A proposal to build what would be Pinellas County’s first artificial intelligence data center has prompted Pinellas Park officials to ask a question they say the city’s zoning code can’t yet answer.
How should AI data centers fit into the city?
On July 21, the Pinellas Park City Council will consider the first reading of a proposed one-year moratorium on new data centers, giving staff time to study the rapidly emerging industry before writing regulations governing where the facilities belong and how they should be reviewed.
The proposal landed in Pinellas Park, a largely built-out city in the heart of Pinellas County. With little vacant land remaining, officials say now is the time to decide where and how data centers should fit before more proposals arrive.
The discussion began in May when American Tower submitted plans to redevelop an industrial property at 10700 76th Court N., just east of Belcher Road, into a roughly 17,000-square-foot data processing facility. Site plans show the project would demolish an existing light industrial building while keeping the property’s communications tower in operation.
Community Development Administrator Nick Colonna told the Catalyst the proposal initially arrived as a warehouse, a use permitted by right in the property’s M-1 Light Industrial zoning district.
As planners reviewed the application, however, they concluded it didn’t neatly fit any category already defined in the city’s land development code.
“What is it?” Colonna said. “Is it a utility? Is it a Walmart? Is it a grocery store? We don’t know.”
Rather than approve the project under warehouse regulations, staff determined the facility should instead be reviewed through the city’s conditional use process, which requires public hearings and allows officials to evaluate potential impacts on surrounding properties and public infrastructure.
American Tower has not submitted a conditional use application, leaving the proposal unable to move forward in its current form, Colonna said.
But Colonna said the application exposed a broader issue than a single project: Pinellas Park’s zoning code simply wasn’t written with modern AI data centers in mind.
The proposed ordinance would temporarily prohibit the city from accepting or approving site plans, rezonings, conditional use permits, building permits and other development approvals for new data centers while staff studies the issue and prepares recommendations for permanent regulations. The moratorium would remain in effect for up to one year unless lifted earlier by the City Council.
According to the ordinance, officials want to examine how data centers could affect electrical infrastructure, water consumption, wastewater systems, emergency services and compatibility with surrounding neighborhoods before establishing long-term policy.
Vice Mayor Ricky Butler said the proposal gives the city an opportunity to understand those issues before making permanent decisions.
“I think it’s important for everybody to kind of take a breath and understand what the impacts are,” Butler said. “I think that’s a very reasonable approach to it.”
Butler said residents have raised concerns since the proposal became public, making it appropriate for the city to slow the process while sorting through the facts.
“Anything they’re concerned about, I should be concerned about,” he said. “That’s part of any process when it comes to public policy.”
He also said discussions among members of Forward Pinellas, the official land use and transportation planning agency for Pinellas County, suggest local governments across the county are beginning to think about the issue together.
“Pinellas County is a unique place, and I think it’s an issue that draws enough public interest that we should have a fair and consistent approach,” Butler said.
Environmental advocates say they welcome that approach.
Brooke Alexander, who works on clean energy issues for Sierra Club Florida, said the organization is not opposed to data centers but believes communities need time to understand their potential impacts before approving projects.
Regarding a municipal moratorium on data centers, Alexander said, “I kind of view it as pressing the pause button.”
Brooke cited concerns about electricity demand, water consumption, flooding and long-term land use planning, while noting that Florida’s hurricane-prone environment creates challenges many other states don’t face.
“Sierra Club is not explicitly against data centers,” she said. “We’re just trying to get a grip on what are the potential impacts.”
American Tower did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
If approved on July 21, the ordinance will return to the City Council for a public hearing before a final vote.
For Colonna, the ordinance isn’t intended to answer whether Pinellas Park should have data centers. It’s intended to give the city time to answer a simpler question first.
“That’s why the moratorium is important,” Colonna said. “If nothing else, to understand what it is and how we work through it.”