Commissioners narrowly approve Duke Energy gas storage rezoning
After a public hearing that stretched past 11:30 p.m. Monday, the Davidson County Board of Commissioners voted 4-3 to rezone roughly 1,600 acres along the Yadkin River, clearing a key local hurdle for a Duke Energy natural gas storage facility that drew hours of comment from residents on both sides.
The request, filed by Duke subsidiary Piedmont Natural Gas, changes the tract from rural agricultural zoning to a conditional heavy industrial district. The Davidson County site, at 3714 Giles Road in Lexington, would hold a liquefied natural gas storage facility — including three large tanks and related equipment — that would feed two gas-fired power plants Duke plans across the river in Davie County. A pipeline beneath the Yadkin would connect the two sides of what the company calls the Davie-Davidson Energy Complex.
The narrow margin reflects how divisive the project has become in a county that, only two weeks earlier, spent a contentious night debating data centers.
A long night of public comment
Speakers of all ages lined up to address the board, some urging approval and others pleading with commissioners to reject the rezoning or delay it. As of 10:30 p.m., the board still had not voted. One offered parting cynical “gifts” to ousted commissioners.
Opponents, organized in part by groups including Appalachian Voices and Clean Water for North Carolina, had spent weeks asking commissioners to defer the decision. They argued Duke had not yet produced complete studies on air quality, construction and operating noise, light pollution, traffic and water use, and that the board could not fully weigh the project's impacts without them. They also contend the heavy-industrial use departs from the county's land development plan, which is meant to protect rural areas.
Crystal Norford, an environmental organizer and researcher with Clean Water for North Carolina, has warned that emissions from the complex could push Davidson County past federal air-quality limits — a designation critics say could make it harder to recruit other industry.
Duke's case
Duke Energy says the complex is needed to meet rising electricity demand in the region and to make the grid more reliable. At the planning board hearing last month, a company official pointed to a winter episode in which demand outstripped available generation and roughly 500,000 customers lost power in freezing temperatures, arguing the new facilities would help prevent a repeat.
Many opponents say the additional generation is really needed to serve data centers. Duke disputes that, saying the growth is driven mostly by new manufacturing and people moving to the Carolinas.
Duke spokesperson Bill Norton has said the Davidson County storage facility is designed to help keep fuel costs down and improve reliability, and that the project will go through federal and state environmental review before construction — a process separate from the county's zoning decision.
How it got here
The Davidson County Planning Board recommended the rezoning 4-1 on Oct. 20 after a packed, hours-long hearing. Board members attached conditions covering lighting, buffers, road entrances and continued farming of undeveloped portions of the land, and asked Duke to widen buffer zones and restrict traffic; the company agreed.
On the other side of the river, Davie County officials determined that because the power plants are classified as public utilities, Duke can build them on agricultural and residential land without a rezoning, special use permit or public hearing. Residents and environmental groups are appealing that decision.
Monday's vote follows the board's Oct. 26 adoption of new zoning rules for data centers, when commissioners rejected a four-month moratorium sought by data center opponents after a heated hearing in which one person was removed from the meeting.
What's next
With the local rezoning approved, the project still faces state and federal environmental permitting before construction can begin. The Board of Commissioners' next regular meeting is Nov. 23 at 6 p.m.
