WILMINGTON — Wilmington’s City Council decided not to vote on a rezoning plan that would allow additional land for the construction of a large data center.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, Amazon Web Services wants to build a nearly 500-acre, $4 billion data center off US-68 in Wilmington.
Now the city council wants to add another 545 acres to the plan.
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Thursday night was the city council’s second reading of the new rezoning plan.
Dozens of people attended the meeting to share their thoughts about the future of the city’s land.
However, they decided not to vote until its third reading.
“I think a lot of people agree there aren’t enough facts yet. There’s not been enough disclosure yet,” John Romer said.
Romer added that the council should look at the potential long-term impacts.
“It may be a bad business plan, but we’re rushing forward in the name of we have to do something. What if something is the wrong thing? We shouldn’t be doing it all,” he said.
Council member Kelly Tolliver commented on the possibility of approving the rezoning plan and building data centers during the meeting.
“Reopening older plants are going to be the bridge to get us to where we need to be. This country needs to triple its power output capacity. We know this. This is a space race. This is project Genesis,” Tolliver said.
Council President Bob Osborn also thought data centers could be a good idea for the city.
“I believe that it would not be a service to our community to ignore the opportunity,” he said.
The conversation mainly focused on the land behind the Timber Glen neighborhood.
Jessica Sharp lives in that neighborhood.
“You put two of them together, you know, you’re talking about significant cumulative effects on the neighborhoods around there,” she said.
After the meeting, News Center 7’s Malik Patterson spoke with Mayor Patrick Haley.
“What are you going to do as far as infrastructure if there’s a fire?” Patterson asked.
“We don’t know that, and I really left comment to council,” Haley responded.
Patterson also tried to speak with council member Jamie Knowles about delaying the vote.
“Nope, no, no, I don’t,” he said.
In two weeks, the city council will vote on whether to rezone the 500 acres.
The council already approved rezoning another 500 acres for Amazon’s data center.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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