Buncombe County, NC Data Centers & Crypto Mining: Data Center Zoning & Siting (2026)

Sec. 78-678(a)(6) sets the special requirements a non-crypto-currency data center must meet to operate as a use by right in the districts where Table 1 allows it: Commercial Service, Employment, Public Service, and Airport Industry. A developer must first commission a pre-construction sound study to establish a noise baseline, then build in sound mitigation so the facility never exceeds 55 dBA measured at the property lines, at any time of day. The entire operation has to be enclosed within a building, no open-air server yards or exposed equipment.

Cooling infrastructure is restricted too: no HVAC system, cooling system, or generator can sit closer than 100 feet to a residentially-zoned property line or to a residential structure, which pushes the noisiest equipment away from neighboring homes regardless of the base district's setback. , protecting nearby residents from nighttime generator noise. In the Commercial Service district specifically, the ordinance goes further and requires that mechanical operations be concealed from all road frontages with solid architectural screening or commercial landscaping buffers, so the facility can't leave its cooling and generator equipment visible from the street.

Under Sec. 78-581, a data center is defined as a facility of 5,000 square feet or greater; anything smaller is regulated instead as manufacturing and processing.