This week, citizens attended the Rowan County Commissioners meeting with concerns about a proposed data center in Rowan County. Watch for developments and continued information in your local paper coverage. Voters Speak has included excerpts from the 3/16/26 Post articles. Read the entire article at https://www.salisburypost.com/2026/03/17/online-petition-draws-ire-over-long-ferry-road-industrial-site/ We have also added links to two County Commissioner meetings. Petition link included at end of article.
The petition warns about physical changes to the mostly rural landscape, the threat of pollution and massive water usage, along with contaminant dumping and jeopardized environmental spaces.
The property in question is on both sides of Long Ferry Road, east of Interstate-85. The properties were sold in November last year for roughly $174 million to an entity called EDC Charlotte LLC. The given address for EDC Charlotte LLC lists a Darien, Connecticut, location.
(continued) …During a Rowan County Board of Commissioners meeting in 2024, the Rowan County Planning Board recommended a change to the Red Rock Development that would allow the developer to add “data centers” to the list of potential usages for the property.
A data center, as defined in the planning staff report, would allow for cloud storage for e-commerce businesses or other businesses or for crypto-currency mining. Senior Planner Shane Stewart, who handled the request, said that that type of change would typically only require a text amendment to the potential usages but that he decided to handle it as a rezoning so that nearby community members would be directly notified. A text amendment only requires notice in the newspaper but a rezoning requires the notice to be mailed to all neighbors that would be affected by the change.
“Public hearings did not just take place in 2024,” Church said. “There have been eight public hearings on this property. Starting in 2022, folks have known something was coming out there.”
Edds added, “Red Rock showed up with us in about 2021. It was all about industrial (development). In 2024, they said how do you feel about data centers? We said we were open to that as well. There was not all this angst back then about data centers. We just saw them as good investments which would be good for this county.”
Edds indicated that concerns surrounding a possible data center are not all that surprising.
“It is typical of those projects,” Edds said of data centers. “It does not matter if we are talking about San Francisco, or Michigan, or Pennsylvania, or North Carolina. There are issues that seem to be popular to talk about. Some are real and issues that we need to address.”
A request for an interview with Edged was not returned by the Salisbury Post press deadline.
VIDEO ADDITION: Public comments and response, Commissioners Meeting, 3/16/26
Coverage from Salisbury Post of meeting – 319/26 – https://www.salisburypost.com/2026/03/19/rowan-county-chair-edds-engages-with-citizens-against-data-center-project/
VIDEO ADDITION: Earlier Special called meeting, 9/29/25, Commissioners Meeting.
Read more at: https://www.salisburypost.com/2026/03/17/online-petition-draws-ire-over-long-ferry-road-industrial-site/