I am not in Rural Hall, but we do live in Winston Salem with a 40' type III buffer yards (what is listed on the data center proposal) right next to our yard, and I can tell you from experience they are hardly a visual barrier and definitely don't block noise. You can hear people talking, cars, music from the businesses nearby, etc. Individual trucks sometimes park overnight and run their engines making it difficult to sleep from the vibration and noise, I can't imagine having all of the equipment a data center runs 24 hours a day next door. Since the buffers just look like puffs of green on most overhead planning drawings I thought I would share what they look like in practice. You can see straight through to the building they are meant to be screening all the way to the opposite side of the street past the building, and that is during the spring and summer when there are leaves on the trees.
During the Planning Board meeting the developer also referenced the existing data center off of Silas Creek Pkwy., but there are significant differences there. It's only one building, has no equipment on the roof, is only two stories, has a minimum of 75' of trees between the back side of the building and neighboring yards, and all of the outdoor equipment is on the side of the building facing the road on Silas Creek.
There was also a short discussion at the end of the Planning Board meeting about water usage concerns, and it was stated that Forsyth County was not using anywhere near it's capacity so that would not be a problem. If that's the case, I'm not sure why I was seeing stage 1 water restriction notices on the City of Winston Salem website in the beginning of July.
I've been meaning to post this for a while, and hadn't gotten around to it, but there is still time to contact the Forsyth County Commissioners before they meet and vote on the proposed data center in Rural Hall, so please stick up for those folks if this isn't something you'd want in your own back yard. This is the County Commissioners' website has email addresses in the links to their bios at the bottom left. If you can go to the meeting in person it's at 6pm on July 30th at 201 North Chestnut Street Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Please check the website for rules about commenting at the meeting if you want to speak.