Acting on a proposal by County Commissioner Andy Dance, the Flagler County Commission in mid-May agreed to consider adopting an ordinance that would impose a one-year moratorium on new data centers. On Tuesday evening, the Palm Coast City Council did likewise on a proposal by Council member Ty Miller, if with less emphasis on the word “moratorium” and more emphasis on very quickly redefining regulations addressing data center development.
Both approaches still amount to moratoriums that would prevent the approval of new data centers in the meantime. They would allow the local governments to update land-use regulations to ensure that future data centers are evaluated in light of zoning, infrastructure and environmental impacts.
The approach would also give elected officials political cover–and breathing room–against increasing public opposition to data centers, not only in proximity to residential areas, but due to their intensive consumption of water and electricity, causing consumers’ bills to rise and water resources to decline. Opposition also at times focuses on data centers as the machinery of Big Brother.
One data center is under construction in Palm Coast, a relatively limited facility south of Royal Palms Parkway and along Town Center Boulevard that will be a cable-landing station for up to six undersea data cables. Those cables would emerge from the water along South 6th Street in Flagler Beach, where they would go through an underground landing station, before snaking their way to the Town Center facility along–or rather beneath–public rights of way.
There are no applications in Flagler County for proposed data centers, which perhaps makes the word “moratorium” a misnomer, though it would not be so if an application was filed tomorrow–as it could be.
“I know we’re getting inquiries,” Dance said. “All of Northeast Florida is getting inquiries, and I don’t think we want to be the donut hole and a donut of moratoriums that are starting to place around us. If we review it now, it gives us an opportunity to calmly and thoughtfully evaluate our current policies and regulations. So my request is that we consider following Nassau County’s process.”
Dance, along with Council member Charles Gambaro, serve on the Northeast Florida Regional Council, where in early May they heard a presentation on data centers and moratoriums.
Gambaro is opposed to a moratorium. “Anytime you use moratorium, it kills economic development,” he said. But he was not opposed to Miller’s “approach in taking a proactive measure of trying to codify the land development.”
“I think there’s a lot of validity to the fears in terms of water usage, power, with that industry as a whole,” Miller said at the end of Tuesday’s meeting. He would like to see a land development code that more strictly defines resource uses at data centers to create “thresholds for what we would call high impact and low impact.” The difference is between colossal data centers–the industry jargon is “hyperscale data centers”–as opposed to the smaller sort, like the one in Palm Coast.
Small is a relative term: the Palm Coast data center projects consuming up to 10 megawatts of electricity, which would place it among the largest consumers of electricity in the city and the county, and almost certainly the largest by square footage occupied (the two hospitals are also among the largest, but they are far larger operations). The consumption would yield Palm Coast no windfall: Palm Coast is among a handful of cities that don’t charge a utility tax or a utility right of way fee, in essence granting the data center a relatively large tax break. Bunnell and Flagler Beach have both taxes on their books. (The proposed constitutional amendment to eliminate most homestead property taxes may force the city to revisit the issue.)
“I would like to place the high usage, the ones we fear, the big gigantic buildings that suck power and water,” Miller said, “in a special exception category of the land development code for zoning to where it would always have to come before council and be approved as a special exception. If it is one of those large data centers that we fear as residents and as myself as well. That still leaves the opportunity for use or by-right use for those low-impact ones, defined within the zoning.”
At the mid-May meeting of the County Commission, Dance favored mirroring an initiative in Nassau County to declare a one-year development moratorium there.
“Data center infrastructure is clearly becoming part of our modern economy,” Dance said, “but these facilities raise legitimate questions related to electrical demand, substations, transmission infrastructure, cooling systems, water usage, hazardous material management, noise, environmental compatibility, and long-term land use impacts.”
County Attorney Michael Rodriguez said the proposed ordinance could go before the commission in mid-June. “The key,” the attorney said, “is frame the subject that we are going to study in such definitive terms, so that we don’t run afoul of private property rights.”
To Council member Dave Sullivan, the city should not outright close the door to large enterprises if they are willing to build their own power and utility plants.
It goes beyond that, Council member Theresa Pontieri said, seizing on another matter of growing public concern: “If you look into what these things do, we’re also talking about mass data storage and surveillance,” Pontieri said, “and I’m just, from a conceptual standpoint, not comfortable with that.”
“It’s the world we’re coming into,” Sullivan said with surprising fatalism.
“I don’t agree with it,” Pontieri said.
“Well, you may not agree to it, but you may not be the one that will decide,” Sullivan said.
Pontieri was on Miller’s page, and was going to propose issuing a letter of support to the county’s moratorium initiative. “I know I’m going to say the big bad word, but that’s because it’s what he used,” Pontieri said, referring to Dance’s mention of a moratorium. She said the industry and the fuel behind it–artificial intelligence, or AI–are growing at a very fast pace.
“It could be one of two things,” Pontieri said. “It could be a lot of fear mongering that’s going on, and these things may not come to fruition. Or it could be even worse than what’s being projected. So, why not take the opportunity to educate ourselves, make sure we’re protecting the city and the county in the meantime, and then once this very short 12-month period is up, we can make a decision based on what is good for economic development, what makes sense, and what is going to possibly protect our city and county.”
nbr says
The cart before the horse
Brian Ford says
Modern data centers are like airports. Everyone needs and often uses one, but no one wants to live near one. Airports help move all those goods that are delivered to your doorstep the next day. Surveys show that 45-50% of the public fly each year. But no one wants to hear or see airplanes taking off or landing from their window. Does this sound familiar to anyone in Flagler County? Everyone wants to access the Internet to stream media and read FlagerLive. But those same people want the media hosted elsewhere. People building modern data centers understand this and are building new data centers where people don’t want to live, such as in heavy industrial areas or on top of closed dumps or waste storage facilities. These designers are seeking out water from waste treatment facilities that should not be allowed to return to the water table or our oceans. No real Internet company is trying to squeeze data centers into residential areas because they already understand the level of public resistance and reputational harm that even proposing such a location would bring. Creating a ‘moratorium’ for something that isn’t present in Flagler County is foolish. Miller and Dance are pandering to the social media crowd for likes. Pontieri may not like mass data storage and ‘surveillance,’ but trying to regulate by creating a hostile zoning environment for data centers makes Flagler County a place where employers will not want to do business.
Deborah Coffey says
You and 10 other Americans agree with what you just wrote. Good luck on the AI and data center train.
Ryan B says
Our town and county should leverage the existing need to improve the water supply and sewage systems against business that suck resources from municipalities. AI data centers are a different beast altogether from internet service providers; which what you’re claiming is the product residents consume but don’t want built next door. AI datacenters generally exist to serve the needs of mammoth corporations. By large, the public may derive benefit (Grok gets smarter or a cancer drug breakthrough etc) but the nearby locals suffer immediate impact of the largest construction project (or larger) since public works. Yes they provide a boon to employment during construction phase but once fully operational require less workers per square meter than nearly any other industrial facility type. It’s just computers running other computers and a relative fewer humans for maintenance. There is still plenty of land space interior. Data is transmitted at near-light speed so it makes no difference where these datacenters are located in relation to their clients (heck, Musk wants to build them in orbit) so why are they targeting small towns and rural counties? Because they perceive limited competition for freshwater resources and town councils eager for tax revenue.
Jeff Parker says
Two words stand alone in this:
Gambino and hole
Dean says
You will regret it and you could be facing lawsuits one after another. There’s more citizens than you. You miss this one up you better have a savings account ready for lawsuits.
Concerned says
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”!!!!!!!!!
Michael John says
My concern with bringing the cables into Flagler Beach has more to do with the state of world leadership. It makes us a “TARGET”. The Data set to come in to the Palm Coast facility is planned to be transfered to a huge Data Center in South Carolina. That’s where the big time water and energy needed will take place.
Laurel says
From what I’ve been seeing, people who have them in their areas, hate them. The hate the noise, and they claim their utilities have gone up. I see this in Texas.
We moved to Flagler County because of all the greenery here. My mistake. I should have known better.
What I wonder about, and would like to hear input on, is that we are moving at breakneck speed with computing and AI. I’m not against AI, I rather like it, and think it’s a good thing, for the most part. But because we are moving so fast, how long would it take for these data centers to become obsolete?
Quantum computing is already here, and it’s much more powerful than data centers. They certainly take up less space, but they require extreme cold to run. So, right now, that’s something to conquer. Maybe Musk is right. Put the quantum computers in space. Space provides the cold needed, and solar panels can provide any needed electricity.
If we replace data centers with much more efficient, and faster quantum computers, what of the data centers? Then what? Huge, empty data centers, needing to be torn down? What of the greenery and wildlife they replaced for a short period of useage? What of the water resources used while in service? We just experienced a severe drought, and there will be more to come. Will our utilities go back down in price? They never do.
I’m not for the data centers, I feel like we’re being take advantage of, for short term profit for the people who own them.
Stop now says
Like sand thru the hourglass
Why not put a moratorium on all new building in the city untill these clowns figure out what’s going on as the dust settles
Just Sayin says
AI centers are coming to Florida. That’s the plan to replace the lost revenue from property taxes on homesteaded property. Local governments will be begging them to build all over Florida and tie into FPL power and suck your water dry. Don’t forget we have lots of land ready for development here in Flagler. Your leaders will say they have no choice but to do it in one year…
Voter says
I am following Erin Brockovich reporting on how there hasn’t been any environmental studies on the safety of these data centers, yet they are being placed all over the country, because of billionaires’ greed as usual.
People do your research and contact your Senators on your concerns.
Hats off to Mr. Dance for questioning this right now, I appreciate that.
Laurel says
Yes! Ms. Brockovich is back!