The Town of Pittsboro Board of Zoning Appeals voted to approve a special exception on Thursday night clearing the way for a natural-gas-fired power plant built specifically to feed a data center campus, over the objections of residents who packed the meeting to voice concerns about noise and living next to the project. The vote split 3-2, with three members signing off on the exception alongside conditions and commitments while two members voted no.
The decision, reached after a hearing that ran from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and included a lengthy stretch of community public comment, covers a data center campus site that has been in the works since 2025, according to Fox 59. That outlet reports the broader property spans 625 acres and currently permits both a data center campus and other industrial uses, with the special exception itself requested for a 265-acre area within that campus. A separate account of the application's own figures, published by The Republican Newspaper, lists the total land area as approximately 625 acres and the special-exception area as approximately 264 acres — a discrepancy the available records do not resolve.
Board members held a question-and-answer portion during Thursday's meeting as part of their review, Fox 59's report indicates. Residents who spoke out described concerns ranging from noise disruption to broader environmental worries, with several saying outright that they were uncomfortable with the idea of living next to the campus.
What the Application Actually Proposes
According to application materials described by The Republican Newspaper, the project is framed as a way to construct and operate an onsite natural-gas-fired electric power generation facility meant to serve the reliability and phased generation needs of the already-approved data center campus. The same materials state that the facility uses no process water and requires no groundwater, a detail the applicant appears to have emphasized to address environmental questions.
The gas plant proposal builds on groundwork laid last year, when a 2025 Pittsboro Town Council meeting approved rezoning former farmland to make room for the data center campus itself, per Fox 59's reporting. That earlier rezoning decision is distinct from Thursday's special-exception vote, which dealt specifically with the power-generation facility rather than the data center buildings.
Part of a Broader Indiana Pattern
Pittsboro's gas-plant fight is not happening in isolation. The Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute projects that data-center electricity demand statewide will jump from about 1 terawatt-hour in 2025 to more than 6.5 terawatt-hours by 2030, and the institute notes that utilities across the state are largely proposing new natural-gas-fired power plants to keep pace. The Indianapolis Star has similarly reported that some Indiana utilities are planning new gas plants and battery storage buildouts specifically to meet the rush of incoming data centers.
The noise concerns raised by Pittsboro residents echo a pattern the Environmental Resilience Institute has tracked elsewhere in the state, where communities near data-center projects have raised concerns about noise from cooling systems, backup diesel generators, heating, and ventilation equipment. As of July 2026, 11 Indiana counties had already passed ordinances establishing planning, design, and reporting requirements specifically for data centers, the institute's fact sheet notes.
Similar Fights Playing Out Elsewhere
Pittsboro's split vote mirrors contentious outcomes in other states grappling with the same energy question. In Davidson County, North Carolina, commissioners approved Duke Energy's rezoning request for a liquefied natural gas storage facility by a similarly narrow 4-3 vote, as reported by Carolina Public Press. That same outlet noted that North Carolina's Utilities Commission had blocked a separate Duke gas-plant proposal in Richmond County in September, calling the permit application premature while regulators reviewed the utility's broader resource plan.
Not every community has gone along with similar requests. In Iowa, Linn County supervisors unanimously rejected Alliant Energy's rezoning request for a proposed natural-gas plant after nearly four hours of public comment, according to Inside Climate News. Within Indiana itself, Inside INdiana Business has reported that the Pittsboro Town Council's original rezoning of the 626-acre data center site passed unanimously after a 4-1 recommendation from the Advisory Plan Commission, and that a separate 391-acre data-center site in northern Morgan County also won unanimous rezoning approval from county commissioners.
Pittsboro's special-exception process itself follows rules laid out by the Town of Pittsboro, which requires applicants to submit complete applications by 4 p.m. four weeks before a desired hearing date and charges a $550 application fee. Any written commitments tied to Thursday's approval must be recorded with the Town of Pittsboro Recorder before a building permit can be issued, per the town's application requirements.
