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Mount Airy commissioners voted unanimously Thursday night to adopt a data center ordinance and lifted a 90-day moratorium on data center development inside the city limits that had been imposed Sept. 3, acting on the recommendation of City Attorney Hugh Campbell. Mayor Jon Cawley said an outright ban was not a legal option unless the city wanted litigation.
The ordinance limits data centers to M-1 industrial, B-4 highway business and B-5 medical business zones. Micro facilities under 5,000 square feet are allowed in all three, while small centers of 5,000 to 20,000 square feet are limited to industrial zones along with larger centers over 20,000 square feet. No center may sit within 1,000 feet of a school, congregate care facility or day care, or within 500 feet of a residence.
The rules also require a security fence or wall at least eight feet high with vegetative screening, sound mitigation to keep noise within permitted levels, public water and wastewater service, closed-loop cooling, no generators as a primary power source, and decommissioning plans for centers idle 12 straight months. Planning Director Byron Brown said no applications have come in from prospective data centers, and Surry County remains under a two-year moratorium of its own.
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