Charlotte City Council

Where the data center is discussed

33 moments — click to jump the video there. Times marked ~are estimated from the transcript (this meeting's captions aren't timestamped).

• ▶ ~1:47:04…ecently approved rezoning to the MX Innovative District so the proposal under this petition would allow up to 2.5 million square feet for a data center as the primary use that would include some accessory and ancillary uses uh like warehousing distribution from those data centers only and an electric substation that wo…
• ▶ ~1:47:13…feet for a data center as the primary use that would include some accessory and ancillary uses uh like warehousing distribution from those data centers only and an electric substation that wouldn't exceed 10 acres which would be coordinated with Duke Energy those accessory uses that I mentioned would also not exceed 1…
• ▶ ~1:50:29…petitioner this is kind of fun of um it's rare that I encounter a zoning or use that I have not worked with before and uh so here we have a Data Center and I've read about these kind of all over the state of North Carolina we see the big splashy headlines the data centers coming to these counties surrounding Charlotte…
• ▶ ~1:50:37…h so here we have a Data Center and I've read about these kind of all over the state of North Carolina we see the big splashy headlines the data centers coming to these counties surrounding Charlotte and so I was pretty interested when we got the call about this as Dave mentioned this is a site that you're probably fam…
• ▶ ~1:51:13…gh rezoning a little over a year ago um working um with council member Johnson and it is currently entitled for about 600 homes uh when the data center opportunity came along the petitioner thought this was interesting we thought the site makes sense for a couple reasons here it is 130 Acres so large site big enough fo…
• ▶ ~1:52:02…s or so we talk about traffic we talk about school impact the current zoning if it were developed residential would have 5 000 plus trips a data center would have a couple hundred or less so it does have a significantly less impact on the parts of the infrastructure that we talk about prior to that rezoning this did ha…
• ▶ ~1:53:15…coordinate another to go out and look at those so you actually see what they look like in person that said since I am not the expert on on data centers I'm going to ask Greg rolls to uh to talk a little bit about that about the company and about why this location in Charlotte thank you Colin mayor Lyles mayor Pro tem…
• ▶ ~1:53:37…embers of the council my name is Greg roles I'm the managing director of development construction for American Real Estate partners and its data center platform Powerhouse data centers we appreciate the opportunity to discuss our plans for the property this evening we're extremely excited about this development and the…
• ▶ ~1:54:25…ate we successfully delivered complex projects for Fortune 500 companies like AOL Verizon Amazon and Bank of America to date our Powerhouse data center platform has committed over a billion dollars to roughly 2.2 million square feet of data center space why are you here what's driving the need for data centers we conti…
• ▶ ~1:54:31…and Bank of America to date our Powerhouse data center platform has committed over a billion dollars to roughly 2.2 million square feet of data center space why are you here what's driving the need for data centers we continue to create and consume more and more data every day and on a worldwide scale thank you next o…
• ▶ ~1:54:35…m has committed over a billion dollars to roughly 2.2 million square feet of data center space why are you here what's driving the need for data centers we continue to create and consume more and more data every day and on a worldwide scale thank you next one oh okay here we go coupled with the rapid and unprecedented…
• ▶ ~1:54:51…le thank you next one oh okay here we go coupled with the rapid and unprecedented acceleration of high density Computing an under supply of data centers has been created high density Computing supports everything from artificial intelligence to self-driving cars and the constant need for hyperscalers to process more da…
• ▶ ~1:55:08…d the constant need for hyperscalers to process more data faster hyperscaler is just to clarify are really the five or six largest users of data centers and consumers of data Amazon Apple Microsoft meta Google and Oracle to satisfy the under Supply lesser utilized markets have emerged or at or Edge markets which bring…
• ▶ ~1:56:49…ee here is just one example of how we strive to be good stewards for the community in many markets you'll see monolithic concrete boxes for data centers but we take great pride in our Superior aesthetic and thoughtfulness of design economic and Community benefits tax-based boost not only during construction and operati…
• ▶ ~1:57:17…nities and highly skilled local Workforce and minimal impact on local Services schools and emergency services and minimal impact on traffic data centers are far less populated than any other use class more about the untapped opportunity and more positives for Charlotte and the property continued data center investment…
• ▶ ~1:57:27…far less populated than any other use class more about the untapped opportunity and more positives for Charlotte and the property continued data center investment will likely consolidate Regional demand in the Charlotte Metro Area increasing the city's profile as a world-class destination for technology companies and s…
• ▶ ~1:58:05…ee its proximity to uh to the site it is the convergence of multiple high transmission prizes a study that was done by Ernst Young on major data center markets and it's common relative to Charlotte was demand in Charlotte could grow significantly as one hyperscaler entrance could attract others in an effort to compete…
• ▶ ~1:59:10…but we'll see that thank you very much Sanderson thank you mayor Pro tem and thank you for that update on your company and organizations um data centers like these can be the trifecta of growth in certain areas and in particular in western part of North Carolina they've seen a lot of tremendous amount of growth with da…
• ▶ ~1:59:22…fecta of growth in certain areas and in particular in western part of North Carolina they've seen a lot of tremendous amount of growth with data centers in that space and I I believe that this would be a benefit to Charlotte overall given that we're number one in business in the entire country as well as number five as…
• ▶ ~1:59:56…derful however I do know that the community has voiced some concerns about noise mitigation and the humming that comes with the presence of data centers and I would like for you to just speak a little bit about the experience that you had in Forest City because I believe it was a positive experienced in some of the com…
• ▶ ~2:01:51…at great thank you for the feedback thank you Miss Mayfield thank you mayor Pro Tim a couple of questions because I know a little bit about data centers not a lot so I just did a Google Search and one of the things that comes up in drier areas mainly is the amount of water usage as well as electricity and I don't I hav…
• ▶ ~2:02:33…rns and even though we're not as dry as some areas we've experienced not as much rain as we had a decade ago so what is the model with this data center as far as environmental controls and impacts well we still don't that's an excellent question we still don't fully understand what the final design is going to look lik…
• ▶ ~2:02:53…to look like but from a from a mechanical cooling perspective there are different types of equipment that can be used in order to call the data center some use very little water some actually use more water than that um the the water that we do that could be used potentially actually comes from the municipal system so…
• ▶ ~2:03:13…municipal system so we're not extracting water from the aquifer beneath the site we're not doing that so if in fact we were going to have a data center that required water for cooling we would certainly work with Municipal Water Authority to make sure that it's available and use it responsibly and use it to the to only…
• ▶ ~2:03:38…of water potentially be needed be based on the square footage of the building because it's gallons of orders that's generally needed for a data center so I'm trying to get an idea I know staff has some concerns but when we're looking at some potential growth challenges with access to Soaring water currently I'm just t…
• ▶ ~2:04:16…tage or the design it's a yeah it's actually based on the type of mechanical cooling equipment that's selected to most effectively cool the data center that's correct is there any consideration since we did rezone this a number of years ago this around for residential to have a combination of residential and Industrial…
• ▶ ~2:05:43…at would be the nearest residential units whether I'm thinking for the employees it would be separated uh this this would really be the the data center area would though be really kind of self-contained between the interstate the rail Corridor the existing Duke facility and Duke's high power line there there would be t…
• ▶ ~2:09:02…s so some things are while they might be unintended they they're not unforeseeable so it's our job to make sure that we mitigate those from data center is there any documentation or any study on that um I think we're happy to there's none that I'm aware of uh or their team is aware of again we'll be happy in follow-ups…
• ▶ ~2:09:52…lly communicate that and I'll I'll just reiterate um council member Johnson that I'm not aware of any adverse health effects as a result of data centers being in in existence and operating okay good that's good to know thank you move to close Mr Driggs okay thank you mayor Pro tem so we're talking about noise I'm wonde…
• ▶ ~2:11:30…s of older facilities that have raised some of those concerns over the years again as Mr Brown stated myself included I haven't worked on a data center project and my plan in Korea either so I haven't much don't have much experience with these either so I think that's why we're asking these questions so I think just un…
• ▶ ~2:14:40…rking with Sarah Hazel and what Phil Riga and his team with IC out and as y'all are having the conversations there is ways to build Greener data centers there are some options that are out there because we have seen across the nation some challenges with data centers in community so outside of just the water usage and…
• ▶ ~2:14:47…is ways to build Greener data centers there are some options that are out there because we have seen across the nation some challenges with data centers in community so outside of just the water usage and the electricity usage unfortunately in other areas there has been environmental impact for residents and some of th…
• ▶ ~2:16:15…wer in in areas of super you know and the close proximity that this has to uh Power transmission um it would be interesting to see how many data centers actually have that advantage or if it is a distance transmission that that does add to that so just interesting but um motion to close the public hearing any discussio…