{"id":416265,"date":"2026-10-02T01:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/416265\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:06:11","slug":"andy-dance-assumes-presidency-of-nefrc-as-data-centers-hum-anew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/416265\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Dance Assumes Presidency of NEFRC as Data Centers Hum Anew"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\"Flagler<\/p>\n

<\/a>Flagler County Commissioner Andy Dance, right, was newly installed as the Northeast Florida Regional Council\u2019s President during the organization\u2019s board of directors meeting on Thursday, Oct. 1 at the Nexus Center in Bunnell. Far left is NEFRC Secretary\/Treasurer and Clay County Commissioner Betsy Condon, and at center is Beth Payne, NEFRC\u2019s Chief Executive Officer. (\u00a9 FlaglerLive)<\/p>\n

Flagler County Commissioner Andy Dance made what might seem to be a mundane observation during a public meeting Thursday at Flagler County\u2019s Nexus Center in Bunnell.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in Flagler County, most people leave the county to work,\u201d Dance said.<\/p>\n

Dance wasn\u2019t speaking at a county commission meeting. He was addressing the board of directors of the Northeast Florida Regional Council\u2013his first meeting with the organization as its president. He\u2019d been first vice president over the past 12 months. The council held its monthly meeting in Bunnell in his honor. It normally meets in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Flagler workers \u201cdon\u2019t stay in the county,\u201d Dance said. \u201cThat presents a lot of challenges regionally: infrastructure, impacts on roads, utilities, energy, the public services here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter the Northeast Florida Regional Council, established in 1977 and representing Baker, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Putnam, Nassau and St. Johns counties, as well as 25 cities, among them Palm Coast. The council is composed of a 35-member Board of Directors consisting of two-thirds locally elected county and municipal officials, and one-third gubernatorial appointees. The Council also has four non-voting ex-officio governor\u2019s appointees representing state and regional agencies.<\/p>\n

Among NEFRC\u2019s chief concerns are economic and community development, emergency preparedness, resilience to climate-related hazards such as rising sea levels, and building a stronger regional healthcare system.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s meeting, attended by 12 NEFRC board members, two ex-officio members and Flagler-area officials and administrators, included discussion of county-imposed data center moratoriums, NEFRC\u2019s newly awarded U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Assessment Coalition grant (an early step in helping communities revive and reuse contaminated \u201cbrownfield\u201d areas), an update on the emergency and disaster preparedness of the Healthcare Coalition program, which NEFRC manages for 18 counties in North Florida, a military installation readiness review, and discussion of the NEFRC itself, which Northeast Florida Regional Council Chief Executive Officer Beth Payne characterized as \u201cthe \u2018case for NEFRC\u2019 isn\u2019t widely understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/a>Tyler Nolen, NEFRC\u2019s Special Projects Coordinator, presented an update on data centers to the board during the Oct. 1 meeting at the Nexus Center in Bunnell. (\u00a9 FlaglerLive)<\/p>\n

Dance made that case during his first presentation as NEFRC President. Though he said he was speaking from a Flagler perspective as the county transitions \u201cfrom a small county to a medium county\u201d in terms of population growth, he said Flagler\u2019s position is mirrored in the other NEFRC localities.<\/p>\n

As Dance\u2019s PowerPoint noted that Flagler County\u2019s population was 49,832 in 2000, then 95,696 in 2010, an estimated 140,360 in 2025, and a projected 158,009 in 2030, he added: \u201cGrowth changes more than population. It changes the scale and complexity of local government. Growth creates challenges beyond our (county) borders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater obviously doesn\u2019t know boundaries. It goes where it wants to go. We have to look at some of these issues from that scale \u2013 watersheds, aquifers, drainage patterns, flooding. All those things cross boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growth creates \u201cinterconnected demands\u201d on roads, utilities, energy and public services, he added. \u201cStorms, flooding and beach erosion cross boundaries, even when solutions are implemented locally.\u201d Development and increases in commuters affect regional travel patterns.<\/p>\n

Dance, a Palm Coast landscape architect, noted \u201cMy roots are in the environmental side,\u201d and added that \u201cDevelopment patterns affect neighboring communities, natural resources and wildlife corridors.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, in the center of all this is the Regional Council. Growth compounds demands. Regional cooperation helps us respond smarter. We can\u2019t do our job in a vacuum.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s methods, according to its website, include \u201cstrategic communication, stakeholder collaboration, and comprehensive analysis to develop effective solutions\u201d for communities in its region.<\/p>\n

Tyler Nolen, NEFRC\u2019s Special Projects Coordinator and Local Emergency Planning Committee Coordinator, presented an update on data centers, an issue the board has been discussing for months. The discussions inspired Dance to initiate what turned into a year-long moratorium on data-center applications in Flagler County. There were and are no such applications in the pipeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Northeast Florida, pretty much every one of you in the room has passed a moratorium on data centers in some shape or form,\u201d Nolen said. \u201cFlagler County is a little bit different \u2013 its moratorium only applies to unincorporated areas.\u201d That\u2019s true, though Palm Coast is on the cusp of approving strict new language in its Land Development Code, or LDC, that would place very high hurdles in the way of data center applications. In a sense, Palm Coast would be ahead of the counties, which imposed their moratoriums to give their staffs time to develop land development code amendments. So Palm Coast is almost there already.<\/p>\n

Large-scale data centers have drawn concerns due to their heavy water use, noise pollution and strain on the power grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of the moratorium is to temporarily pause all new data centers, regardless of size, while we determine what the regulations are that are appropriate,\u201d Dance said during an August Flagler County Commission meeting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At Thursday\u2019s NEFRC meeting, Dance said Flagler\u2019s moratorium \u201cwas really passed as a planning exercise because under our current LDCs the options weren\u2019t great on where they could apply. So, we needed time to analyze and plan the LDCs for appropriate locations. The last thing we need is Tallahassee giving us narrow regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palm Coast City Council member Charles Gambaro was attending his last NEFRC meeting as a board member. He is stepping down from the council at the end of his appointed term in November after an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House (he lost to Randy Fine in the August Republican primary).<\/p>\n

A U.S. Army Reserve Brigadier General, Gambaro said of data centers, \u201cIf you scan out on a national scale, it is a national security issue, if we look at our peer adversaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gambaro added that \u201cThere are plenty of places where you can put them where they\u2019re not going to affect communities. Big companies that want to come in and put in data centers, they have options. They don\u2019t have to necessarily put them smack dab in the middle of large populous areas. But for other projects that help global interconnectivity, those are things that have to be carefully considered. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve taken the approach that it can\u2019t affect water, it cannot affect power, it can\u2019t affect noise levels. It\u2019s right to study this. It\u2019s coming whether we like it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

NEFRC board member John Martin, a Nassau County Commissioner, said, \u201cPeople ask all the time, \u2018Why don\u2019t you just ban them?\u2019 There are several counties across the state that have done that, but that\u2019s an exercise in futility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bans on data centers will face legal challenges eventually, \u201cand we will lose the legal battle,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

Nolen told the board that \u201cIt has been very interesting to hear about the size and scope of these facilities. When you say that phrase \u2018data center,\u2019 I think the first thing that comes to mind is this ginormous facility that has hundreds of thousands of square feet. What we have learned through this process is that there are places known as data centers that may occupy a closet space. Computers have become so efficient that we\u2019ve watched them grow from massive pallet-based items to a closet rack.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we define data centers? What size are we talking about? That\u2019s the bigger discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Rick de Yampert for FlaglerLive<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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