The Wilson County Commission on July 20 approved a six-month moratorium on data centers and high-density computing facilities and directed staff to form a committee with technical experts to study noise, power and wastewater risks before permitting, a move proponents said would protect neighbors and give the county time to set standards.

After a section‑by‑section review of a draft data‑center zoning resolution, the Wilson County Data Center Advisory Committee voted to forward its recommendation to the county Planning & Zoning Committee; members also discussed extending the county moratorium and next steps for RFPs and technical reviews.

Wilson County staff recommended using overlay districts or planned-unit-development tools to regulate large data-center projects and suggested defining hyperscale by size or power; committee members discussed alternatives including square footage, power consumption and water use thresholds and asked staff to draft overlay language.

County economic-development staff summarized TVAs recent action: a dedicated data-center strategy group, a capacity-contribution charge estimated to raise data-center power costs by roughly 10%, and additional vetting for projects seeking more than 100 MW; staff said full rate details are expected by Sept. 1.

The newly formed Wilson County Data Center Advisory Committee elected Rusty Thompson as chair and Jeremy Fawn as vice chair and set a workplan to draft zoning rules addressing setbacks, noise, utilities and permitting.

The county adopted Resolution 26-7-2 to pause new data-center approvals while a committee of technical and public members studies noise, power and wastewater risks; staff set an initial committee meeting and said utilities and developers will be invited.