More than a hundred people crammed into the New Hill Community Center Wednesday evening to hear from representatives from Natelli Investments, the developer behind a proposed 200-megawatt data storage facility in western Wake County.
The meeting was the second between the developer and local residents since plans for the so-called New Hill Digital Campus emerged in August. For the project to proceed, it will require the Town of Apex to annex a 190-acre property, located off of Shearon Harris Road and Old U.S. Highway 1, and grant a rezoning to light industrial use.
Natelli Investments has committed to taking measures to keep noise levels in compliance with local regulations, but residents still have concerns about electricity usage for what would be one of the largest data centers in the state; water usage (the facility could use up to a million gallons a day from a nearby wastewater treatment facility), and emissions from diesel generators located onsite.
Natelli Investments submitted the rezoning proposal to the town in September; it has since been reviewed by the town’s Environmental Advisory Board and will go before the town’s planning board and town council early next year. Residents have opposed the proposal from the outset, citing concerns about the environment, public health, and quality-of-life impacts.
Wednesday’s meeting focused on potential noise impacts from the facility. Representatives from Natelli Investments, including developers Michael and Tommy Natelli, who are brothers, and Jeff Szymanski, a sound consultant for the project, were on hand to answer questions.
During an opening presentation, Szymanski, a managing consultant for acoustics at the architecture and environmental engineering firm Ramboll, explained that the developer is working on a sound study to make sure the project will be in compliance with local noise regulations.
“We assess the existing conditions, and then we start to look at criteria that are applicable to a specific project in terms of limiting impacts to the surrounding community,” Szymanski explained. “The way we quantify that environment is we come out into the community, we make [sound] measurements.”
Szymanski said they wrapped up the sound study, which took place over 48 hours last week, and have collected the data they need. The development team will use the data “to make a 3-D acoustical model” that will use all the sound sources inherent to the proposed facility—most notably the cooling systems—to estimate the facility’s highest possible noise level and ensure it is within local noise regulations.
While the county has its own regulations for sound, the Town of Apex, unlike some other Wake County municipalities, does not have its own noise ordinance. In partnership with town staff, Natelli Investments is working on creating a noise ordinance to be adopted by the town, with which the facility would also comply once the ordinance is developed and adopted.
“At the end of the day, a lot of these types of facilities use a lot of cooling equipment, so it’s the sheer quantity of it that tends to be driving up sound levels,” Szymanski said. “We try and drive those back down with things like silencers, acoustical barrier walls … quiet enclosures for certain types of equipment, just whatever is appropriate for that type of equipment.”
The developers have proposed a maximum of 60 decibels at the property line, which they have stated sounds like a normal conversation. The sound study will look at how that noise travels to nearby neighborhoods, including Jordan Pointe.
Michael Natelli said the team would consider additional measures, such as sound walls, berming, and landscaping, to attenuate noise “to the appropriate level,” which the future town ordinance will quantify. He noted that the team does have a prospective client, or end user, “that we’re talking to” and basing design plans around, and the developers will conduct an additional sound study when the project reaches the site plan phase if the plans are approved.
Following Szymanski’s remarks, members of the public asked about impacts from additional traffic and light pollution.
Kraig Walsleben, a consultant for Natelli Investments, explained there are two entry points to the facility, a primary entrance and an emergency entryway, both located on Shearon Harris Road. The facility will likely employ 200 to 250 people in total, who will work over the course of three shifts, meaning the roads will see an additional 75 or so cars on the road for each shift, Walsleben said. The developer has also committed to the town to make improvements to Shearon Harris Road, their attorney, Beth Trahos, told the crowd. The lighting, Walsleben explained, will be contained within the campus of the facility.
Other residents asked about the environmental impacts of potential wastewater usage from the nearby Western Wake Regional Water Reclamation Facility and electricity usage (a recent report found that electricity costs have increased nearly 300 percent over five years in areas located near data centers). Some of those questions were discussed at the Environmental Advisory Board meeting last month. But residents noted that this meeting was the first time most of them were able to have a direct conversation with the development team rather than what they described as “one-way conversations” with town officials and staff.
Another resident asked about the impacts of sound from the facility on pets and nearby wildlife (the property is located in a rural area of unincorporated Wake County, near gamelands).
“We’re going to focus tonight on sound, but please, tell us you’re not just thinking about our ears,” the resident said.
The sound study covers decibel levels and frequencies within the range of human hearing, Szymanski said, and wildlife is outside of his area of expertise.
“I deal with sound effects on humans,” he said. “Biological specialists would get involved in this project were that to become an issue.”
“It will be an issue,” another resident interjected.
“Understood, and like we’ve talked about, we’re creating a more robust sound ordinance,” Michael Natelli replied. “I appreciate that comment …. That’s not something that’s in a typical ordinance, but we’ll take that and think about it and figure out how we can try to address that concern.”
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