Orange County commissioners agreed Tuesday to advance a plan to temporarily ban data center development.
Commissioners reached a consensus for a 6- to 18-month moratorium, depending how long county staff need to research potential impacts. But staff still need to draw up a formal ordinance or resolution for an actual vote.
A vote is expected to occur at the board’s Dec. 1 meeting.
“What we’re asking for is not new,” said Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad, who spearheaded the proposal. “We’re following what other municipalities and counties have done, not just in Florida, but across the entire country. We’re asking for a one-year moratorium on new data center applications with the option to extend.”
Orange County currently doesn’t have any reference to data centers in zoning regulation or county code, she explained. Without reference, the community is vulnerable to development that could have unknown long-term effects.
The development of large-scale data centers, particularly in Virginia, Texas, and California, has accelerated with the expansion of artificial intelligence. Semrad supports a moratorium on all data centers until there is reference in county code and information on potential impacts.
“A moratorium gives the county time to choose the rules — the rules that work best for our community,” Semrad argued.
A new state law defines large-scale data centers as those with a peak electrical load of 50 megawatts or more. They have faced cross-partisan backlash and opposition across the country over environmental impacts, energy and water consumption, spikes in utility bills, noise pollution, and other effects on quality of life.
Recent Gallup polling found that seven in 10 Americans oppose the construction of data centers in their communities. Nearly half strongly oppose it.
More than a dozen Florida municipalities have either placed a moratorium on data centers to research potential impacts, or are in the process of doing so. Some counties are looking to permanently ban them. Volusia County is in the process of doing so as well.
Dozens of people, including activists with the youth-led Sunrise Movement, a national climate justice organization, spoke in favor of a moratorium during public comment Tuesday.
“Everybody says that AI is the future,” said Annabelle Chapman, a Lake County activist with the Sunrise Movement. “We won’t have that future, or it might not be a promising one if we are going to sacrifice our land and water to something that isn’t really promising much in return.”
Others shared concerns about data centers’ energy and water consumption and empty promises of jobs opportunities. Attendees voiced desire for transparent, public review of data center development proposals.
“We are counting on our leaders — you — to slow down this process so that we may assess the risks to our quality of life,” said Susannah Randolph, chapter director of Sierra Club Florida. “The companies proposing these projects are working hard to evade public scrutiny and discussion by operating in the shadows through campaign contributions to candidates and non-disclosure agreements.”
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando — who is running for Orlando mayor next year — spoke in favor of a county moratorium. She and several other local Democratic state lawmakers have voiced support for the idea. Semrad said she received more than 800 emails from constituents supporting a moratorium in her district alone.
“We heard it today, you guys,” Semrad told her colleagues. “We didn’t have a single person come in here and say, ‘I want to live next to a data center. Please build one in my community.’”
Indeed, out of the 54 registered speakers, not a single person voiced interest in living next to a data center.
County staff pointed out that there are many different types of data centers, ranging significantly in peak electrical load. But those generating the most concern and public pushback are large-scale industrial facilities with an electrical load of 50 to 200 megawatts or more.
Smaller-scale data centers, with a load of two to 5 megawatts, have existed for decades.
“The large-scale data centers exceeding 50 megawatts can each consume up to 5 million gallons [of water] per day, which is the equivalent of 1.5 Winter Park’s, or 50,000 people per day,” Semrad said.
“Water is a finite resource, and we know that our aquifer is already strained as it is,” said Orange County chief planner Marcus Bastian.
The board could vote on the moratorium during their Dec. 1 meeting. The moratorium’s duration may depend on how long county staff need to study construction impacts.
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