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27 <br /> 1 Slide #9 <br /> Manager Recommendations <br /> • Direct staff to prepare materials for and notice a <br /> legislative public hearing at the April 21 BOCC meeting <br /> to declare a moratorium on "large-scale data centers" for <br /> one (1) year; and <br /> • Initiate an amendment to the Orange County UDO to <br /> define and regulate both "large-scale" data centers, <br /> inclusive of Artificial Intelligence Data Centers, <br /> Cryptocurrency Mining Facilities, Data Centers, Data <br /> Processing Facilities, and similar uses. <br /> �1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> NORTH CAROLINA <br /> 2 <br /> 3 Commissioner Carter thanked staff for bringing the proposal and Commissioner Bedford's <br /> 4 questions about noise. She said item 8-g in the consent agenda resonates with this topic. She <br /> 5 thanked staff for bringing that forward in collaboration with the other municipalities to ask the North <br /> 6 Carolina Utilities Commission to take measures that ensure that residential and other commercial <br /> 7 rate payers are protected from unfairly bearing the costs of infrastructure built to support new <br /> 8 large economic development loads. <br /> 9 Commissioner Bedford thanked staff for the fast turnaround on the item and for <br /> 10 Commissioner Carter's motion at the previous business meeting. She thanked Commissioner <br /> 11 Carter and Commissioner Portie-Ascott for attending the NACo Legislative conference and <br /> 12 bringing this and other important information back to the Board. <br /> 13 <br /> 14 PUBLIC COMMENTS: <br /> 15 John Rees of the Orange Chatham Sierra Club read the following statement: <br /> 16 "While I am not an expert, the reading I have done shows there are both environmental issues <br /> 17 and environmental justice issues regarding the of siting of data centers. <br /> 18 As we already discussed here, since Orange County doesn't currently have specific wording in <br /> 19 the UDO regulating land uses for data centers, enacting a moratorium - and then working with <br /> 20 county staff and subject matter experts would allow for rules that would better control data centers <br /> 21 and regulate them in such a way that they do not impose both an environmental and economic <br /> 22 impact on county residents. <br /> 23 The Sierra Club has handy documents and resources that suggest regulations and topics of <br /> 24 consideration, and also citations on what other states have done that I have already shared with <br /> 25 you. <br /> 26 For me, the key things to consider are: <br /> 27 Not making incumbent ratepayers take the risk of paying for capacity that services data centers <br /> 28 exclusively, or capacity that is stated to be need and then not used (leaving ratepayers with the <br /> 29 bill) <br /> 30 <br />