Palm Coast government isn’t waiting a year or six months to add restrictive rules on approving data centers in the city.
In a review of updates to its Land Development Code, the City Council on Tuesday agreed to new proposed language that its planners had added to the code that very morning, and further language added at council members’ request.
“The city currently does not permit data centers. The code is silent on it,” Senior Planner Michael Hanson told the council. “This proposed change to add data centers as a prohibited use is not more restrictive, since that use is not allowed by right within any zoning district, so we float the proposal for data centers as a prohibited use.”
The language defines data centers, and requires a supermajority vote of the council (or at least four of its five members) for a data center to be approved for construction in the city’s boundaries. No data centers could be permitted by right. And none could be built outside of areas zoned for industrial uses.
That makes the future data center in Town Center, scheduled to be operational in 2027, an exception that would not be repeated. The council in 2024 approved a change to the Town Center development order to enable the data center, just before a public backlash against data centers began to build momentum across the country.
Council member Ty Miller earlier this month had asked the city to mirror the County Commission’s moratorium on new data center developments until regulatory language could be updated to include data centers. The city administration moved fast, in essence making a moratorium unnecessary once the language is formally adopted. There are no new data centers in the city’s application queue.
From now on, data centers could be approved in certain areas, but only as a special exception, and only with a supermajority vote.
“At a minimum, it requires it to always come before council and requires a supermajority vote, so there’s a high bar to meet right there,” Miller said. “I was trying to potentially still allow for low-impact projects that could be defined in the same way, but are not really what we’re fearful of, but this still allows for that, so I’m fine with it in this way.”
The council considers the data center currently under construction in Town center low-impact.
“If we had the cable landing station come again, that’s not a 1 million square foot facility,” Miller said, “it uses a closed-loop [water] system, so it’s not using massive amounts of water. That isn’t the same thing as a hyperscale. But it’s still under this would require a special exception.”
City Council member Theresa Pontieri won agreement from her colleagues that even with a supermajority vote, data center approvals must be accompanied by a set of conditions that would require closed-loop systems, that would rely on their own energy grid, and would include provisions against noise pollution.
“They should be as responsibly developed as the cable landing station is,” Pontieri said. The wording was added.
“As the data centers evolve, new technologies come on board. So I think that’s why it is best to defer to City Council to make that decision,” Planning Manager Phong Nguyen told the council.
He spelled out the new definition of data centers, included in the Land Development Code’s glossary: “A physical facility that houses a centralized network of servers, data storage drives, and networking equipment. It acts as the factory or backbone of the internet, providing the infrastructure required to process, store, or distribute digital information, cloud applications and artificial intelligence models. A similar use, such as a cable landing station, is also permissible under this definition.”
At the beginning of last Tuesday’s discussion during the data center segment, Hanson’s statement that data centers are a prohibited use in the city may have been a surprise to anyone familiar with the data center under construction off Town Center Boulevard, south of Royal Palms Parkway. The history of that data center requires its own explanation.
On Feb. 6, 2024, the City Council approved an amendment to the Town Center development order (called a “planned unit development”) explicitly to allow data centers in the business area of those 1,600 acres. The allowance was nestled among many others and was not discussed openly.
Not only did the city approve the construction of that data center–a cable-landing station for up to six undersea data cables that will emerge on South 6th Street in Flagler Beach. But aside from the amendment to the PUD, the city did so with near-complete secrecy, denying repeated requests for information about the center until last April.
The DC Blox facility avoided public regulatory oversight in two ways. First, with the blessing of the city and the county, it took advantage of a provision in state law that allows companies up to two years of secrecy if the company qualifies as an economic development project of a certain category. Second, the facility kept its footprint below 50,000 square feet. That removed the trigger of required public review by the city’s planning board. The facility was approved administratively through the planning department.
The city cleared the way for the Town Center facility under then-Mayor David Alfin, who also stayed mum, though he was fully aware of it. FlaglerLive revealed the plans when DC Blox worked with Flagler Beach government to secure right-of-way landing zones. Flagler Beach declined to conduct those negotiations in the dark. The discussions all took place before the Flagler Beach City Commission.
The claim that “the city currently does not permit data centers” required broader context. In response to written questions today, Hanson and Nguyen wrote back that “the Cable Landing Station was able to be approved as its use falls under an agreement approved by City Council which allows for departures from the City’s Land Development Code.”
Those departures may no longer be allowed for data centers. “The current draft of the LDC’s Chapter 3 no longer proposes to grant Data Centers as a permitted right or via a standard special exception in any zoning district,” the planners said.
As always, there may be caveats: What about data centers in the planned Radyent “westward expansion,” which would develop 22,000 housing units in 22,000 acres, along with large commercial and industrial set-asides? That master-planned development order, or MPD, is in the works.
It’s a matter of timing, the planners say–the sort of timing the council should be aware of. “If the current draft of the LDC is approved and not modified prior to the approval of the MPD of the westward expansion, then data centers would not be permitted,” they wrote. “If the MPD for the Westward Expansion is approved prior to the current draft of the LDC being approved, then data centers would only be permitted if in the MPD Development Agreement’s permitted uses. Alternatively, if the proposed footnote of LDC Sec. 3.03.02 Table 3-4 is amended to include MPD as a potential zoning district, then the Westward Expansion could list data centers within its permitted use list, then data centers would also be permitted. The potential timing relates to how the City handles nonconformities with its LDC.”
The following is a draft of the Land Development Code’s third chapter. It is still a work in progress:
LDC Draft Chapter 3 - 6.9.26 - Redline post workshop -draft watermark (2)
Pogo says
Good luck with sobriety, one day at a time — ladies and gentlemen.
Donald says
Flagler County and Palm Coast brag about bringing jobs to the area, but fight and cancel viable project for the future of our area. Thay are petrified as to the feedback they will get from the usual tree huggers. This county and city are never going to recruit younger residents.
All those apartments they are building, are only attract the wrong people. They will still have to travel many miles to gain and retain employment. The lack of, Excuse my language, Ba__s to do what is nessery for the future. They will keep their heads buried in the sand, and watch the area suffer.
M.Neil Stevens says
Most common sense people do not object to new
“non-harmful” construction, but we do object to no concerns for the traffic created, water usage- disposel and etc.. We do not want the existing citizen to have to bankroll the projects, that our leaders approve by not using common sense when approving such.
Mark says
There are better ways to bring jobs here than building environmentally hazardous data centers. Palm Coast had always been behind the 8-ball because its vision at inception was a retirement community without those words listed. Instead, Grandma and Grandpa moved here, told the family, and they moved down. They told their friends and they moved down. Now we’re a “working” community without good paying jobs unless you’re in medical, or law. Despite all that data centers are not the answer. I don’t want the hum and the light pollution and the water shortages and the cost of my house decreasing, for what? 50 jobs that start at $30k? No thanks, I’ll pass.
Laurel says
Tree hugger here.
Just how will data centers attract young workers, much like storage units do?
Why would someone move to an area that doesn’t have the jobs they want? Are y’all raised on the belief that you move somewhere and then, somehow, someone owes you a job?
Make no mistake. The data centers, and the housing growth will require more water. The current facilities cannot handle the growth. That means any expansion of water treatment plants will be paid for by us, no matter what you are told.
data centers says
The mere fact that a data center was built smack dab in “towne centere” of palm coast – not far from a mini course and movie theater – tells me this was forecasted as prime land became defunct and desperation set in after years of mismanagement, we’ll sell to anyone with a pulse (or not) at this point. Reminds me of when the online gambling joints started popping up all over in PC after the great recession. We might as well put data centers on all major street corners and in all shopping centers as looks like we’ll be renamed to Palm Data Centere Coast… or maybe our name will be changed to binary code.. imagine the look on the highway.. “Exit 289 0100010100101101011011100010101011011000101 – 10 miles”.
Fdt says
Data centers dont create jobs. They deplete and pollute our already sketchy public water.
Ed P says
Shouldn’t the county/city planners look beyond today or tomorrow?
Why are other forward thinking public entities actively developing Data/Tech infrastructure districts specifically tailored to house these large tech clusters.
Very similar to developing industrial parks. These tech focused industrial zones are driving massive investments in Ohio and Indiana. It prevents the haphazard sprawl toward a more master planned digital corridor away from residential areas. Small nuclear power plants (SMR) are entirely factory built, shipped by trucks and can be easily added to as demand increases.
Data centers are rapidly transitioning away from traditional evaporative systems toward the closed loop recycling, direct to chip liquid cooling and now to industrial fluid submersion.
Most environmental/ resource concerns are being addressed.
Holding onto the archaic concept of job creation via commercial industry, which our county/city has not successfully developed, might leave them behind as a technology wasteland.
We are already out matched by Daytona, Jacksonville, and Orlando in the job sector.
Their employee pools are greater, international airports exist as well as developed infrastructure and facilities.
The massive opportunities for capital investment, construction jobs and future tax base may in fact outweigh the outdated concerns voiced by uniformed residents.
Before burning the bridges, and deciding on “just say no”, consider investigating the cognitive blind spots.
Ray W. says
Hello Ed P.
Many valid points worthy of consideration
Small nuclear reactors have been around since the development of nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers. Much has been learned over the passage of time.
Innovation abounds. Ingenuity amazes.
I am not arguing for or against data centers. There are advantages and disadvantages. But I have to acknowledge that tomorrow’s data centers might be much less environmentally damaging than those proposed for today. And, so many data centers are announced when so few may actually be built.
As an aside, I have commented on a $9.6 billion taxpayer-funded trough set aside by the Texas legislature for low-interest loans to build natural gas power plants. From what I found, 11 companies are in construction phase; another 33 are past permitting phase, but do not yet have the land, the long-term contracts of the remaining financing to break ground. 98 more companies vie for their share of the taxpayer largesse, but lack permits to proceed. Only three companies worldwide manufacture the necessary gas turbines. All are behind pace, with turbine delivery times stretching out for years.