NE Florida Regional Council Declares Data Centers Regional Issue on Andy Dance’s Motion, Empowering Local Governments

The Northeast Florida Regional Council this morning unanimously approved a motion by Flagler County Commissioner Andy Dance declaring data centers a regional issue. The measure  now enables the organization to put its staff and resources–including planning, legal and economic analysis–to work on behalf of the seven counties and 25 cities that may want to develop new rules and regulations controlling the spread of data centers. 

Flagler County and Palm Coast are part of the regional council. Both governments have agreed to temporary moratoriums on the development of new data centers pending rewrites of land-use regulations to ensure that future data centers, if permitted, comply with certain conditions. Flagler County is expected to consider its moratorium ordinance in July. It can now draw on the regional council’s help for the work ahead. (See: “Palm Coast Joins Flagler County in Considering 1-Year Moratorium on New Data Centers to Rewrite Rules.”)

“I’m looking forward to the help, that’s for sure,” Dance said after the meeting, held in Jacksonville. “We always say businesses want predictability, they want to know assurances that when they read codes that they can rely on zoning and land development regulations so that they don’t run into surprises.” The coming measures will define that predictability, Dance said. 

Dance made the motion, but the item was on the agenda at the council chief administrator’s initiative subsequent to previous discussions on the matter, and was expected to garner support as concerns about data centers have rapidly seized the attention of state and local governments.

The councils are established by state law and open to fee-based local government participation in exchange for services that help local governments with managed growth, economic development and planning challenges. The organization’s regional approach leverages resources that individual governments might not otherwise afford on their own: a recent council study on flooding, for example, cost local governments a fraction of what it would have cost had they conducted it individually. 

The same approach will now apply to data centers. By regionalizing the issue, the Northeast Florida Regional Council will help any of its participating governments develop policies or amend their land-use codes. Data centers are generating volumes of speculation, assumption and information. “But how do you sort through all of the references and determine factual information? That’s part again of what I think they’ll be working on as well,” Dance said. “I got a lot of acknowledgement that our codes are not sufficient to deal with data centers, and that’s a gap that we need to fill.”

Nassau County in April directed its county attorney’s office to draft a moratorium ordinance. The commission held its first public hearing on May 11. The second is scheduled for next Monday. Discussions at the regional council about that moratorium prompted Dance to propose the idea to his own commission. Palm Coast City Council members Ty Miller and Theresa Pontieri followed suit at the city. The next step for Dance was to secure more resources at the regional council to develop the proposed ordinance.

The proposal generated plenty of discussion during a segment of this morning’s meeting, starting with Nassau County’s example.

“Nassau County did ask us to assist them happy to do it,” said Elizabeth Payne, the regional council’s chief executive officer (essentially, the council’s equivalent to a city or county manager), introducing the measure this morning. “Our president kind of wisely asked that this be brought on the agenda as an action item, because when you make it an action item and you establish it as a regional issue, really what that does is allows me to allow staff to expend money, their time and their work hours to this issue. That’s really what this is about.” 

Nassau has “an incredible list of speakers that are coming before the public to share issues,” Payne said of the ongoing process in Nassau County. “All the data, all the questions, all the issues on the table.” A final report is to give the county recommendations on how to move forward. 

Palm Coast and Flagler County have not yet gotten to that step. Dance said the county’s process should include that step of public engagement. 

Payne said the public fact-finding discussions were far-ranging and unexpected as the data center issue underscored the connection between people, the environment and quality of life. “We heard impacts from the migratory birds, because Nassau is number two on the migratory bird Atlantic trail, to the pollinators that could be potentially disrupted,” Payne said. “People’s circadian rhythms from some of the air quality and the noise potential. At the same time we’re starting to get into the economic value and the economic benefits that they can bring, so it’s really telling all the sides of the story and bringing up the issues as they come. It’s fascinating.”

Nassau County maintains a dedicated web page about the fact-finding committee, meeting videos, meeting materials, presentations and proposed ordinances. The page also enables the public to submit evidence, comment or testimony. The regional council, Payne said, is drafting a weekly summary report on Nassau’s meetings and bringing them to the regional council. 

“One of the things that we have found is that everyone in their presentations they’ve given, and in public comment, all have data to share,” Payne said. “Whether it’s real or whether it’s accurate, is what we don’t know. Because they all have sources, and everyone’s being very factual, they’re citing their references, but there’s just so much of it that it is hard to parse through, and we’ve heard a lot of environmental facts put out there that are then quickly overshadowed by other facts from another side of the table on innovations.” 

The regional council discussed Palm Coast’s data center–a cable-landing station for up to six undersea data cables–that prompted Payne to note that there has yet to be a definition of data centers, given the vast differences. “There are a dozen data centers in Jacksonville,” Payne said. 

“Some of which they don’t want you to know about, honestly. It’s a national security issue,” a council member said. 

“Virginia will absolutely get to a yes every single time, because it is a matter of national security,” Payne said. “And we will build the data centers that are needed for our national security.” 

The discussion was a window into the regional differences in how data centers are perceived, and how paradoxical the issue remains. “I have big concerns about data centers, any kind of data center,” another council member said, “but obviously, if we’re going to pass moratoriums and limit data centers in Florida or in other parts of the country, we have to start thinking about limiting data and AI that residents can use, because if there’s demand for the data, there’s demand for AI. Then the government has to stop the demand, we have to pass resolutions and statutes that limit what residents are allowed to use. This is a very, I think, onerous and heavy-handed move from the government. Or you have to meet the demand by building these centers, and it’s not an easy decision.” 

Regulating land-use, noise, and local water and power consumption of physical buildings does not of course logically require internet censorship or individual usage limits.  Whether intentionally or not, Nassau County Commissioner Hupp Huppman corrected the flawed reasoning of his fellow council member:  “There’s a balance there,” he said. “I’m not willing to give up my resources, which is my water and my power for my citizenry, at the scale of what they may think that I need in Nassau County. That’s really where I stand on it. If we can set up the rails and keep them in a lane that fits our community and fits our county and doesn’t tap our resources to the point of strain, then we’re a partner in economic vitality, but not at the sake of my resources.”

It was at that point that Dance floated his motion. 

“The benefit of the council is being able to share information amongst us, regardless of our borders,” Dance said. “I think the effects and the impacts don’t recognize county borders, especially environmental concerns, and so the amount of effort already that the regional council is helping Nassau, we will likely require equal assistance as we pursue a similar path that Nassau has.” He said codes as written are simply not written for data centers. 

Dance rejected the argument that regulating data centers is anti-business. Gov. Ron DeSantis just signed a law that sets boundaries on centers. “Florida is one of the most pro-growth, pro-business states, and the legislature and the governor saw fit to impose regulations on hyperscale data centers,” Dance said, “and Senate Bill 44 left it up to our local jurisdictions to establish rules. So they set the precedent on what we are currently doing.” 

In a related discussion that prefaced the data center item, Payne had cautioned the regional council that future budget cuts provoked by the possible reduction in homesteaded tax revenue may have a severe impact on regional councils if participating governments cut back their dues. 

Huppman and Clay County Commissioner Jim Renninger said that would be a short-sighted loss. “Without membership in the regional council,” Renninger said, describing how Clay County is piggybacking on Nassau’s research about data centers, “we’d have been in the forest looking at the trees, not, knowing how to get out of it. So there’s a lot of benefit, and data centers is one thing. Solid waste management is another. Advanced air mobility is a third.”