By Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com

Lee County Government issued a lengthy statement Thursday about a now-approved data center proposal on Lower Moncure Road, detailing the timeline of events and stating that no one on the Board of Commissioners or the county’s administrative staff accepted any “improper incentives” concerning the project.

The statement, which can be read in its entirety here, makes public for the first time some of the events leading up to the data center proposal, which The Rant first reported on June 8 – including that commissioners were told in a closed session on February 16 that a developer intended to submit an application for a data center in the Lower Moncure area.

“If the application had been filed at that time, there would have been no additional standards imposed on the data center project and the regular standards of the (light industrial) zoning district would have applied, which would not have provided any additional protection for the citizens. Being advised that data center standards were being developed, SAGA asked the developers for this project to wait to file its application until the standards were approved.”

The commissioners held a workshop on draft data center standards on April 6, a public hearing on April 20, and then adopted the updated UDO language.

But the county planning staff’s work on data center standards goes back to at least October 2025, when the statement says “a news reporter emailed Planning staff about a potential data center project in Cumnock, and staff immediately began researching data centers and protective ordinances.” The rumored Cumnock project was the subject of extensive media coverage, but was never formally submitted to the county for approval.

“Planning staff determined the County’s UDO did not provide a permitted use for data centers or any safeguards for that type of development given the novelty of that particular use. By law, if a zoning ordinance does not specifically identify or directly address a type of land use, the use must be placed in the zoning district that most closely fits the particular use. In the case for data centers, the use according to the County’s UDO would be LI and only the general development standards for LI zoning would apply,” the statement reads. “To immediately address the significant issues data centers present, Planning staff initiated a text amendment to the UDO to require supplemental standards for data centers. In North Carolina, only a few counties have created standards for data centers.”

The statement also says the land for the Lower Moncure data center was “validly rezoned” in 2025, and states that “regardless of how the applicant said the property would be used, by law the property can be developed for any permitted use listed in (light industrial) according to the Table of Permitted Uses in the County’s Unified Development Ordinance.” Critics of the data center proposal have said at multiple meetings of the board that the project was represented as a “business park” during the rezoning in 2025.

The statement goes on to affirm that “the current data center project on Lower Moncure Road will proceed” and that “the project cannot be stopped by a moratorium according to state statute and will not be subject to any revised UDO standards during any vested timeframe even if any were enacted in the immediate future.”

“There is no further vote or action that this Board will take concerning the Lower Moncure Road project,” the statement reads.

Finally, the statement addresses what it describes as continuing public accusations of impropriety against the board and county staff.

“To be absolutely clear, no member of this Board or any Administrative staff member has any monetary interest or ownership interest in the real property at issue or in any part of the project,” it reads. “No member of this Board or any Administrative staff member signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement concerning the project and no member of this Board or any Administrative staff member has received any money, kickbacks, promises, or other improper incentives concerning this project whatsoever. Additionally, the Board did not provide any economic development incentives or any funding for this project.”

The statement says that planning staff “will continue to monitor the standards adopted by other jurisdictions and they are well aware of the suggested changes the public has submitted to the Board. As always, the Planning Department will bring updated text amendments to the Joint Planning Commission when legally acceptable and in the best interest of the three jurisdictions.”

The statement closes by indicating that the Board of Commissioners “tried to protect” the public “by enacting a local ordinance to provide Constitutionally acceptable safeguards that were not in the existing UDO” before the Lower Moncure application was submitted, and suggests citizens who remain concerned should look to state and federal leaders for further protective action.

“Lee County Government and the Board of Commissioners remind the public to contact our representatives at the state and federal level to express concerns and seek stronger legislation for all sizes of data centers,” it reads.

The commissioners are scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. on Monday at the new Lee County Library. The meeting’s agenda, which was made public around the same time the statement was issued, indicates the board will have a “data center discussion.”