Dismay of rural communities

Amid stark opposition, data center developers think twice about Florida

The state’s growing population, existing infrastructure and swaths of developable land have drawn the industry’s interest, much to the dismay of rural communities.

By Kylie Williams

Florida’s pro-business aura and the AI-driven data center boom across the South seem like a perfect match on paper. The only problem: Communities statewide are not on board.

At least 20 Sunshine State counties and municipalities have passed or discussed a temporary — and, in some cases, permanent — moratorium on data centers. In many others, residents have packed local commission meetings armed with T-shirts, signs and petitions urging elected officials to restrict data center projects.

And the staunch opposition from local residents, alongside similar animosity from top state officials like GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, has the data center industry rethinking its interest in Florida — and scuttling some large-scale projects.

“Everybody’s concerned about their quality of life, and nobody wants to lose it for a data center next door,” said Margaret Kirkland, the chair of Conserve Nassau, a local conservation group in the Northeastern corner of Florida.

Many residents in Nassau County, which has a population of just more than 100,000 people, have either lived there for generations or moved to the area seeking a rural refuge. When energy generation company NextNRG announced in September it had secured a 1,600-acre lease in the county with 400 acres “ideally positioned” for a hyperscale data center, residents flooded social media and county commission meetings.

By April, NextNRG CEO Michael Farkas said he wanted to build a solar farm rather than a data center. This month, the county commission passed a data center moratorium lasting up to a year to allow for a “comprehensive evaluation” of potential data center impacts.

NextNRG had reached out to data center developers about the site, Farkas said, but pumped the brakes after seeing the backlash. The company would be willing to revisit a data center in Nassau County in the future, he added, but won’t fight the community.

“Because of what’s going on legislatively and locally, were going to focus on areas that are just a little bit more open-minded in regards to those types of facilities,” he said, but declined to say whether those sites are in Florida.

Florida communities opposed to large-scale data centers have a powerful ally in DeSantis, who championed a new state law this year regulating data centers that use a lot of electricity and water. While DeSantis’ time in office comes to an end in January, his critiques and the Legislature’s actions have “put Florida in question” for data center developers, said Dan Diorio, vice president for state policy with the Data Center Coalition.

“There’s going to have to be a lot of a shift, I think, in the state for data centers to really be looking at it for large-scale development,” he said. “I think he sent a very clear signal.”

Under the new law, local governments maintain the authority to regulate land development as it relates to data centers, though some local leaders have said they’re unsure whether the legislation conflicts with an existing development law passed the year before.

Despite the legal uncertainties, local governments are moving fast to pass moratoriums even in counties that have not yet seen interest from data center developers. Many are fielding rallying cries from residents who hope to ban data centers permanently.

Cheryl Curtiss, a retired teacher and counselor, helped form the grassroots organization “No Data Centers Citrus County” after a company called the Deltona Corporation applied for rezoning that would pave the way for a large data center. Residents were worried the data center would guzzle water, pollute nearby wetlands and generate constant noise — worries mirrored nationwide.

“No one will want to buy our homes if we want to move,” Curtiss said. “If there’s bad health effects, we’re kind of stuck there.”

Citrus County enacted a one-year moratorium on data centers in May, though Curtiss said locals are hoping for a permanent ban. And on Tuesday, the Deltona Corporation pulled its applications, to the excitement of residents.

A few hours south, residents in the former phosphate mining town of Fort Meade are putting political pressure on city leaders to follow with their own ban. Fort Meade, which has a population of about 5,000, stands to become neighbors with a potential 4.4 million square-foot data center development from the company Stonebridge after the city approved a development agreement in April.

Despite locals’ vocal opposition, the city is moving forward with the proposal, said Raul Alfonso, a resident who helped form the grassroots group Watchdogs of Fort Meade. Residents, including Alfonso, filed a lawsuit over the city’s approval of the data center, and have launched a recall petition against some city officials.

“Even if we stop the data center, we still have a problem in our city that allows something like this to come in,” Alfonso said. “They’ve totally ignored us. They’ve blown us off.”

DeSantis’ administration has also jumped into the local data center battle. Earlier this year, Commerce Secretary Alex Kelly sent a letter to the city’s mayor and called the planning for the Stonebridge data center “fundamentally flawed.”

Fort Meade Mayor Jaret Landon Williams did not respond to a request for an interview.

Rather than sacking data center plans entirely, some developers are seeking a compromise with residents.

Developer PBA Holdings Inc., which is seeking to build a 600 megawatt data center in western Palm Beach County, has reduced the square footage of the project, moved it further away from residents and redesigned the cooling system, according to project manager Ernie Cox.

“What we’ve got to do is understand the concerns,” Cox said. “And we believe we’ve addressed all of the concerns, other than the folks that just don’t want the project to go forward. We look at this project as critical infrastructure for Palm Beach County.”

Yet the data center would still be just 2,000 feet away from some homes in the community of Arden and a nearby school — much too close for residents like Santiago Lattanzio. Locals moved to Arden to be near nature and away from noise and light pollution, he said, heightening frustration over the many details of Project Tango that fall under a nondisclosure agreement.

Residents are now asking the commission not only to temporarily pause data center developments, but to update zoning rules to match the AI boom.

“We are now pushing all of these hyperscale data centers into communities, and utilizing laws that haven’t changed since the early 2000s to dictate the impacts or the effects on these communities,” Lattanzio said.

As more localities pursue data center moratoriums, the data center industry is watching options for development dwindle. Most moratoriums being considered are temporary, but Diorio with the Data Center Coalition said they could pose long-term consequences if data center developers choose to pursue projects in other states.

“I think it has a permanent effect in that you’ll likely see data centers pass over that market from now and into the future, because it’s just not going to have a lot of certainty,” he said.

The industry will also likely be watching Florida’s current race for governor. Rep. Byron Donalds, the GOP frontrunner, has previously said that the state should lead on data center development. Donalds’ opponents have bashed his stance, promising stricter regulations and moratoriums.

Diorio declined to comment on Donalds’ campaign directly, but said that “those kinds of statements matter.”

“Hopefully that will send a signal about priorities moving forward and opening up Florida as a significant market for data center development,” he said.