Data Center Decision Comes Thursday for Fayetteville Council

The Fayetteville mayor and city council will decide Thursday whether to overturn a Planning and Zoning Commission decision blocking a proposed 300,000-square-foot data center on Highway 85 North.

The vote follows the Planning and Zoning Commission’s denial of the conceptual site plan January 27. The developer, CHI Acquisitions LP, appealed the decision, sending the matter to the City Council for a final ruling.

The proposed facility would sit on roughly 37 acres along Highway 85 North behind the commercial corridor that includes Target, Home Depot and PetSmart. The wooded tract is also near the Roberts Road landfill and an auto salvage yard. The property has been owned since 2008 by Highway 85 Ventures LLC.

Plans call for a two-story, 300,000-square-foot data center building and 255 parking spaces. The site is currently zoned Business Park, which at the time the application was filed was Fayetteville’s zoning category that permitted data centers.

Supporters of the project have argued the zoning classification allowed data centers when the application was submitted and that the proposal meets the city’s technical requirements. Opponents have raised concerns about energy use, environmental impacts and whether the facility fits with surrounding development.

Sources familiar with the zoning process told The Citizen that denying a project that complied with the city’s zoning rules at the time it was filed could expose the city to legal challenges.

Since the application was filed, Fayetteville officials have taken steps to prevent similar projects in the future. In early March, the City Council voted to remove data centers as a permitted use from all zoning categories within city limits. Because the CHI application was submitted before that change, it remains eligible for consideration.

Thursday’s vote will determine whether the Planning and Zoning Commission’s denial stands or whether the project can move forward in the city’s development review process.

The Fayetteville City Council meeting begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 19, at City Hall.