{"id":426763,"date":"2026-10-13T17:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T17:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426763\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T17:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T17:26:08","slug":"martin-county-advances-proposed-data-center-moratorium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426763\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin County advances proposed data center moratorium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12)  \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.martin.fl.us\/Commissioners\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Martin County commissioners <\/a>are moving forward with a proposed one-year moratorium on large-scale data centers, giving the county more time to study their potential impact before allowing new projects to move forward.<\/p>\n<p>The Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the proposal on its first reading Tuesday, Oct. 13. A second public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 27 before the moratorium can receive final approval.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed ordinance would temporarily stop the county from accepting new applications for large-scale data centers in unincorporated areas of Martin County. It would not apply to municipalities.<\/p>\n<p>Under the proposal, large-scale data centers are defined as facilities with an anticipated peak electrical demand of 50 megawatts or more.<\/p>\n<p>County officials say the pause would give them time to study concerns surrounding data centers, including noise, water usage, electricity consumption, wastewater disposal and potential environmental impacts.<\/p>\n<p>During Tuesday&#8217;s meeting, officials also revealed that the county received an application for a data center on Monday, just one day before the hearing.<\/p>\n<p>See also:<a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/florida-drug-trafficking-bust-leads-19-arrests-6-more-suspects-sought-selling-fentanyl-cocaine-florida-department-of-law-enforcement-west-palm-beach-field-office-palm-beach-county-sheriffs-office-florida-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Florida drug trafficking bust leads to 19 arrests, 6 more suspects sought<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Applications deemed complete before the moratorium takes effect would be allowed to move forward under existing regulations.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Sarah Heard questioned whether 365 days would be enough time for the county to complete the necessary research. She also asked whether the moratorium could apply to smaller facilities using 20 megawatts or more of electricity.<\/p>\n<p>County staff explained that the 50-megawatt threshold comes from state law defining large-scale data centers.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Edward Campi said the county needs to hear from experts on both sides of the issue before making long-term decisions.<\/p>\n<p>Campi referenced a recent visit to Virginia, where he toured an area with approximately 120 data centers and observed their appearance and noise levels.<\/p>\n<p>He said the proposed moratorium would provide an opportunity for supporters and opponents to share their perspectives.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner J. Blake Capps also supported the proposal, saying the county needs to carefully consider where data centers could be located, including areas within its urban services boundaries.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Heatherington was absent from Tuesday&#8217;s meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The county first directed its attorney to draft the moratorium in August as concerns grew over the potential impact of large-scale data centers.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal will return to commissioners for a second public hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>If approved, the moratorium would give Martin County up to a year to review its regulations before accepting new applications for large-scale data centers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Martin County commissioners are moving forward with a proposed one-year moratorium on large-scale&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-426763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}