'No Rezoning, No Data Center': McCormick County Planners Side With Residents Opposing Development

'No Rezoning, No Data Center': McCormick County Planners Side With Residents Opposing Development

SOURCE: WRDW/WAGT · PUBLISHED JULY 31, 2026 · MCCORMICK, S.C.

"This is my stance. No rezoning, no data center. We need a moratorium for sure."
— Toye Willis, McCormick resident

This is what a community win looks like.

On Thursday, July 30, 2026, the McCormick County Planning Commission in South Carolina did three things that every community facing a data center proposal should demand of its own officials:

1. Recommended a nine-month pause (moratorium) on data centers — buying time to understand the proposal and put safeguards in place.
2. Denied a rezoning request tied to a proposed 1,000-acre data center site off Whitetown Road, approximately two miles from downtown McCormick.
3. Recommended a data center ordinance designed to protect neighbors from the impacts of data center development.

All three recommendations followed a packed public meeting where residents spoke overwhelmingly against the proposal.

The Proposal: 1,000 Acres and a $200 Million Gas Pipeline

The Pollard Land Company is seeking to rezone land off Whitetown Road for a data center. Planning Commission Chair Tom Greene said the proposal would rezone 1,000 acres.

"Their proposal is to bring in a data center, and they want to rezone 1,000 acres, but from what I can tell, the data center would not take up all of that," Greene said.

A natural gas pipeline into the county would also be part of the development. County Councilman Chuck Cook was one of only two speakers in favor of the rezoning, framing it as economic development:

"We have bemoaned the loss of economic development opportunities because we do not have natural gas here. This proposal would include $200 million to build a natural gas pipeline from Lincoln County."

But residents weren't buying it. And the Planning Commission listened.

"I've Never Been Involved Politically at All — But This I Couldn't Not Get Into"

The most powerful moments came from residents who had never been politically active — until a data center showed up in their backyard.

Toye Willis, who lives in McCormick, was unequivocal: "This is my stance. No rezoning, no data center. We need a moratorium for sure."

Jamie Strickland, also a McCormick resident, said the proposal prompted her first involvement in local politics:

"As soon as I heard that it was a possibility, I immediately sprung into action. I've never been involved politically at all, but this is something that I couldn't not get into."

That's the sentence that should echo in every community facing a data center. This is how movements start — not with seasoned activists, but with neighbors who realize that silence equals consent.

The Bait and Switch: From Lumber to Data Center

Greene revealed a detail that will sound familiar to anyone who's watched data center developers operate: when Pollard Land Company purchased the forest approximately one year ago, residents had assumed it would be used for the company's lumber operations. The data center proposal was, effectively, a bait and switch — buy the land under one premise, then pivot to an entirely different, far more impactful use once the sale is closed.

This is a pattern. Developers count on community inattention. They buy land quietly, propose quietly, and hope to be permitted before anyone notices. McCormick County residents noticed. And they showed up.

What Happens Next

The Planning Commission's recommendations — including the nine-month data center pause and the proposed protective ordinance — now go to the McCormick County Council for approval. The rezoning of the Pollard land was recommended for denial.

Greene said the pause would allow time to review the proposal and establish protections: "Gives us a chance to go through, find out what the plans are for the site, and make sure we have safeguards in place."

The Pollard Lumber Company has scheduled a public meeting for August 11 at the Mims Center to discuss data centers and a proposed $1.5 billion natural gas pipeline for McCormick. All Planning Commission recommendations must go before the County Council before they're final.

⚠ Call to action for McCormick County residents: The fight isn't over. The County Council must approve the moratorium and ordinance. Attend the August 11 meeting at the Mims Center. Show up at County Council meetings. Keep the pressure on. A recommendation is not a law until it's passed.

Why This Matters Here

This is the model. McCormick County is a small, rural community — population roughly 10,000 — that did what communities ten times its size have struggled to do. They packed a meeting. They spoke overwhelmingly in opposition. And their Planning Commission responded with a moratorium, a denial, and a protective ordinance.

Compare this to Bolingbroke, Georgia, where 900 people in a town of 492 stopped a 900-acre data center. Or Twiggs County, Georgia, where officials approved a data center despite organized opposition. The difference isn't the size of the community — it's whether officials listen.

The data center industry counts on communities being too small, too quiet, too divided, or too late to organize. McCormick County just proved them wrong. Again.

If you're fighting a data center proposal in your community — whether in South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Nevada, or anywhere else — your story matters. Environmental advocate Erin Brockovich is tracking over 8,000 community reports of data center impacts nationwide at brockovichdatacenter.com. Submit your report there, and share your story on our community forum.

Because "no rezoning, no data center" isn't just a chant. It's a strategy. And it works.

Sources & Citations

• • WRDW/WAGT — "'No rezoning, no data center': McCormick County planners side with residents opposing development" (July 31, 2026; primary source)
• • WRDW on Facebook — original post
• • WRDW/WAGT — McCormick County meeting set on data centers, natural gas project (July 28, 2026)
• • Scribd — Proposed Data Center Moratorium draft (McCormick County)
• • Brockovich Data Center Registry — Erin Brockovich's nationwide impact map

Source: WRDW/WAGT · Published July 31, 2026 · McCormick, S.C.