopted, the moratorium would give the city up to a year to study data centers, gather public input and draft zoning rules to govern where and how they could be built.
City planning staff told the committee that Asheville currently has no policies tailored to manage the impacts of a large data center, and that no applications are pending. The pause, officials said, is intended to prevent the city from being caught flat-footed if a developer comes forward before regulations exist.
"What we are doing is looking at putting in place a moratorium so that if anybody comes forward with an application for a data center, we have a pause, so that we have time to look at it," Mayor Esther Manheimer said.
Council members raised a range of concerns. Kim Roney pointed to infrasound — low-frequency noise she described as "sound that you can't necessarily hear with your ears but can have health impacts on your body" — alongside audible noise from cooling systems. Maggie Ullman Berthiaume said she was "100% ready" to back a moratorium.
Grid strain featured prominently in the discussion. Asheville's power and water systems are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, the 2024 storm that devastated the region, and members questioned whether the area could absorb the heavy, round-the-clock electricity draw of a hyperscale facility without affecting residents.
Asheville joins a growing list of US localities weighing pauses or restrictions on data centers as the artificial-intelligence boom drives a wave of construction and the enormous power and water consumption that comes with it. Communities from Georgia to Virginia have debated similar moratoriums over the past year.