Buncombe County, NC Data Centers & Crypto Mining: Data Center Noise Limits (2026)

Sec. 78-678(a)(6) sets the operating standards a non-crypto-currency data center must meet as a "use by right, subject to special requirements" in the Commercial Service, Employment, Public Service and Airport Industry districts under Table 1 of Sec. 78-641; the code defines a data center as a facility of 5,000 square feet or greater housing computer servers and related equipment for remote data storage or processing, and treats anything smaller as an ordinary manufacturing and processing operation. Before construction, the applicant must commission a sound study establishing a noise baseline for the site, and the project design must include mitigation so that noise from the data center and its associated equipment never exceeds that baseline, with a hard outer ceiling of 55 dBA at any time of day measured at the property lines.

All operations must be fully enclosed within a building, and no HVAC unit, cooling system or generator may sit closer than 100 feet to a residentially-zoned property line or to a residential structure. , protecting nearby residents from overnight generator noise. A data center sited in the CS-Commercial Service district carries an added screening duty: mechanical equipment must be concealed from every road frontage using solid architectural screening or a commercial landscaping buffer, so rooftop or side-yard cooling equipment cannot be visible from the street.