** Update 10/7 **

🎉🎉Mayor Higdon has announced the developer, ELS, has officially WITHDRAWN their proposal for the data center in Matthews!! 🎉🎉

So.. what does that mean for us now?

✨Your voice continues to be important✨

From what I understand, if a developer withdrawals their proposal they can bring it back after 6 months (which will be April 2026). I encourage residents and community members to stay vigilant.

Our next steps:

• 📌 Keep your calendars marked for the next Town Hall meeting - Monday, Oct 13th at 7pm. Project Accelerate highlighted the disconnect between our local government and our residents. How can our elected officials rebuild trust & ensure the public is clearly informed on major issues happening in the Town of Matthews? While a small population of Matthews was aware of the proposed data center those residents seemed to represent the 60+ community and were already active in Matthews government. Our town is growing and diverse. There are young families consistently moving to Matthews, college students coming & going, retirees enjoying tight knit community and increased property value. Moving forward we need additional forms of communication between Town Hall and Matthews residents to ensure we are ALL equally informed. —— What could that look like? 🤔 A physical newsletter sent to every Matthews residence? A solid social media presence to reach more residents? Bring your questions & ideas!
   
• ✅ Make a voting plan. Early voting begins Thursday, Oct 23rd and goes until Saturday, Nov 1st. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov 4th. Voting locations & hours can be found here. This is our chance to elect individuals that align with our mission to protect & preserve our town of Matthews. We want our resources (air, water, health) to be priority! We want slow growth. We want intentional, community minded development. This election we will be voting for the Mayor, all six members of the Board of Commissioners & a countywide transit tax referendum. Please learn about the candidates. If you missed the Mayoral Debate that can be found here on John Higdon’s Facebook page, the debate is the third post down (I was able to attend 👀 & learned a lot about Higdon & Threatt.. It is long but very revealing. I’m going to see if I can create a written summary to make the debate feel more accessible). A list of all the candidates & their websites can be found here (each town in listed alphabetically so scroll down until you see this ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️)

 

 

Thank you thank you to all the folks that signed, shared & showed up! I am thankful for your questions, I am thankful for your presence. I hope we can remain connected moving forward, I’m not sure what that could look like but I’ll be exploring ideas.

Appreciate ya’ll 💚

 

+   +   +   +   +   +   +

📌 Next key date:

• Next Town Hall Meeting on Monday, Oct 13th at 7pm @ Matthews Town Hall (enter the Matthews library and take the stairs to the right)

 

⬇️⬇️ How to show your support at one of these meetings ⬇️⬇️

✨Your presence!✨Don’t feel comfortable speaking? That’s okay! By showing up you are letting our Mayor & Board of Commissioners know you have concerns about a data center being built in our town. Your presence is important 👥💚

✨Your questions!✨Voice your concerns & ask questions (the more specific the better!). We want to get as much information as we can about these potential plans for this data center, “Project Accelerate”

✨Your ideas!✨What do you want to see along E. John Street? Could the land be used to add a new school to our district? Is CPCC Levine looking to expand? How could the land support housing without overwhelming the roads? We encourage creativity & curiosity!

Additional ways to support:

• Email our Mayor & Board of Commissioners! Please help us continue to communicate this is not a development we want for Matthews.
• Share this petition on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok!
• Join our Facebook group & follow us on Instagram
• Learn more about the dangers of data centers here & on our website
• 🪧💚 Would you like a yard sign for you or your neighborhood? Send us an email info@welovematthews.com - Currently our signs are hand painted 🧑‍🎨 We will work to get them to you as soon as possible!

 

 

Thank you everyone! Please help us continue to BE LOUD as we work to protect & preserve the health of our town!

+ + + + + 

As a Matthews native I was alarmed to discover the city making way for a large data center one mile from our beloved Downtown Matthews.

This major rezoning effort is identified as “Project Accelerate” and has managed to fly under the radar, dodging major media attention and skirting past residents. The current infrastructure in this area supports hundreds of Matthews residents, the CPCC Levine Campus and will be taking on the mixed-use development known as Matthews Gateway.

Project Accelerate is near the Bightmoor neighborhood and just a short distance from the GW Mobile Home Park, highlighting the trend of tech developers targeting middle and low-income communities.

We urge the local authorities and developers to reconsider this plan and explore alternative sites that do not infringe upon residential areas and infrastructure that is already undergoing exponential growth. There must be a considerate balance between technological advancement and the well-being of the environmental and community moving forward.

Please join us as we work to preserve and protect our Matthews community!

=======

Additional details on Project Accelerate:

Plans are advancing for a 123-acre data center campus in Matthews, NC, as part of a significant regional boom in AI and high-tech development. An entity affiliated with Crosland Southeast and Crow Holdings Development is seeking to rezone the site for the project. 

Developers: Crosland Southeast and Crow Holdings Development
Location: A 123-acre site at 1603 E. John St. is being targeted for the data center
Timeline: In September 2025, reports indicated that the rezoning process for the site was moving forward. The rezoning application was initially filed in July 2025.

Find out more about Project Accelerate’s rezoning application on the Town of Matthews website here.

We’re taken a screenshot of the Town Website & circled the application for Project Accelerate below for clarity ⬇️

 

 

We’ve come to learn since launching this petition that Project Accelerate’s official boundary limits are slightly different than the image that’s apart of our petition’s header. However the property highlighted to the west of E. John Street (1700 E. John Street) is adjacent to the Brightmoor neighborhood and will be having a public hearing to be rezoned later this year by the same developers behind Project Accelerate.

Find more information about that property & application here, we’ve taken a screenshot and circled that project below for clarity ⬇️

 

 

=======

Additional information on the impact of data centers:

Environmental impacts

Massive water consumption: Data centers use millions of gallons of water per day for cooling, straining local water supplies, especially in drought-prone areas. In one instance, residents of Newton County, GA, reported their wells ran dry after a Meta data center began construction nearby. In another case, the water consumption of data centers in Loudoun County, VA, increased by 63% from 2019 to 2023.

Strained power grids: The electricity demand of data centers is growing exponentially, driven by the needs of AI processing. This can strain local and regional power grids, requiring costly infrastructure upgrades that can get passed on to residential consumers through higher utility rates. In March 2025, a report from Data Center Watch revealed that AI data centers could account for 44% of U.S. electricity load growth by 2028.

Reliance on fossil fuels: Despite promises of using renewable energy, many data centers still rely on electricity generated by fossil fuels to ensure 24/7 reliability. In Virginia, much of the energy for a new data center campus is projected to come from fossil fuels, and residents near an xAI facility in Memphis reported higher smog levels from the data center's unpermitted gas turbines.

Air and noise pollution: Data centers operate massive diesel generators for backup power, which emit pollutants like nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter that can cause respiratory issues for residents. Nearby residents also report constant, low-frequency humming from cooling fans and transformers that disrupts their quality of life. 

 

Limited local economic benefits

Ineffective tax incentives: States and municipalities often offer generous tax breaks to attract data centers, anticipating long-term economic benefits. However, reports from the University of Michigan and others have found these incentives to be largely ineffective, as tax breaks reduce revenue for local schools and public services.

Few permanent jobs: While construction creates temporary employment, data centers are not major job creators once they are operational. The few permanent jobs created are often low-wage roles like security and maintenance, and tax subsidies often far exceed the financial benefit of the jobs created. 

Lack of community transparency

Nondisclosure agreements: Developers of data centers, often secretive big tech companies, use nondisclosure agreements with local governments, leaving residents in the dark about potential risks. In St. Charles, MO, a proposed data center was withdrawn after community backlash demanding full transparency.

Limited public engagement: Many projects are pushed through with minimal public engagement, often under permissive zoning laws. This lack of oversight has fueled public opposition and led to lawsuits and project delays in areas like Prince William and Louisa County, VA.