Broward County could soon freeze data center development, joining the ranks of municipalities in Florida that have pushed back against the projects.
Commissioners will consider a motion on Oct. 20 to direct the county attorney’s office to draft an ordinance that would impose a one-year moratorium on large-scale data center development in unincorporated Broward County.
Commissioner Lamar Fisher sponsored the motion. County spokesperson Kimberly Maroe said the motion was not prompted by any data center proposals and that, to the county’s knowledge, no proposals have been submitted. Fisher wants to understand the potential impacts of data centers and ensure the county is prepared, she said.
“With electric and water, I just want to make sure that we understand it and see if we want to do something about it or not,” Fisher told Axios.
Florida law defines a large-scale data center as a facility expected to draw at least 50 megawatts of power at peak demand. That’s enough electricity to power tens of thousands of homes.
Hyperscale data centers can span millions of square feet and consume massive amounts of water and electricity to support large-scale data storage, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. As tech giants pour billions into the projects amid the AI boom, officials have raised concerns these centers could strain local infrastructure and power grids.
Cities and counties across the state have taken actions to restrict data center development while they decide how to regulate the projects, with 29 local measures currently in force, according to SAVRN’s data center moratorium tracker.
Broward County already has at least four operating data centers, according to Data Center Map. But these facilities, which are much smaller and generally require less power, aren’t the type of large-scale campuses targeted by the potential moratorium.
Florida is expected to have nearly a dozen large data centers by the end of the year, Axios reported.
Broward County’s potential moratorium comes on the heels of Palm Beach County’s year-long ban on large scale data centers passed last month. That ban had been brewing since July, when the county paused new data center applications and rejected a zoning application for Project Tango, a 1 million-square-foot, 600-megawatt data center that drew fierce community backlash.
Read more
Data center doubt: Why Florida is pushing back against hyperscale development
Megawatt moratorium: Palm Beach County OKs year-long data center pause
Palm Beach County nixes proposed Project Tango data center
