Terra Nexus Ventures Data Center, Camden, South Carolina

Terra Nexus Ventures, a Charlotte developer, withdrew its request to rezone 162 acres at 771 Park Road near Camden, in Kershaw County, South Carolina, for a data center in the fall of 2025, before the county council could vote on it. A year later, on September 22, 2026, Kershaw County Council unanimously passed a one-year moratorium on data centers, cryptocurrency mining and data processing facilities while it writes rules; the pause runs through September 22, 2027.

The data center was to go on vacant land across from the county landfill, about 30 miles northeast of Columbia. The company said it was working with Black River Electric Cooperative and Santee Cooper to secure power, and representatives told planners they would build two warehouses to hold computer servers, employing 10 to 15 people.

The rezoning would have moved the land from a rural residential district to general development, which allows a wide range of residential, retail, industrial and commercial uses. The county Planning Commission recommended it unanimously on September 8, 2025. Terra Nexus's founders, Hemal Badiani and Brandon Maxwell, are affiliated with the investment firm Sage Equity.

Neighbors spoke against it at the September 2025 council meeting. "There are a lot of factors we don't have any guidelines for in our community," said Lynne Conto, who lives near the site, and another resident raised water use and electricity consumption. Councilman Derek Shoemake warned that if the data center fell through, "now you have 100 acres that can be used for anything."

Councilman Brant Tomlinson, whose district includes the site, said he told the developers he opposed it, citing how much water data centers can use. "I'm glad that they withdrew it," Tomlinson said after the withdrawal. "The community concerns are heard." Andrew Yablonski, who lives less than a mile away, said of data centers: "There's no service, there's no product, there's nothing." The developers did not respond to requests to explain why they withdrew.

The moratorium passed its first reading on August 25, 2026, its second on September 8 and its third unanimously. "And that'll give us a year to look into things and see where we need to go from there," Councilmember Danny Catoe said. Counties across the Upstate and Midlands are passing similar one-year pauses, and Colleton and Fairfield counties are considering them.

Any new data center proposal in the county would now wait for the rules Kershaw County Council writes during the one-year pause. Shoemake has said data centers "may be a good use in the right zoning districts in Kershaw County" if water and the grid can be properly managed.