Stokes County commissioners have once again approved plans for a massive data center in Walnut Cove.
The board voted Monday night to rezone roughly 1,800 acres of farmland for the development known as Project Delta.
The project has been the subject of months of intense debate, with residents raising concerns about water consumption, noise pollution and effects on the area’s rural character and proponents touting its potential financial rewards.
How did commissioners vote?
Commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of the rezoning request. The board initially approved the project by the same margin in January, but that decision was later voided over a procedural issue, forcing developer Engineered Land Solutions to reapply.
Chairman Wayne Barneycastle and Commissioner Brad Chandler were once again the two “no” votes. Chandler argued that the board wasn’t given enough time to review changes made to the proposal before the vote.
“I hope, I pray to God, that if we continue down this road tonight with this hyperscale data center, that y'all are right if you vote for it as is,” he told fellow commissioners.
The board also faced a last-minute question over whether Commissioner Keith Wood should recuse himself from the decision after two advocacy groups raised concerns about his connection to CMC Rebar, a company that could potentially supply materials for the data center. Wood told the crowd he retired from the company two years ago.
“There's no way in the world that I could, if I wanted to, sell the rebar for this job,” he said. “I do own some stock in CMC, and at 3:00 p.m. it was $12,734, and if that's a conflict, I will sell it tomorrow.”
County attorney Jennifer Michaud told commissioners it wasn’t.
“It is my legal opinion that there is not a conflict with the facts that we currently know,” she said. “It does not appear to meet the statutory threshold for a prohibition of voting.”
Chandler was the only commissioner who voted to recuse him, so Wood was allowed to vote as scheduled.
Commissioners who supported the project, including Wood, focused heavily on the county’s financial needs in their public remarks. They argued Project Delta could generate funding needed to pay for critical services without requiring residents to shoulder higher taxes. Commissioner Sonya Cox, a former school board member, noted that several attempts to raise taxes to generate revenue for the county were rejected by voters.
“For years I came up here to try to beg for money for the school system to put new roofs on, to repair schools, to give teachers a half a percent of a supplement, and it was like pulling teeth,” she said. “So believe me, I've been down these roads many, many times. That's why I see this as such a big game changer for us.”
ELS CEO Drew Nations has repeatedly argued that Project Delta could transform Stokes County’s financial situation, allowing for increased teacher pay and shortened emergency response times.
What did the developer say?
“We’re grateful for the commissioners’ vote this evening and for all the residents who have come out to support this project,” Nations said in a statement. “Project Delta shows how a community can embrace responsible economic development in 2026 and into the future. We’ve spent thousands of hours working with community members and experts to draft conditions that provide a path forward for the community and the project.”
Nations emphasized that he wants residents to remain involved as the project moves forward. His proposal has changed several times since January, in part to include stricter standards on noise, energy generation and water use. Nations has said those changes were made in response to community concerns.
How did opponents react?
On the whole, residents who attended the meeting said they were disappointed in the outcome.
“I think that Sonya Cox and Keith Wood and Rick Morris are beating our county to death,” said resident Tim Smith. “This is not a good thing. It is not going to bring the money in that they say it is. It just needs to not happen.”
Smith referred to a recently released economic analysis that projected Project Delta would generate significantly less tax revenue than ELS has estimated.
ELS disputes that report, arguing that it assumes a much smaller development than the company expects to build. The study was funded by the Southern Environmental Law Center, one of the groups involved in the legal challenge to the initial rezoning approval.
The Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) was also involved in that case. SCSJ Attorney Anne Harvey David would not say Monday night whether another lawsuit is planned, but said the group’s fight over the project is not over.