Zoning in Lee County, North Carolina: The New Data-Center Standards

One joint ordinance, not a separate county-only zoning code

Unlike a county that administers its own standalone zoning ordinance, Lee County's zoning runs through a single, joint Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) shared with the City of Sanford and the Town of Broadway, administered by the Zoning and Design Review Division. That structure means a Lee County parcel's zoning district, permitted uses, and any special standards -- including the new data-center category described below -- come from the same shared code that governs land inside Sanford and Broadway, rather than a county-only rulebook layered separately on top of municipal zoning. Confirm with the Zoning and Design Review Division which specific zoning district applies to your parcel under the current UDO before assuming a particular use is allowed.

Why a natural-gas well near Cumnock led to a new zoning category

The immediate trigger for Lee County's new data-center standards was a specific, named proposal: a company called Deep River Data sought to power a planned data center using gas drawn from Butler Well #3, an existing well drilled in 1998 near U.S. Highway 421 in the Cumnock community, close to the Lee-Chatham county line. Producing enough gas from that well to power a data center was reported to potentially require fracking -- and that prospect drew strong, organized opposition from residents both in Cumnock and across the county, including public petitions and packed Board of Commissioners meetings through the fall and winter of 2025-2026.

In response, the Lee County-Sanford-Broadway Joint Planning Commission spent the winter of 2025-2026 drafting a dedicated set of data-center land-use standards, which Community Development staff researched and wrote after the Deep River Data proposal surfaced. The resulting ordinance text amendment was adopted by the Lee County Board of Commissioners on April 20, 2026 and by the Sanford City Council on April 21, 2026 -- meaning it is now enacted, current law for the shared jurisdiction, not a pending or hypothetical proposal.

What the new standards actually require

As reported, the new data-center standards include real, specific design and performance requirements: a qualifying data center's main building must be constructed of brick, wood, stucco, sandstone, or native stone; the structure -- including any roof-mounted equipment -- cannot exceed 75 feet in height; operational noise must stay within a 60-to-70-decibel range, with compliance tested by consultants twice a year; and a data-center building must be sited farther from roads and residences than any other industrial use in the jurisdiction. Most directly relevant to the controversy that produced this ordinance, the standards also require that a qualifying data center source its power from a public utility rather than an on-site or dedicated well -- a provision reported as an effective ban on using fracked gas to directly power a data center within the jurisdiction.

For a buyer evaluating industrial-zoned or industrial-adjacent land in Lee County with a data-center or similarly large power-intensive use in mind, this means confirming the current, specific text of these standards directly with the Zoning and Design Review Division before assuming a project pencils out -- height, setback, noise, and power-sourcing requirements this specific are not generic industrial zoning, and they exist precisely because the jurisdiction wants to route this particular use away from on-site fossil-fuel generation. If your interest instead runs toward land near the Cumnock area or the Deep River / Sanford sub-basin generally, treat the underlying gas-well and mineral-rights question as a separate, ongoing issue from this zoning ordinance -- the standards described here govern how a data center itself may be built and powered, not whether drilling activity on a specific parcel is or isn't permitted.