Compass Statesville (Iredell County) data center, Statesville, North Carolina

Compass Data Centers won approval for a data center campus on a 350-acre tract on Stamey Farm Road in western Iredell County, North Carolina, inside the City of Statesville: five 270,000-square-foot buildings backed by an investment the company put at more than $1 billion. The Statesville City Council voted unanimously on September 15, 2025 to approve the rezoning after more than two dozen people spoke against it, following a unanimous recommendation from both the Planning Board and city staff.

Sheila Shuford, a nurse living on Mount Hermon Road, told the Planning Board: "There's got to be a better place for it than in the middle of a community with three schools." Jeff Byers, of Greenwich Drive, said: "I don't trust anything a developer tells me. I don't trust anything a politician tells me." Thomas Hamel likened the project's 200 biodiesel backup generators to building a large bomb near a school, while Compass vice president Katy Hancock told the board the biodiesel burns 70 percent cleaner than standard diesel and that 40 percent of the 350 acres will stay open space.

On August 10, 2026 the council approved a first reading of a 180-day moratorium on new data center proposals; planning director Erika Martin said none is currently planned but the city has fielded inquiries and its development code does not address them. The moratorium does not cover the already-approved Compass project, and several speakers asked the council to add it in; Christian Smith called the pause a Trojan horse, and Jeff Tucker urged the council to "pull a rabbit out of the hat and put Stamey Farm Road back in it."

On September 14, 2026, the Statesville City Council unanimously approved the 180-day moratorium on new data centers at its second reading. It took effect that day and does not apply to the approved Compass project.