Data center backlash spreads in Florida. Here's what to know
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This month, Village of Palmetto Bay Vice Mayor Mark Merwitzer announced he’d be introducing legislation to ban data centers in the village.
- "Palmetto Bay is a village of families, a village of parks and a village of neighborhoods, and we're not going to let data centers wreck that," Merwitzer said in a news release.
Why it matters: The move — although from one of the county’s smaller municipalities — highlights the growing tensions between the new data centers being proposed and the residents who live here.
State of play: Florida is already home to more than 100 data centers, with about 27 in the Miami area, according to Data Center Map, an online research tool.
Threat level: But not all data centers have drawn the ire of residents and politicians. Their concern is focused on the hyperscale centers needed to keep up with the growth of artificial intelligence.
- Only one hyperscale data center has been approved in the state, according to news reports. It’s facing two lawsuits and a recall, The Real Deal reported.
Case in point: Counties across the state — Leon, Nassau, Pasco and Sarasota counties — have issued moratoriums for the large-scale data centers.
- But the centers being built in the Miami area are one-story "micro-datacenter[s],” which an expert estimated would use less than 0.2% of Miami’s total drinkable water, the Miami Herald reported.
- If three new apartment buildings wouldn’t spark concern, small data centers probably wouldn’t either, the expert told the outlet.
Yes, but: Little-to-no information was given to residents near one of the projects, Iron Mountain, because it was classified as a “telecommunications hub,” not a “data center,” in county code.
- Many residents in Westview, a predominantly Black neighborhood, said they were unaware of the project and its potential long-term effects, the Herald reported.
What’s next: Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed for data center regulations and signed legislation giving local governments authority to reject hyperscale proposals.
- But Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor, said Florida should welcome data center investment.
- “When it comes to technology, AI and everything else, Florida should lead,” he said, per Florida Gulf Coast University’s student publication, The Eagle.