Charlotte staff left City Council in dark on data center task force: ‘Ridiculous’
Charlotte’s long-anticipated data center task force was scheduled to convene in quiet on Thursday without the knowledge of the City Council or, really, anybody outside city staff and handpicked participants.
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The City Council passed a 150-day moratorium on new data center developments in June, giving city staff until at least November to come up with policy recommendations on how the city can regulate them without running afoul of state law. The council also supported the creation of a task force to work with staff on the issue.
The city was still actively recruiting participants on the morning of the group’s first planned meeting. It’s not clear whether the city held the meeting or whether it followed appropriate public meeting notification laws. Public meetings laws not only apply to the Charlotte City Council, but also to appointed boards created by the city.
“The first two meetings are TODAY, Thursday July 9th and July 23rd. Are you available and willing to serve on the committee?” Heather Bolick, Charlotte’s chief sustainability and resiliency officer, inquired in a recruitment email shared with The Charlotte Observer.
City Council members weren’t aware the task force was convening, much to their frustration. In an email chain shared with the Observer, council members told Bolick and other top officials they were disappointed by the process and felt the city lacked clear internal procedures.
Councilman JD Mazuera Arias represents District 5 in east Charlotte, where the American Tower Corporation’s proposed data center in a residential area galvanized data center opposition. Mazuera Arias told the Observer he didn’t learn about the task force until Thursday, the same day as its initial meeting.
Mazuera Arias said the city might select “an echo chamber of people” to reinforce its thinking without an open process. He still doesn’t know who’s on the task force.
“We do have a lack of communication problem within the city,” Mazuera Arias said. “This is not calculus or algebra. This is basic fundamentals of how you create a task force. The way it was created is not how you go about it.”
Mazuera Arias said the city should course correct, which means pausing the task force and restarting with advance notice and the chance for anybody, including impacted residents, to apply.
At-large Councilwoman Dimple Ajmera called for the city to be transparent on how it selects participants and to ensure meaningful community participation.
Ajmera helped lead the charge to pass a moratorium. She lives down the road from the proposed data center near Reedy Creek Nature Center and Preserve in District 5.
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“From the very beginning, I’ve said the process has to earn the public’s trust,” Ajmera said in a written statement. “That’s why I called for a stakeholder working group, and why Council unanimously approved the 150-day pause—to give us time to listen, study the facts, and develop thoughtful policy, not rush decisions behind closed doors.”
Kimberly Owens, who represents District 6 in south Charlotte, said Deputy City Manager Alyson Craig called her Wednesday afternoon to see if she had a task force suggestion from her district. Owens didn’t realize the group would meet the next day.
She told the Observer it would make more sense to focus on the corridors where data centers are popping up. Her district is not one of those corridors.
“It’s one thing to say that you’re doing a public forum and soliciting public input, but it’s another thing to actually facilitate that input,” Owens said. “It didn’t appear each district was asked for a representative for (the task force).”
Mazuera Arias said City Council members are in touch with city staff to figure out what happened and how they can proceed.
“While I am disappointed, this is an opportunity for us to learn and improve the way we go about these scenarios and initiatives,” Mazuera Arias said. “City staff have been hard at work to make sure we are answering the right policy questions. This fell through the cracks.”
Robert Dawkins, political director of nonprofit Action NC, called the meetings “ridiculous” because they excluded groups like his that were key in mobilizing people on the issue. Dawkins emailed the city on June 23 asking for an update on when a formal data center committee or public input process would be established. He never heard back.
“None of us are getting called to the table,” Dawkins said. “And if we do get accepted, it’s like Mission Impossible. We’ve got 30 minutes to accept this offer, or this message will self-destruct.”
Dawkins learned about the task force secondhand on Thursday from somebody who was asked to participate.
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