Durham expands data center pause to study, guard against potential impacts
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Durham further extends ban on new high-impact data center applications.
- The moratorium allows the city more time to study the affects of the facilities.
- Residents wanted the council’s ban to go even further to 32 months.
The Durham City Council extended its temporary ban on new data centers and crypto mining facilities by 10 months Monday night.
The decision expands the 60-day freeze passed in May into a full 12-month moratorium through May 2027 to give the Planning and Development Department more time to study the impacts of these facilities and draft rules for them.
According to city documents, Durham’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) doesn’t clearly define data centers or “cryptocurrency mining,” which is the process blockchain networks use to finalize transactions. The UDO also lacks regulations for data centers affecting water and sewer utility extensions.
While there are already a few data centers in Durham, their continued growth and expansion are unregulated. The existing data centers are also smaller, unlike the hyper-scale facilities that can use between 300,000 and 5 million gallons of water a day.
“I realize the reality that we’re in, that AI is something that is growing, and I think that we’re going about this the right way,” said Mayor Leo Williams. “What we’re doing here is extremely important.”
Addressing the strain on local resources
Data centers pose unique logistical and environmental challenges that the city is currently unequipped to handle, officials said.
They need lots of energy and water to cool, for example. Without regulations, private commercial uses of data centers could trigger utility rate increases for local residents.
Ashley Daniels, an organizer for environmental organization Toxic Free NC, told the City Council that approval of high-impact data centers would “expose residents to even greater risk of harmful contaminants.”
“Data centers negatively impact air quality, releasing carbon monoxide, not just oxide, and particulate matter that can exasperate asthma,” she said. “Allowance of data centers to be cited in Durham would only increase the disparity between residents and the energy monopoly.”
Daniels added that Durham is currently under a Stage 2 water restrictions as the state experiences a drought. Beginning Monday, residents were prohibited from using outdoor sprinklers, washing cars in driveways and using large amounts of water to garden.
One resident, Samuel Scarborough, called for the City Council to go further and expand the data center moratorium to 32 months.
“If we do not take our time with this and if data centers are rapidly approved prematurely without the proper infrastructure in place; we’re going to become more dependent on AI ... we will continue making our planet harder to live in for ourselves and future generations,” he said.
Durham is not alone in pausing data center growth. Within the last six months, several local governments in the state, including Chatham County, Apex and Wendell, have adopted temporary bans.
This story was originally published June 16, 2026 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Durham expands data center pause to study, guard against potential impacts."