- The city of Alachua plans a 12-month moratorium on AI data centers to halt applications and study regulations after City Commission approval.
- No AI data center projects currently exist in Alachua city limits, and the 104-acre listed property lies outside city jurisdiction in unincorporated Alachua County.
- AI data centers consume huge resources, with average sites using electricity equivalent to 100,000 homes and up to 300,000 gallons of water daily.
The city of Alachua will draft a temporary moratorium halting AI data centers from coming to town following direction from the City Commission during a regular meeting on Monday.
Vice Mayor Jennifer Ringersen motioned for the moratorium, saying she’d had several conversations with concerned constituents over the past few months.
For 12 months, the moratorium will bar the acceptance, processing and review of data center applications looking to develop in Alachua. Although some residents called for a years-long moratorium, City Attorney Scott Walker advised it wouldn’t hold up in court.
He said the 12 months would give the city time to study data centers and enact rules and regulations for them.
“Every journey begins with the first step,” said City Manager Rodolfo Valladares. “Today is the pause that was presented by vice mayor, and that allows us the opportunity to align everything together.”
Citizens and commissioners praised Ringersen for her motion as they raised concerns about the impacts of the facilities on the environment and community.
According to the World Resources Institute, there are more than 3,900 AI data centers across the U.S. as of late January. Ten states account for 60% of those, including Florida, which has 107.
An average facility consumes as much electricity as 100,000 homes, while larger facilities can use 20 times that amount. Mid-sized data centers consume up to 300,000 gallons of water daily, while larger facilities can use up to 5 million gallons.
Because the average site requires up to 224 acres—roughly the equivalent of 450 football fields—data center developers often look to rural communities with large amounts of available agricultural land.
In May, rumors started swirling about a large-scale data center coming to Alachua when My Gainesville Realty listed a 104-acre property east of San Felasco Tech City for sale as a “high megawatt data center development site.”
Residents also intended to raise the issue again at Alachua’s Planning and Zoning Board meeting on Sept. 8, as the body would vote on amendments to the comprehensive plan with language related to data centers. The meeting was cancelled due to no quorum.
Alachua Planning and Zoning Board Member Danielle Judd said Monday she’d brought the issue of data centers before the board when the listing was originally posted.
She said she was glad to see the moratorium, but that the city needed to consider new state legislation that affects how and when local governments include data centers in their comprehensive plan.
Planning and Community Development Director Bryan Thomas confirmed that no data center project is currently underway or has ever been proposed.
He said that even if a project were proposed for the previously listed 104-acre parcel, the city would have no jurisdiction because the property is located in unincorporated Alachua County.
Commissioner Jacob Fletcher asked if the property could be annexed. Thomas said it could; however, the land is still contaminated from a former battery plant and would need to be cleaned by the owners or Alachua County first.
The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners has stated it’s working on language to restrict and prohibit resource-intensive and extractive facilities in Alachua County.
“I can say unequivocally there [are no data center projects] at this time,” he said. “It’s not to say somebody couldn’t come in, but absolutely right now there is no data center project that has been discussed.”
Although Fletcher agreed with the moratorium, he pushed for more discussion, despite Mayor Walter Welch’s opposition, and said he was still “a little salty.”
He said he emailed the city attorney in June with six questions about data centers and their impact on the city’s future land use map, land development regulations and comprehensive plans. Fletcher said he received no response to that email or his follow-ups.
Fletcher also made a motion to have staff advise the City Commission before transmitting the current comprehensive plan amendments for data centers on whether data center or large-load facility portions should be separated or deferred after the moratorium. The motion failed for lack of a second.
The data center moratorium draft will return to the City Commission on Sept. 28 for further review and action.
Editor’s note: This story was underwritten by a grant from the Rural Reporting Initiative at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.