The Stokes County Commissioners held a public hearing on whether to approve the 1,800-acre Project Delta Data Center on 1/12/25. They sold out their constituents.
Commissioners Rick Morris, Keith Wood, and Sonya Cox voted yes, while Brad Chandler and Wayne Barneycastle voted no.
These are notes, opinion and media collected by Debra Demske.
I'm sorry to report that the Stokes County Board of Commissioners granted the request for rezoning.
Paul, John, Lara and I weren't able to hear most of the meeting very well, but I'll recap what I can. I attached links for the meeting and for the scene outside the meeting.
John, Paul and I arrived at the government center ~5:30. There were only a couple of parking spots and we were very lucky to find one. There were many people protesting and talking in the parking lot and on the lawn around the building, it was almost festive.
Inside, the entry hallway was packed. We saw Erika (CWFNC) and Aidan (7 Directions Of Service) and they told us about how packed it was and that there were 5 pages of speakers signed up. They told us the hearing room was on the 2nd floor and didn't hold many people and was full for some time. There was an overflow room on the 3rd floor, all the seats were taken and there were about 100 people standing. They talked about how hot the rooms were.
We milled in the hall downstairs because it was cold outside. I might have misunderstood but I thought someone said that no more speakers could sign up because there were already too many. At any rate we didn't sign up to speak.
Paul wandered off outside to check out the scene. When he tried to re-enter, he was told there were too many people inside and he wasn't allowed back in.
Two extremely friendly firemen (fire marshals?) told the crowd in the hallway that we'd have to leave the hallway and go outside because of the emergency hazard (strong smell of BS). After that, anyone that left the building wasn't able to re-enter.
Outside, there were HUNDREDS of people. Acouple of guys told us that they were allowed to go upstairs and sign up to speak, but they had to come right back outside. I asked a guy why he signed up and he said so that when they vote in favor of the rezoning, he can sue them for denying his first amendment rights. Pie in the sky but I like the way he tried.
From the sidewalk and parking lot out front, we could see the people in the 3rd floor overflow pushed up against the windows. When the meeting started at 6, we discovered that TMobile users were able to stream the meeting on their phones, but us poor Verizon folks were not. GRRR. But some enterprising youth had a projector and a speaker and eventually got both working so that we could see and hear some of the meeting. It made the crowd wild with yelling, chanting and making all manner of noise. Someone said that a friend inside texted that the commissioners didn't like the noise, and of course we made more of it.
The rezoning parts we are interested in started at 10 minutes in with the planning guy reading the application, then turned the meeting over to Drew Nations, the Engineered Lands Solution guy, and his friends for their presentation, which lasted from 13 minutes to 1 hour. The planning guy spoke again for 10 minutes, then the clerk explained the rules for the meeting and finally, the first speaker took the mike at 1:12.
We stood in the cold for about as long as we could take it, then got in the car and went down to the cafe for warmth. Once in the cafe we found we could pull it up on Youtube and listened. Others came in and were listening on their phone, too. Another customer whipped out a remote and pulled it up on the smart tv in the diner - YAYY!!.
The commissioners said they would allow an hour of public comment.
Later I went back through the meeting video and did a quick speed through of the speakers.
1:40 -speaker 10
2:03 speaker 20
2:14 speaker 23 FINISHED and the commissioners ended public comment.
34 minutes for public speakers and only 53 spoke
The commissioners began speaking at 2:16 giving the reasons for their vote and revealing their votes.
The last one finished at 2:48
They spent longer rationalizing than they gave their constituents time to speak.
Every one of them talked about their time with "Drew". It is a display that reeks of grift.
They callously announced the votes, then went into closed session at 2:56.Tthen returned an hour later at 3:53 and adjourned.
We should devise a game - What are the elected officials doing in an hour long closed session after they just put on kabuki while they were screwing over their constituents? Hmm, I bet they were eating dinner (Drew probably had it catered for them).
This was a farce. The developer "presented" for over an hour. Only 34 minutes and ~23 speakers were allowed in the public session (and I wish someone would double check me please). 1 hour / 2 minutes = 30 speakers, not 24. Maybe that guy who signed up to speak had a point after all.
When the one commissioner said that he was voting for it because he's a Trump guy and a Trump advisor said everyone should have a data center ... that was logic we couldn't deny. But when the last commissioner to speak admonished the citizen to "put down that sign, is THAT all you can do is hold up a sign", well, that proves how cynical these commissioner's attitudes are to their constituents. When Sonya Cox cried about her choice I admit I felt no pity. I feel like they knew what they were doing and had it all planned out for them by Drew Nations, the Engineered Lands Solution guy, and the lawyers and advisors.
The meeting is here:
My videos from outside the meeting
Great Vibes Outside the meeting:
Other local press:
- In case anyone wants to contact them for comments on what you've learned:
scox@co.stokes.nc.us, wbarneycastle@co.stokes.nc.us, rmorris@co.stokes.nc.us, bchandler@co.stokes.nc.us, kwood@co.stokes.nc.us
Sonya Cox 336-983-4247
Wayne Barneycastle 336-462-7055
Rick Morris 336-813-0206
Brad Chandler 910-391-2531
Keith Wood 336-813-7852
