FORT PIERCE – What was once destined to be a $595 million mixed use development, including a surfing pool, is now being eyed for a 174-acre artificial intelligence data center.

But first the Fort Pierce City Commission will have to rezone the agricultural pasture land at 10050 W. Midway Rd. to light industrial for the data center and an adjacent 26 acres for general commercial use.

On Friday, Kevin Keene, a Fort Pierce community activist, submitted a request that the Fort Pierce City Commission request drafting an ordinance that would require a unanimous vote of the five-member commission to approve any future “high-impact data center development.”

According to Keene, his request Friday was prompted by the rezoning requested by developers of Willow Lakes Data Center. But Keene said it also will establish the higher approval standard for any data centers proposed here in the future.

The same Midway Road site had been touted for a major, mixed-use development that had promised the state’s largest inland surfing pool, along with residential homes, a hotel, retail and office space. That never got off the ground.

The establishment of data centers that support the collection of information used by artificial intelligence in acres of computer servers has been a controversial subject nationwide. Many communities have rejected them, citing excessive noise, high demand for cooling water and electricity.

Keene is challenging the city to produce records on the proposed data center’s expected demand for utilities, wastewater, back-up generators, fire and emergency response, and roads, plus environmental impacts, possible tax incentives and “the possibility that infrastructure costs will be shifted to utility customers and taxpayers.”

Data centers do generate substantial tax revenues in some communities where they are located.

“The City of Fort Pierce is not obligated to exchange 174 acres of industrial entitlement for promises that have not been quantified, tested, funded, or made enforceable,” Keene said in a letter to the commission. “The appropriate decision on the current record is denial. At an absolute minimum, no vote should occur until the city and its residents know the project’s maximum size, total resource demands, full public cost, and enforceable safeguards.”

It’s not known when commissioners will consider Keene’s request for public hearings and an ordinance that requires a 5-0 vote by commissioners to authorize any future data center requests.