The data center fight in Newberry County, South Carolina
Newberry County has an active data center moratorium on this tracker. 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
12-month moratorium on accepting new data-center permits, confirmed unanimously after the council unanimously denied the 'Project Altair' land-sale ordinance in June. Staff directed to research appropriate locations for future data-center development.
Source
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
- Residents press county on data center rules at information session
- Moratorium on data centers put in effect after Newberry County residents raise concerns
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 2 headlines archived.
Where the decision gets made
County Council — Land use and zoning (7 members, Council-Administrator). Unanimously denied 'Project Altair' land-sale ordinance (Jun 2026) and confirmed a 12-month moratorium on new data-center permits (Jul 16, 2026). Staff directed to research where data centers would be appropriate.
Meets: 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Newberry County Courthouse Annex, 1309 College Street, Newberry, SC 29108
Public comment: Sign up before the meeting begins. Contact the county office (803-321-2100) for details.
803-321-2100 · 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.
Elsewhere in South Carolina
- Colleton County — Enactedexpires 2027-01-07
- Spartanburg County — Enactedexpires 2027-06-22
- York County — Enactedexpires 2027-04-13
As of August 2026 · 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.