Lynne M Taylor
Mooresville NC resident for over 20 years
Author’s Note: As in the original article[1] and follow up article[2], my goal is to help inform you, the Iredell County/Mooresville City taxpayers, better understand what’s at stake in this battle of homeowners vs big technology. LMT
Investors Vs Citizens:
Here in NC, the Economic Development Partnership for NC (EDP-NC) has a headline pertaining to Amazon[3] investing about $10 billion dollars into Richmond County, NC. The purpose? AI (Artificial Intelligence ‘support’)
Here’s an excerpt. “Amazon’s decision to invest in North Carolina speaks volumes about the strength of our technology ecosystem and the confidence global companies have in what our state offers,” said Christopher Chung, CEO of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina.
Also from the EDP-NC, is a 2023, Quarter 4 Report which details that “In Q4 2023, North Carolina’s economic development community reported 41 economic development projects across the state. Reported projects contributed a total of 5,580 announced jobs and $9.9 billion in announced investment.” The ‘shocker’ is that along with other projects, “Data Center projects
accounted for the largest percentages of total announced investment.”
This figure doesn’t account for the foreign money pouring into NC for ‘economic development’.
According to the same Quarter 4 Report, foreign investments in the Tar Heel State equal ‘$448.32 million.’
Questions? Please contact [email protected] 919.447.7779
If you’re curious about other States with Economic Development Partnerships (as the Data Centers are all across the US), you can find the information from the International Economic Development Council[4]. NC belongs to the Southern Region based council[5] near Atlanta, GA.
As far as the taxpayer’s burden of seeing data centers come in and take over land, natural resources, etc. The cost isn’t so easy to track down. Our national economy is in a tailspin, the NC state budget is also a very complex issue. Data centers are poised to become a potential quagmire of issues for each individual location’s tax base. The mainstream media, as well as the economic supporters are spinning data centers as a ‘win-win’ for everyone. But, are they? With taxes going up and incomes unchanging, what further strains will local public services face with an increase in demand for data center energy/water and emergency services? This article[6] suggests that data centers are more likely to cause out of control spending among the States they are located in, putting State budgets in a further sensitive position. Does that sound like a ‘win-win’? Don’t forget that the reason Tract is even entertaining building a data center in Iredell County is because the tax incentives NC offers businesses was too good to ignore!
Speaking of Iredell County, the tax breaks for businesses are many, as well as the tax rate for the county, when compared to other surrounding counties. Not only does Iredell offer ‘exemptions’[7] for businesses like Tract, but these will more than likely be combined with the STATE level exemptions (aka: tax breaks).
NC’s Three Data Center Tax Breaks:
According to the NC Department of Commerce[8] data centers are given 3 big tax breaks for setting up ‘shop’ in NC. Electricity and support equipment purchased for ‘data centers’; electricity and business property purchased for ‘data centers’ and computer software at the ‘data center’. So, how does NC define a ‘data center’? Directly from their website, “A facility that provides infrastructure for hosting or data processing services and is concurrently maintainable. The power and cooling systems serving the computer equipment must include redundant capacity components and multiple distribution paths. Although the facility must have multiple distribution paths serving the computer equipment, a single distribution path may serve the computer equipment at any one time.”
Be sure to visit the website (see footnote #7) to see what other tax breaks each city, county and business receive.
This brings up other questions for local citizens. What tax breaks do private citizens receive? Are data centers ‘recession proof’? Who pays for any losses to the local economy? Is it via taxes from our property? Is it via corporate taxes by Tract?
What about disaster recovery if a data center experiences a breakdown? There are direct costs and indirect costs that are related and will impact the entire community. For example, costs per day to restore a center. Is the center tied to local emergency services, if so, how many lives would be at risk if a data center ‘crashed’? What if people should need to evacuate the area?
Would data center employees and staff have escape services provided, while citizens would be ‘on their own’? What about the City of Mooresville or the Iredell County plans for data center disasters, will the public get to weigh in? Have any plans been drawn up? What’s the process?
What about the damages to the natural resources or native plants and animals?
Citizens are being asked to weigh in and share why a data center is a bad idea, here, you have several questions which haven’t been addressed.
We cannot entertain the thought of a massive industrial data center in our backyard if there’s no detail for emergencies. Especially when you consider the area this Tract center will be placed.
Dgtl Infra’s website[9] has this to say about the costs of building data centers, “As a general rule, it costs between $600 to $1,100 per gross square foot or $7 million to $12 million per megawatt of commissioned IT load to build a data center.”
Will this mean that the citizens, City of Mooresville and/or Iredell County somehow absorb this? How is this sustainable for individual citizens to bear? What other resolutions/technical guidance documents/local ordinances and/or state law have to be changed to align to a massive data center company?
Drones and Data Centers?
Did you know that the Mooresville Fire-Rescue Department has a Drone Team? This program began in 2016. According to its most recent report[10], “The Drone Team also captures fonts and videos of Town events, parades, festivals, concerts, and Town Projects”. These drones also work with the Police Department to locate missing persons, runaways and stolen cars. The drones are especially helpful in locating thermal ‘hot spots’. In this same Report, a detailed map is featured to highlight future growth in the Mooresville area. To date, Mooresville has 6 Fire-Rescue stations with three more proposed. However, the question needing to be answered is this: These Fire-Rescue Stations are within City Limits, so will the Tract Data Center be within city limits? If so, what’s the expected travel time from the nearest Fire-Rescue Station to the Data Center?
The 3 proposed stations will be NC Hwy 115 and Langtree Road, NC Hwy 150 and Perth Road, Coddle Creek Hwy and Rocky River Rd. How close would the Coddle Creek/Rocky River station be from the proposed data center location?
While the Mooresville specific report doesn’t mention the connection between drones and data centers, there’s plenty of information available to see how the 2 are interdependent. Data Center Dynamics[11] has an article explaining that data centers can use drones for not only the center itself, but the surrounding area, learning algorithms of people and locations. Drones are robots. Robots that can be controlled by people who will need specialized training. So, how interconnected would the Mooresville Drone Team become with the Data Center team?
Since Mooresville is so close to the Charlotte Douglas International Airport, and some of its flight paths, how much interference would drones become to air traffic? APNews’s website[12] has reported that drones are becoming a more increased risk in this area. Should a data center fire break out, the FAA (Federal Aviation Agency)[13] has stated that fires and drones can become a deadly mix.
The Takeaway
In the 3 articles that I’ve researched and written to share with the local people of Iredell County/City of Mooresville, you should see a distinctive pattern of more questions than answers when it comes to Tract and its proposed data center. We’ve also experienced a distinct pattern that the leaders of our local government are not answering these questions. We must continue to reach out to our local government and share any and all research to expose just how bad an idea a data center is for Mooresville. We must continue to help share knowledge with our family, friends and neighbors. Data centers are popping up everywhere and threaten our ways of living peacefully.
About the Author:Lynne’s spoken out about education’s demise since 2000. Her published articles have been featured by American Policy Center and others. Lynne is a respected expert who has worn awards for her advocacy for families and their children in education. Finally, Lynne has been featured on hundreds of radio broadcasts, podcasts and conferences. Contact: [email protected]
[1] https://iredellstandingfortruth.com/2025/06/30/mooresville-data-center-what-were-not-being-told/
[2] https://iredellstandingfortruth.com/2025/07/21/mooresville-nc-land-vs-technology-a-follow-up-on-the-proposed-mooresville-data-center/
[3] https://edpnc.com/news/aws-announcement/
[4] https://www.iedconline.org/pages/state-regional-and-provincial-association-partners/
[5] https://www.sedc.org/
[6] https://goodjobsfirst.org/cloudy-with-a-loss-of-spending-control-how-data-centers-are-endangering-state-budgets/
[7] https://iredelledc.com/business-advantages/taxes-incentives/local-incentives/
[8] https://www.commerce.nc.gov/grants-incentives/tax-other-cost-savings#Manufacturing-298
[9] https://dgtlinfra.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-data-center/
[10] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://cms5.revize.com/revize/mooresvillenc/Site%2520Documents/Fire/MFR%25202023%2520Annual%2520Report.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjt68KJ3N2OAxWXnGoFHVKdFQMQFnoECBYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2-9USAr6muviv-SgE-8hCy
[11] https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/analysis/drones-at-and-even-in-a-data-center/
[12] https://apnews.com/article/drones-risk-airports-planes-safety-collisions-d8bb7192173d90b46258c91152454cf3
[13] https://flightsafety.org/drone-interference/
