Data center developer Eco TIP West has issued a legal challenge to a one-year moratorium imposed by Chatham County, North Carolina, in February.

The lawsuit, filed with the Chatham Superior Court on April 23, alleges that the County’s “decision to succumb to community pressure to adopt a 12-month moratorium on data centers” impacted the company’s property rights.

The one-year moratorium was approved by Chatham County in mid-February. According to its terms, it will expire by February 11, 2027, or “on approval of new zoning regulation” related to data center facilities.

The lawsuit’s claims include: challenging the validity of the moratorium, a request for a declaration that the moratorium violates North Carolina’s General Statutes, and a request for a declaration that Eco TIP West has rights in the data center project.

In the event that the moratorium is declared valid, the lawsuit also looks to carve out an exception to the moratorium for Eco TIP West’s data center proposal, as well as trying to recover damages and attorney’s fees.

They allege that sometime between October 2025 and January 2026, “County officials met behind closed doors with data center opponents and decided to stop all development of data centers in the County for at least one year.”

The lawsuit also claims that their attempts to carve out an exception for the project were ignored at a County Board of Commissioners meeting on February 11, 2026, and that a letter to the County Attorney about the same matter was denied “with no explanation or analysis.”

Eco TIP West says that it spent more than $11 million to develop a 750MW data center on a land parcel owned by the company called Triangle Innovation Point West. This is part of a larger business park called the Chatham County Moncure Megasite, and the parcel is located at the intersection of Pea Ridge Road and Old US 1.

Site plans submitted as part of the lawsuit show that the campus would consist of at least five buildings, each of which spans 223,400 sq ft (20,754 sqm).

The data center would be used, among other things, for cryptocurrency mining, according to the lawsuit.

The proposal has faced opposition from residents and County officials, citing concerns about a data center’s environmental and community impacts and the inadequacy of the current planning regime when dealing with data center projects.

Eco TIP West was founded in 2020 by Kirk J. Bradley, who is also the Chairman and CEO of real estate company Lee-Moore Capital Company.

Lee-Moore’s portfolio includes industrial, mixed-use, multi-family, office, residential, retail, and self-storage facilities. It is unclear whether the company has prior experience with data center builds.