‘We Were Deceived’: Inside Lee County, North Carolina’s $900 Million Data Center Fight

North Carolina’s zoning framework allows counties to grant “general-use” rezonings — broad reclassifications, often into light-industrial or similar categories, that don’t require an applicant to disclose a specific end use. Unlike a “conditional” rezoning, where a developer commits to a defined site plan tied to the approval, a general-use rezoning simply changes what the underlying zoning district permits. Any use allowed in that district then becomes legal by right.

In August 2025, Lee County commissioners approved exactly that kind of rezoning for roughly 430 acres on Lower Moncure Road. The application, filed by Trustwell, described the request in generic terms. Nowhere in the text did it use the words “data center.” Ten months later, residents learned that the same parcel would host a $900 million, 90-megawatt hyperscale-class facility. The gap between what was approved on paper and what is now being built has become the entire basis for the petition.

On June 8, 2026, Virginia-based PointOne Data Centers publicly revealed that the Lower Moncure Road parcel was intended for a $900 million, 90-megawatt data center campus, developed under contract with Dallas-based CyrusOne — one of the largest wholesale colocation operators in the United States. Ninety megawatts is roughly the load of a mid-sized suburb, and the 430-acre footprint suggests room for multiple buildings and future phases.

On June 25, 2026, the joint Sanford/Lee County/Broadway Technical Review Committee reviewed the site plan at a virtual meeting. The TRC is a staff-level body that assesses technical compliance — roads, utilities, stormwater — not a political forum, and it does not itself approve or deny a project.

On July 13, 2026, the Lee County Board of Commissioners held its regular meeting to a standing-room crowd of roughly 150 attendees. Approximately 40 residents used the public-comment period to oppose the project. Because the PointOne site was not on the agenda as an action item, no vote was taken.

The Change.org petition, which passed 2,500 signatures by July 15, makes two specific demands: an immediate moratorium on new data center approvals in Lee County, and the release of all public records tied to the original 2025 rezoning application. The petition, hosted on Change.org, states that residents were “deceived” by an application process that never mentioned the ultimate end use of the land.

“We were deceived. The rezoning application never mentioned a data center. We are asking Lee County commissioners to pause any further approvals and release all public records related to this rezoning so residents can see exactly what was and wasn’t disclosed.”

Lee County is not an isolated case. Across 2026, several county-level bodies have either rejected, paused, or forced the withdrawal of large data center rezonings. Prince William County, Virginia commissioners voted 8–0 on July 7, 2026 to reject the roughly 1,940-acre Dulles South Innovation Center — a decision PlaceAcre covered in Virginia County Rejects 2,000-Acre Data Center Plan. Hoffman Estates, Illinois saw its Plum Farms developer withdraw its rezoning request on July 1, 2026 after a packed opposition hearing. St. Charles County, Missouri approved a six-month moratorium on new data center applications, and New Kent County, Virginia voted that a proposed ~1,800-acre technology overlay district should not proceed in its current form.

The contrast with jurisdictions still saying yes is stark. In Ohio, Meta’s existing campus continues to expand, as covered in Meta’s Ohio Data Center Keeps Growing: Wood County Approves 71 More Acres. The through-line: how much a county already knew about a project when it first said yes.

As of this writing, no formal Lee County response to the public-records request has been made public, and no commissioner has been reported publicly committing either to a moratorium vote or to blocking the project. PlaceAcre has not independently confirmed any commissioner’s private position and does not attribute one here. The record so far is limited to what has been said during public meetings and to what county staff have processed procedurally via the Technical Review Committee.

For owners of nearby parcels along Lower Moncure Road and the broader Sanford-area corridor, a proposed 90-megawatt data center creates two competing pressures. On one hand, hyperscale-adjacent land has historically commanded significant premiums in other markets — a dynamic PlaceAcre has covered in prior reporting. On the other, active rezoning disputes, permitting uncertainty, and the possibility of a county-imposed moratorium can temporarily depress buyer interest and complicate financing. The honest answer for any specific parcel is: it depends on how close, what zoning it currently carries, and whether the project ultimately proceeds. This is an illustrative discussion of the pattern, not a specific appraisal.

See what PlaceAcre buyers are seeing across North Carolina land →

Three developments are worth watching. First, whether the Technical Review Committee’s staff-level review surfaces conditions — road capacity, water, stormwater, substation interconnection — that materially alter the site plan. Second, whether Lee County formally responds to the petition’s public-records request, and what those records show about how the August 2025 rezoning was described internally. Third, whether commissioners schedule a formal moratorium vote, as at least four other counties have done in 2026.

PlaceAcre will update this story as new developments are confirmed on the public record.