Woodfin approves 12-month moratorium on data center development

Woodfin has put a 12-month stop on new data center development, a move town leaders framed as a way to decide the town’s future before a single industrial tech project can define it.

The Woodfin Town Council approved the moratorium on May 19, adopting Ordinance 2026-04 after Town Manager Shannon Tuch presented the staff report at the regular 5 p.m. meeting at Woodfin Town Hall on Elk Mountain Road. The council had already discussed a proposed moratorium on data centers and other similar land uses at its April 21 meeting, and a local report said members unanimously directed staff that night to draft a one-year ordinance for later consideration.

The timing matters in a small town like Woodfin, where available heavy-industrial land is limited and any large-scale use can quickly become a major land-use decision. That same report said staff identified 37 heavy-industrial parcels, with the largest undeveloped parcel measuring about 2.6 acres. In that setting, a data center would not be just another permit review. It would be a defining decision about what kind of growth Woodfin wants and what it does not.

The pause gives the town a year to update its Land Development Ordinance before it is forced to decide a proposal under rules that may not fully fit the rapid rise of AI- and crypto-related facilities. Local leaders have raised the same concerns now echoing across Buncombe County and Western North Carolina: power demand, water use, noise, zoning conflicts and the effect of industrial-scale buildings on nearby homes and businesses. The moratorium is meant to keep those pressures from arriving before the town has a clearer rulebook.

The decision also comes as other North Carolina communities move in the same direction. Orange County has adopted a data center pause, and Apex has considered a similar step. At the state level, legislation under discussion in May would add new requirements for certain large data centers, including closed-loop cooling systems and noise-impact site assessments.

Woodfin’s council also had a public hearing on a separate text amendment for accessory dwellings in the Community Shopping District on the May 19 agenda, underscoring how much of the town’s planning work is being reshaped at once. For Woodfin, the moratorium is not just a pause. It is a year to decide whether the town’s limited land, infrastructure and neighborhood character can absorb one of the fastest-growing land uses in the region, or whether that future should be kept out altogether.