The data center fight in Colleton County, South Carolina
As of October 1, 2026, Colleton County, South Carolina has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Jul 7, 2026; documented end date 2027-01-07).
Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.
Status today
6-month moratorium on special exceptions, conditional-use approvals, and other land-use/development approvals for data centers (Ordinance 26-O-04), adopted unanimously. Planning Commission separately approved a 'digital infrastructure overlay district' text amendment.
SourceRoundup
read 2026-08-12
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
Recent news
5 stories tracked since 2026-08-08 across 4 outlets. 4× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. 1× Local officials are moving to pause or block the project. Most recent: “Colleton County residents raise concerns over proposed data center, power plant projects” (abcnews4.com, 2026-09-23).
- Colleton County residents raise concerns over proposed data center, power plant projects
- Data center proposal concerns and questions about jobs and environment, prompt information sessions for Colleton County residents
- Colleton County approves new zoning changes to allow data center
- Colleton County approves controversial data center rules despite pushback
- Colleton County considering digital infrastructure overlay district, data center development
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 5 headlines archived.
Where the decision gets made
County Council — Zoning and land use (5 members, Council-Administrator). Unanimously adopted a 6-month moratorium on data-center approvals (Jul 7, 2026) via Ordinance 26-O-04. Planning Commission has approved a 'digital infrastructure overlay district' text amendment; council has final say.
Meets: 1st Monday of the month, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Council Chambers, Old Jail Building, 109 Benson Street, 2nd Floor, Walterboro, SC 29488
Public comment: Online comments at colletoncounty.org/public-comments. In-person comment available at meetings.
administration@colletoncounty.org · 843-549-1725 · website
Read from the official page on 2026-08-12. Meeting details change — confirm before you go.
What to do next
- Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
- Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in South Carolina.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- South Carolina briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in South Carolina
- Jasper County (38 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Orangeburg County (42 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-07-23
- Mount Pleasant (48 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Kershaw County (99 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Fairfield County (106 mi) — Proposedfixed term, end date not recorded
- Newberry County (109 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-07-16
- Chesterfield County (124 mi) — Enactedexpires 2028-01-01
- Greenwood County (124 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-07-21
All 14 tracked actions in South Carolina are on the state page.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.