PITTSBORO — A Superior Court judge has ruled that Eco TIP West may continue pursuing a proposed 750-megawatt data center campus in Chatham County despite the county’s temporary moratorium, according to the Triangle Business Journal and The News & Observer.
The publications reported that Judge John Morris concluded the Triangle Innovation Point West project may proceed despite the moratorium. The decision resolves the moratorium dispute for this project but is not a construction-start announcement.
Chatham County’s official legislative record shows that commissioners approved the 12-month moratorium on Feb. 11. It covers the permitting of data centers, data-processing facilities, cryptocurrency mining operations and related uses in unincorporated areas while the county develops more specific regulations.
The county record says its zoning ordinance requires a special-use permit for data-processing facilities in a Heavy Industrial district unless they are connected to public water and sewer, in which case they are allowed by right. County staff said the pause was intended to provide time to study operational impacts and define data centers and cryptocurrency mining as land uses.
The ruling permits the project to advance past the moratorium dispute; it does not establish that construction has begun. The cited sources do not identify an end user, total construction budget, financing, construction schedule or expected employment.