DOWNTOWN TALLAHASSEE, FL — Leon County commissioners are scheduled to consider a one-year moratorium on new large-scale data center development during Tuesday's commission meeting.
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Commission Chair Christian Caban proposed the moratorium at the commission’s last meeting in June.
County staff reports that neither the Leon County Development Code nor the Tallahassee-Leon County 2050 Comprehensive Plan addresses data centers or “large load customers,” regardless of size.
Caban says data centers, especially large-scale AI data centers, need to be defined in these documents.
“These things are not popular. They have a terrible PR problem. They're not good for the environment. They’re racking up utility bills in surrounding communities. I think we just need to pause. We need to slow this down. We need to understand the implications of data centers before we open the door to them to ever coming to our community,” Caban said.
There are currently four small data centers in Tallahassee:
- Edge ConneX Tallahassee - 1531 Commonwealth Business Drive
- Pavlov Media Tallahassee - 215 West Carolina Street
- Lumen Tallahassee - 619 Mabry Street
- Lumen Tallahassee 2 - 1416 South Adams Street
However, a recent Gallup poll found 7 in 10 Americans are against local construction of AI data centers.
The primary reasons include their effect on resources like water and energy, concerns about quality of life, and their effect on costs like higher utility bills.
Retiree Scott Hannahs echoed those concerns.
"Well, if they're near me, the noise and possible overuse of our groundwater or aquifer that we all rely on for drinking, et cetera, whether we're going to be on the hook or have the carbon footprint of a whole other electric power plant to do this,” Hannahs said. “The benefits? I don't see much.”
Pew Research Center reports that states are offering “financial incentives” to attract new data centers “in pursuit of construction jobs, local tax revenue and future business opportunities that data centers can offer.”
Eddie Gonzalez Loumiet, the chairman of Ruvos and chair of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, says he views the moratorium as a learning experience to understand the true impacts of data centers, but he wants to ensure the private sector has a seat at the table.
"What we don't want is a shingle in our front door, like I said, that says we're closed for business. We can message that in a way where we can invite some of these data center companies to have experts and explain to them our limitations in terms of infrastructure today, right?" Gonzalez Loumiet said.
“Electricity, water, all the different components come into a data center, and we may be working collaboration to understand really what's the impact," he added.
If commissioners choose to move forward with a moratorium Tuesday, staff would need to prepare an ordinance and schedule two public hearings before it is enacted.
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