Broward County may become one of the latest local governments in Florida to adopt a temporary ban on data centers.<\/p>\n
According to Tuesday\u2019s commission meeting agenda, County Commissioner Lamar Fisher is set to request that the county attorney draft an ordinance that \u2014 if approved \u2014 would establish a yearlong moratorium on the development of large-scale data centers within unincorporated Broward County.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the potential impacts of these facilities on infrastructure capacity, utility demand, surrounding land uses and the environment \u2026 the moratorium would provide the county with an opportunity to evaluate these impacts and develop appropriate land development regulations governing such facilities,\u201d according to the agenda.<\/p>\n
Other local governments have enacted similar measures. The Palm Beach County Commission approved<\/a> a yearlong data center moratorium on Sept. 24, months after rejecting Project Tango<\/a>, a massive data center proposed west of Loxahatchee.<\/p>\n More than a dozen local governments across the state also have adopted yearlong moratoriums, including Bay, Citrus, Clay, Holmes, Jackson, Leon, Nassau and Pasco counties.<\/p>\n Many of these moratoriums are based on a bill that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law in May creating the state\u2019s first regulatory framework on large-scale data centers, which are defined to have \u201can anticipated monthly peak load of 50 megawatts or more.\u201d One megawatt could power anywhere from 600 to 1,000 \u201caverage\u201d homes in developed countries, according to energy experts<\/a>.<\/p>\n The purpose of the law is to protect Floridians against AI data center development by creating rules primarily around electricity grid and water usage. The law also grants local government officials the authority to create their own rules about how to handle data center development.<\/p>\n The moratoriums give local governments the time to determine what data centers should look like and what rules, if any, should surround the creation of them.<\/p>\n