South Carolina county passes first reading on data center moratorium

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South Carolina county passes first reading on data center moratorium<br>Michael M. DeWitt, Jr.Bluffton Today

May 10, 2026, 5:04 a.m. ET

Colleton County Council approved the first reading of a six-month moratorium on data center development.<br>The temporary ban follows citizen concerns and a lawsuit over a proposed 800-plus-acre data center in a rural area.<br>This moratorium allows officials time to review land use codes and where data centers might be appropriately located.<br>In the wake of citizen concerns and vocal opposition, including a pending lawsuit filed by two landowners, a South Carolina Lowcountry county has approved first reading on a data center moratorium.<br>Plans for a proposed 800-plus-acre data center to be located in a rural portion of Colleton County, as well as any future plans for other data centers there, were put on hold Monday night by the Colleton County Council.<br>The council voted unanimously during this May 4 meeting to approve first reading of a moratorium related to data center approvals and development, reported Colleton County officials.<br>The reading was titled: "First Reading of An Ordinance Imposing a Moratorium on the Consideration and Issuance of Special Exceptions, Conditional Use Approvals and all Other Land Use or Development Approvals for Data Centers."

This ordinance imposes a six-month moratorium on data center approvals and considerations, but may be extended if needed, to give the county council, county staff, and the county Planning Commission adequate time to review and consider amendments to the land use code.<br>The moratorium also allows Colleton County officials to review areas where data centers may be allowed, either as a special exemption or a conditional use, and the conditions under which they can be developed.

S.C. county ordinances require approval of three readings at three separate meetings. There is no date set for the second reading at this time, said Martha Thompson, Clerk to Council.<br>This was welcome news to many opponents of the proposed data center, including the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC).<br>“We were encouraged to see Colleton County Council take the first step in adopting this six-month moratorium on data center development while they update the county’s Comprehensive Plan and consider further amendments to the Land Use Code to guide future data center development," said SELC Policy Advocate Robby Maynor in a statement to The Hampton County Guardian. "Colleton County residents and stakeholders from across the Lowcountry have made clear that data centers do not belong in the ACE Basin. This moratorium appears to be a step in the right direction to ensure that if data centers are built in Colleton County, they are appropriately sited to limit impacts on communities and natural resources. We will continue to monitor this ordinance as it is adopted and look forward to reviewing proposed changes to the Comprehensive Plan and Land Use Code as they are made available to the public.”

What is a data center moratorium, and what does it do?<br>A data center moratorium is a temporary or permanent legal halt on the construction or expansion of new data centers and can be imposed by local, state or federal governments.<br>Moratoriums in other areas have been passed to give officials time to assess the possible and potential impacts of massive energy consumption, water usage and land utilization on local communities and power grids, as well as, on a broader level, study the impacts of artificial intelligence on employment, job security and the human workforce.

An “Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act” was introduced in the U.S. Senate in late March, and a data center moratorium was also introduced in the S.C. Legislature in late February. Both are still in legislative progress and pending approval.<br>As of April 2026, at least 12 states and 100 local governments have introduced or passed similar moratorium acts or ordinances.<br>What are the details of the proposal concerning the Colleton County data center?<br>SELC recently provided The Hampton County Guardian and the USA TODAY Network - South Carolina with several key facts and talking points on the proposed data center.<br>Thomas & Hutton, an engineering firm based in Savannah, Ga, and Eagle Rock Partners, a project development and construction company based in Charlotte, N.C., are requesting a “special exception” from the Colleton County Board of Zoning Appeals (ZBA) to allow a data center on 850 acres of rural timberland currently owned by Weyerhaeuser.<br>The property is located on Cooks Hill Road, south of Walterboro in the ACE Basin.<br>The site plan shows nine large industrial buildings on the property surrounded by wetlands.<br>There are over 200 acres of wetlands on the property. The site plan suggests the complex would require the filling of 1.5 acres of wetlands.<br>The property is part of a larger 2,600-acre tract owned by...