Lee County Commissioners discuss the Moncure data center and a moratorium

Attorney Brady Herman answered the board’s questions about the Moncure data center at the Oct. 5 meeting. The board hired him as an authority on land use defense. He said if a moratorium was imposed, because the building permit has already been awarded, Moncure’s CyrusOne data center would be exempt.

Commissioner Robert Reives requested a moratorium on data centers for 180 days, exempting the Moncure data center, and for a public hearing.

Reives and Commissioner Mark Lovick were the only two who voted for the moratorium and public hearing.

“I think the process was flawed…We are becoming more industrialized than residential and farming,” Reives said during the discussion.

Commissioner Kirk Smith asked what in the process was flawed.

Reives said he didn’t want to get into all that.

Smith asked again, and Reives said, “If you would shut up a minute I’d tell you.”

“The economic development situation we have we need to look at,” Reives said about needing to know more about proposed projects.

Martin mediated the disagreement, saying it sounded like they needed time to review the processes for approving projects.

Martin said one concern as a county was what was coming next. She requested a map.

Reives said Smith injected his personal feelings during the process of approval.

“Can the UDO be reviewed and changes brought up by the public [considered], can we do that now?” Martin asked staff about changing the Uniform Development Ordinance for future data center proposals.

Herman said the county could change the UDO with or without a moratorium. He said state law will not allow downzoning without every single landowner in the area’s approval. He called the law draconian.

“If it is in LI or HI, it’s already a permitted use,” Herman said about any new data center proposal being approved “by right” based on zoning, the county’s Land Use Plans and UDO.

Herman did not recommend a moratorium. The City of Sanford and Broadway would not be included in a county moratorium. They would need to enact their own.

Providing power is a concern for adding another data center, unless another project comes that brings more power, or there is additional rezoning for industry.

Central Electric Membership (CEM) CEO Eddie Oldham said there would need to be significant upgrades for large loads on the transmission line, and the data center company would be responsible for the upgrade costs, including transformers. CEM is building a substation for the single data center in Moncure. If an additional substation needed to be built, it would fall under an order from Duke Energy.

Oldham said he could not promise there would be no impact on residential and existing commercial electric bills from the Moncure data center. If Duke Energy raises its rates, the cost would be passed on to consumers.

Reives said he did not understand the relationship CEM had with Duke Energy.

According to Oldham, in 1965, the territories were established by the utilities commission, and CEM distributes power from other providers with substations.

A new review on energy availability would be conducted if another data center was proposed.

During public comments, citizens complained about 24/7 noise, the loss of the right to the enjoyment of peace on their generational land, the slack data center UDOs, about the UDO on data centers being referred to as a breathing document, but standards not being strengthened, not having the data center proposal on the ballot, that planning speed through the UDO creation after citizens had contacted leaders in Oct. 2025 to warn them about the outcome, but they were not heard, the board needing a braver attorney, the board not putting the taxpayers’ quality of life on the forefront, the data center being too close to homes, taking risks with taxpayers’ peace, the noise impact on livestock and bees.

“When you go out in the country and rezone the land to industrial…look at the problems it’s caused. Why don’t you have a meeting with the residents it’s going to affect? How about some incentives to this, like county water [for us guinea pigs]. We got people that needs water bad. Let’s give us some tax incentives, like property taxes [relief]. This is something for you to think about. Let our community be a part of this. You have made progress tonight. But when you have a leader who represents your district and turn their head on you that there is backstabbing. Represent your people,” Moncure resident Mark Mansfield said.

[pictured above] Linda Hoover told commissioners that Lee County was looked down upon by other counties because of its aggressive rezoning and project approvals.

Oct. 5, 2026

Stephanie M. Sellers

Subscribe to Sandhills News and support this conservative journalism with advertising.

Submit news tips, events and interview requests to editor@sandhills.news.

Sandhills News is plain-English local government reporting that explains how decisions affect your land, taxes, schools and rights.