A developer has withdrawn its proposal for a 250MW data center in Apex, North Carolina.

Natelli Investments LLC had proposed the construction of four 200,000 sq ft (18,580 sqm) data centers on an 89-acre site adjacent to the Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant.

The company claimed that the ‘New Hill Digital Campus’ would have created 5,800 construction jobs over the build period, as well as $20.7 million in tax revenue for local, county, and state governments.

But fierce opposition from residents and the local government has led the company to back out on Thursday, according to several reports and a statement issued by Apex’s Mayor Pro Tempore Terry Mahaffey on his Substack.

“And now that Apex has no active data center applications, at the next meeting on March 10th, I’ll be putting forward a motion to set a one-year moratorium on any further applications, permits, or construction of data centers in Apex,” said Mahaffey.

Mahaffey’s post has a poll at the bottom where readers can vote for or against this proposal.

“This will give us the time we need to finish the work that we started, to update the [Unified Development Ordinance], to put firm rules in place to ensure that any future applicants [do] not harm the health, the well-being, or the quality of life of any existing Apex resident.”

Natelli told WRAL News that it would “determine an appropriate course of action, if in the future, the town of Apex ultimately approves a comprehensive zoning text amendment allowing data centers as an approved use within the town's limits.”

Members of an anti-data center public Facebook group titled ‘Protect Wake County Coalition’ were pleased with the result, and many seem broadly in favor of imposing a temporary moratorium.

Little information about Natelli Investments LLC is available online. It is likely linked to Natelli Communities, a developer of residential and commercial property that operates in the southeast US.

Apex is located on the outskirts of Raleigh, one of North Carolina’s main cities. Most of the state’s data centers, however, are located in and around Charlotte.