{"id":591709,"date":"2026-04-18T12:28:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T12:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/591709\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T12:28:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T12:28:17","slug":"desantis-admin-hits-city-over-hyperscale-data-center-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/591709\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis admin hits city over hyperscale data center proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

TALLAHASSEE \u2014 Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 administration is voicing its displeasure after a Florida city commission on Tuesday moved forward with a plan to build the state\u2019s first hyperscale data center.<\/p>\n

Florida Department of Commerce Secretary Alex Kelly on Wednesday sent a letter to Fort Meade\u2019s mayor calling the planning for the project \u201cfundamentally flawed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly said the proposal for a data center of up to 4.4 million square feet has overstated its economic benefits, is missing key permits and poses a threat to energy and water resources.<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cthe hurdles ahead all but guarantee challenges that are indeed ripe for public input.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly\u2019s excoriating letter is the latest example of how the DeSantis administration is pushing back against large-scale data centers setting up in Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Fort Meade city commission, which represents about 5,000 people in Polk County, unanimously voted Tuesday to approve an agreement with a company set up by the real estate developer Stonebridge, despite roughly three hours of public comments from residents opposed to the project.<\/p>\n

Shortly before the vote, the city amended the development agreement to note that it\u2019s contingent on the city getting approval as necessary from the Southwest Florida Water Management District.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the water district on Tuesday sent a letter saying the city can\u2019t use its existing water permit to supply the data center, which could use up to 50,000 gallons of water per day.<\/p>\n

Due to a recent rule change, the DeSantis-appointed members of the water management district\u2019s board will have the final say over the data center\u2019s water permit.<\/p>\n

Mayor Jaret Landon Williams did not immediately return a request for comment about Kelly\u2019s letter. Neither did a spokesperson for Stonebridge.<\/p>\n

DeSantis has been a vocal skeptic of large data centers and of artificial intelligence generally. He has said those centers<\/a> could allow costs for residents to rise.<\/p>\n

Kelly, in his letter, said the lack of a proper utility plan is another concern.<\/p>\n

Duke Energy would supply the data center with its power.<\/p>\n

The letter says that the company hasn\u2019t gotten approval from the Florida Public Service Commission on a rate structure that \u201cmeaningfully protects Florida\u2019s residential customers<\/a> and small businesses from footing the bill for energy needs\u201d of the center.<\/p>\n

Duke Energy spokesperson Ana Gibbs on Thursday said that the utility had proposed rules for data centers\u2019 power use to state regulators last fall, but has paused that process to ensure it complies with legislation lawmakers passed this year.<\/p>\n

Gibbs also said that data centers will bear the costs of their needed electricity generation \u2014 not residents \u2014 and that they could actually \u201chelp lower costs for all by spreading fixed expenses over more users.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly, in his letter, also said the city and developer haven\u2019t given regulators information as they consider environmental resource permit decisions.<\/p>\n

The data center may need several other permits as well, Kelly said, including ones for air quality, stormwater management and wildlife mitigation.<\/p>\n

Acquiring those permits could put the viability of the project at risk.<\/p>\n

The requirement for data centers to get their water permit from a management district\u2019s full board was quietly adopted last year amid a state push.<\/p>\n

In November, the Department of Environmental Protection sent a memo saying all water districts should update their policies to require that their boards, not staff, handle water permits for data centers.<\/p>\n

In December, the Southwest Florida Water Management District did just that.<\/p>\n

No large-scale or hyperscale data centers have been built in Florida yet, but that appears poised to change.<\/p>\n

Florida lawmakers this session grappled with how to best handle the proliferation of such sites.<\/p>\n

State legislators passed a bill to add guardrails to the industry designed to protect residents from cost spikes on their electric bills and risks to their water supply. DeSantis pushed for the bill but has not yet signed it.<\/p>\n

The bill was watered down by the end of session. At the urging of business lobbyists, lawmakers removed a proposed ban on government employees signing nondisclosure agreements with data center companies, making it easier for corporations to hide their plans.<\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s Fort Meade city commission meeting, some residents raised frustration over not knowing which company would use the data center.<\/p>\n

In his letter, Kelly hinted at frustration over that issue, as well. He said Fort Meade\u2018s plan is speculative \u2014 \u201cespecially given that a data center operator has not yet been disclosed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times reporter Emily L. Mahoney contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Tampa Bay Times. Visit tampabay.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE \u2014 Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 administration is voicing its displeasure after a Florida city commission on Tuesday moved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253,2558,3,111,5262],"class_list":{"0":"post-591709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}