Charlotte, NC: the Hood Road data center

The strongest public-record theme. Statutory community meeting held on Zoom only (12/18/2025); petitioner deferred its own hearing twice; Council voted 6-5 against even holding a data center hearing on 4/27/2026 with Mayor Vi Lyles breaking a 5-5 tie; then reversed and adopted a 150-day moratorium unanimously 11-0 on 6/8/2026. Charlotte is the largest US city to adopt one. The moratorium exempts already-approved projects, so Digital Realty's Moores Chapel campus and PowerHouse's University City campus proceed untouched. DIGITAL: charlotte data center moratorium peaked at 320 searches in June and has fallen to 70; charlotte data center petition and data center public hearing charlotte are negligible. The much larger signal is national: what is a data center moratorium went from zero to 1,000 a month, up 156% in three months, in the same months Charlotte adopted the first big-city moratorium. Local procedural search is small; Charlotte is generating the national version of it.

Anchored in state-level mechanics rather than this project. NCUC directed Duke to address loads over 100 MW; Duke's Large Load Tariff proposal is due September 2026 with a final order expected in fall. Gov. Stein and AG Jackson have publicly pressed Duke to make its data-center ratepayer pledge legally binding. Contemplated LLT mechanisms include minimum monthly billing, multi-year commitments and exit fees. DIGITAL: duke energy rate increase holds 590 searches a month, up 83% year over year and up 49% in three months, with no decay. The only steady, named, locally-owned term in the whole set. Duke's Large Load Tariff proposal is due September 2026, which should push it further.

Central to the moratorium debate. The City's own Water Director stated data centers 'are not priorities over citizens.' No cooling method, water source or projected consumption has been disclosed for Hood Road, a material gap. City-record comparators: PowerHouse University City at 1.2M gallons/day reclaimed (staff called the summer figure roughly 4,000 homes); Moores Chapel at 35,000 gallons/day. DIGITAL: Split signal. The generic national term how much water does a data center use runs 5,400 a month, up 2,983% year over year, but charlotte data center water usage returns no data at all, despite water being the strongest institutional concern in the public record. Scored on the generic term with that gap disclosed: residents search the category, not the local framing.

Proximity to Reedy Creek Nature Preserve and the residential character of the surrounding parcels. Present in resident testimony but not the organizing frame it became in Nashville. DIGITAL: Keyword evidence is the strongest in the market: reedy creek nature preserve runs 5,400 searches a month, up 1,977% year over year, stepping 13x between January and February 2026 and peaking at 14,800 in April, months before the moratorium. Confound noted: the preserve carries its own recreational baseline of roughly 390 a month, so the signal is the step change, not the level.

Raised in resident testimony at the May hearing. No noise study, no decibel commitment, and no generator specification has been published for this site. DIGITAL: are data centers loud runs 1,000 searches a month, up 1,614% year over year and still climbing 26% over three months. National rather than Charlotte-specific, but it is the fastest-rising concern term in the category set and no local noise study exists to answer it.

PROVISIONAL CATEGORY, not on the master list, flagged for sign-off. Unmistakably present and arguably this market's distinguishing feature. Council member Ajmera calls it 'an environmental justice issue'; activist Toni Mingo: 'Every time an African-American or Brown person moves forward, we are moved backward economically.' East Charlotte is the city's most racially and ethnically diverse quadrant. DIGITAL: PROVISIONAL CATEGORY. charlotte environmental justice data center returns no search volume at all, despite the framing being explicit in council debate and resident testimony. The concern is real in the record and absent from search, which is itself the finding: Charlotte residents search places and generic categories, not issue framings.

Present through organizing rather than rhetoric: the 4/21/2026 protest was organized by Charlotte's Party for Socialism and Liberation. Resident framing centers on a company that held no in-person meetings and declined to address the opposition group. DIGITAL: No dedicated search signal. The public-record evidence stands. The April protest was organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, but it does not show up in search behavior.

Moderate and mostly indirect. No documented NDA in Charlotte proper. The signal is process opacity, a Zoom-only statutory meeting, a declined invitation to address residents, and a complete absence of disclosed project specifics. Antoinette Mingo, on PowerHouse: 'We really didn't have a say in this.'. DIGITAL: No search signal. Process opacity is visible in the record, not in what people look up.

Weak-moderate and largely not local. Charlotte residents cited 'toxic chemicals in cooling systems'; Action NC raised potential chemical leaks. The only concrete health testimony located is from Catawba County, with no medical documentation and no air-quality measurements. DIGITAL: No Charlotte search signal. Consistent with the public record, where the only concrete health testimony comes from Catawba County.

Expressed fear only, and mostly sourced from outside Charlotte. No property-value study exists in the Charlotte record. The closest local testimony is groundwater remediation cost exposure rather than valuation. DIGITAL: data center property values charlotte returns no data. This was a falsifier for the opposite read and it came back clean: Property Values is a borrowed concern here, not a native one.