A 12-month moratorium, beginning on enactment, bars consideration of applications for new data centers and the issuance or approval of other land-use or development approvals for new data centers in Spartanburg County.

County staff, the Planning Commission, and the Board of Zoning Appeals must hold in abeyance development applications involving new data centers that are received after the ordinance’s first reading.

The moratorium may be extended by County Council resolution.

The measure applies to a data center defined as a facility whose combined connected electrical load is at least one megawatt and whose primary function is storing, managing, and processing data.

The ordinance is subject to the Pending Ordinance Doctrine, and may therefore apply before third and final reading as permitted by that doctrine; otherwise, it becomes effective upon third and final reading.

Projects with conditional plan approval granted before the ordinance’s effective date are exempt from the moratorium, as long as they remain compliant with all applicable approvals and conditions.

Data centers issued a development permit within the 12 months before the ordinance’s effective date are exempt from the moratorium.

Data centers must obtain certain environmental permits from the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services before beginning operations. The facility is required to receive certain environmental permits ... before it can begin operations.

A data center's electric-generating plant that is designed for or capable of operating above 75 megawatts must obtain a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Convenience and Necessity before construction begins, even if the electricity is used entirely onsite. Valara is thus required to obtain a Certificate ... prior to commencing construction.

Spartanburg County's data-center moratorium includes a size limit: covered data centers may not exceed 65 megawatts. A handful of conditions data centers have to meet ... including a size restriction of no larger than 65 megawatts.

The county development agreement requires the company to provide documentation showing compliance with performance-zoning rules governing light and glare, noise, and landscaping. The agreement requires the company to submit documents showing it complies with performance zoning ordinance rules.

The county development agreement requires annual community meetings and annual reporting on capital investment, construction status, water, grid and gas-utility demand, employment, and charitable contributions when applicable. It's also required to conduct annual community meetings and report annually.

The September 2026 air permit limits formaldehyde emissions to 10 tons per year and total hazardous-air-pollutant emissions to 25 tons per year. The permit requires Valara to limit its formaldehyde emissions to 10 tons per year (TPY) and its total hazardous air pollutant emissions ... to 25 TPY.

Within 180 days after the permitted turbines start up, Valara must conduct formaldehyde source testing across load levels and use site-specific emission factors to calculate emissions and verify compliance. Within 180 days of startup for the turbines, Valara will be required to conduct source testing for formaldehyde.

The 21 temporary natural-gas generators authorized under the amended 2025 permit may not operate while the permanent generators are operating and may remain onsite for no more than six months. These generators are not allowed to operate when the permanent generators are in operation and cannot remain on site longer than six months.

The facility is subject to SCDES regulatory oversight, including regular unannounced inspections, document and record reviews, and compliance or enforcement procedures when deficiencies or violations are found. SCDES will continue its regulatory oversight of Valara.

Spartanburg County’s 2025 fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement provides the project with a financial incentive, although the sources do not state the agreement’s specific tax terms. fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement council passed in 2025

The preliminary development agreement requires Spartanburg County to accelerate review of development approvals and not unreasonably withhold those approvals. accelerate review of development approvals and not unreasonably withhold them

SCDES issued a Synthetic Minor Air Construction Permit authorizing Valara to construct and operate 11 simple-cycle combustion turbines. approved a Synthetic Minor Air Construction Permit

An earlier air permit authorizes 24 permanent natural-gas-fired generators with specified air-pollution controls and federally enforceable emissions limits for NOx, carbon monoxide, VOCs, and hazardous air pollutants. 24 permanent natural gas─fired 2103 kW generators

The earlier permit was amended to allow 21 temporary natural-gas-fired generators, subject to limits that they cannot operate while the permanent generators are operating and cannot remain onsite longer than six months. 21 temporary natural gas─fired 1500 kW generators

The ordinance applies to facilities with more than 50,000 square feet of enclosed computing space, more than 50 megawatts of electrical demand, or an expansion that causes either threshold to be exceeded.

Major data centers in unincorporated Spartanburg County require Conditional Use approval from the County Council before they may be developed, constructed, expanded, or operated.

No building, site, grading, utility, development, or other associated permit may be issued before Conditional Use approval is granted.

Data center buildings and related infrastructure must be at least 1,000 feet from residentially zoned or used property, schools, houses of worship, hospitals or medical facilities, assisted living facilities, nursing facilities, public parks, and public recreation facilities.

The County Council may impose setbacks greater than 1,000 feet based on site-specific conditions or potential impacts.

Applicants must submit extensive plans and analyses, including site, utility, electrical, water, wastewater, traffic, environmental, acoustic, emergency response, security, visual, heat-management, decommissioning, community-impact, construction-management, quarterly-reporting, and public-transparency materials.

All required technical reports, plans, studies, and analyses must be prepared and sealed by appropriately licensed professionals authorized to practice in South Carolina.

Before Conditional Use approval, applicants must obtain written Public Service Commission certification showing that residential and small-business ratepayers will not subsidize facility-related electrical infrastructure, including transmission, generation, or substation upgrades.

Applicants must disclose projected power demand for an initial 20-year period and provide updated projections every five years for an additional 20-year period, along with the facility's electrical supply source and utility incentives.

Any proposed Fee In Lieu of Taxes Agreement must be publicly disclosed at least 30 days before its first reading, including investment, incentives, abatements, tax payments, duration, infrastructure commitments, job commitments, and public costs.

At least 30 days before the first reading of any governmental approval associated with a major data center, the applicant must implement its Public Transparency Plan and disclose specified project, site, power, water, wastewater, cooling, generation, utility, noise, environmental, incentive, employment, schedule, and contact information.

Applicants must submit evidence of all applicable reviews, permits, approvals, and certifications from specified state and federal environmental, health, natural-resource, and other regulatory agencies.

Applicants must disclose maximum, average, and annual water use, water source, drought planning, cooling technology, wastewater generation, and conservation measures.

Closed-loop or lower-water cooling systems are preferred when technically feasible, and applicants must provide written justification when they determine such systems are not technically feasible.

Applicants must submit a Heat Management Assessment covering heat generation, heat-plume impacts, heat-island effects, waste-heat recovery, and long-term thermal impacts.

Before Conditional Use approval and before any building permit, applicants must submit a certified Acoustic Modeling and Sound Mitigation Plan covering cumulative equipment noise, seasonal and meteorological conditions, low-frequency sound, infrasound, future expansion, and proposed mitigation.

The County may require an independent acoustical consultant to review and validate the applicant's acoustic plan, with the reasonable cost charged to the applicant.

Noise monitoring must cover audible sound from 20 to 20,000 Hz, low-frequency sound from 10 to 300 Hz, and infrasound from 0.001 to 30 Hz, using an independent acoustical firm selected and paid for by the applicant.

Noise measurements must be taken at 500 feet from the outermost equipment, the property boundary, 1,000 feet beyond the property boundary, and any additional County-designated locations, with at least six evenly dispersed measurement points.

Facilities must meet maximum sound levels of 45 dBA and 60 dBC during the daytime and 40 dBA and 50 dBC at night at the property boundary, and 40 dBA and 55 dBC during the daytime and 35 dBA and 45 dBC at night 1,000 feet beyond the boundary.

Low-frequency and infrasound measurements must show no measurable adverse impacts to surrounding properties as determined by the County's independent acoustical consultant.

Quarterly noise monitoring is required throughout the facility's operating life, including full-spectrum, octave-band, low-frequency, infrasound, generator, cooling-equipment, and transformer analyses.

A pre-operational baseline sound study must be completed and submitted before facility operations begin.

Operators must submit quarterly reports on electricity, water, wastewater, generators, fuel, air emissions, noise, environmental compliance, safety incidents, emergency events, construction status, and expansions, with supporting documentation.

Applicants must fund or provide fire-department and emergency-response training, site-specific emergency planning, specialized response equipment required by the County, battery-fire preparation, and hazardous-materials planning.

Applicants must provide physical-security, cybersecurity-coordination, emergency-communications, and critical-infrastructure-protection plans.

Before operations begin, applicants must post County-approved financial assurance sufficient to remove structures and equipment, remediate contamination attributable to the facility, and restore the site for future industrial use.

The adequacy of decommissioning financial assurance must be reviewed every five years, and the applicant must increase the amount as directed by the County.

If a monitored parameter exceeds an established limit, the applicant or operator must file a Corrective Action Plan within 10 days, begin corrective action within 30 days, restore compliance within 60 days after submission, and obtain independent verification.

Failure to restore compliance triggers civil penalties of $100,000 for the first month, $200,000 for the second, $400,000 for the third, and $800,000 for the fourth and each subsequent month or partial month until compliance is verified.

The County may enter confidentiality or nondisclosure agreements with prospective developers, utilities, consultants, and related parties during site selection, land acquisition, financing, utility negotiations, and other pre-development activities. These protections may remain in effect until the ordinance’s public-disclosure requirements become applicable.

The measure allows certain proprietary and commercially sensitive information to remain confidential, including technical specifications, operating methods, security systems, vendor information, engineering designs, trade secrets, financing details, customer information, intellectual property, and competitively sensitive business information, unless disclosure is otherwise required by law.

Confidentiality protections continue after project approval and through development, construction, operation, expansion, and decommissioning for information exempt from disclosure under South Carolina law.

For Freedom of Information Act requests, the County may redact exempt confidential information while providing the remaining non-exempt portions of records.

Future monitoring or reporting requirements cannot be imposed merely by administrative action: new requirements must undergo public notice, a public hearing, expert testimony or technical evidence, and formal ordinance amendment by County Council.