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About Protect Wake County Coalition
Our Mission
The Protect Wake County Coalition is a volunteer-led movement advocating for responsible growth that protects the health, character, and future of our communities. We are standing together for New Hill, Apex, and surrounding areas to oppose the proposed data center and to push for updates to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) so that data centers are properly classified, not as light industrial uses, but as the heavy industrial facilities they truly are. Our mission is rooted in ensuring that community voices shape development decisions that affect us all now and in the future.
The developer likes to imply that their proposed “Digital Campus” isn’t being built near neighborhoods but the Town of Apex’s own Development Map tells a very different story. The yellow areas show neighborhoods already under construction, and the red areas mark proposed rezonings. Together, they paint a clear picture: this data center would sit in the middle of a rapidly growing residential area - just steps from more than 6,000 current and future residents living within a two-mile radius.
Calendar of Events
The Digital Campus Proposal
Overview of the Submitted Proposal
- Who is behind it? Natelli Investments LLC, a Maryland developer has applied to build a massive data center on 189 acres on Shearon Harris Road in New HIll, North Carolina (Wake County)
- What is being requested? The proposal asks the Town of Apex to annex the land, rezone it from rural/residential to light industrial, and amend the Apex Unified Development Ordinance to add a definition for “data storage facility.”
- What's Planned?
- 4–6 (potentially up to 9) large buildings, each up to 70 feet tall
- Up to 100 diesel generators (3 MW each), running weekly for testing and during outages
- A facility drawing up to 300MW of power, about 30% of Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant’s output
- Cooling needs met with treated wastewater from the Western Wake Regional Water Reclamation Facility, with one-third expected to evaporate into the air (carrying potential pollutants)
- Economic claims by the developer:
- $1 billion total investment
- About $10 million in annual tax revenue to Apex and Wake County, plus $1.2 million to the state
- Where it stands now? The developer filed its annexation, rezoning, and text amendment applications with the Town of Apex on September 2, 2025. Since then, the project was presented to the Environmental Advisory Board (EAB), which voted to approve moving it forward to the next phase of review. This means the proposal will now advance through additional town boards and ultimately to the Apex Town Council for final consideration.
