TAYLOR COUNTY, FL (WTXL) — Taylor County held an informational public meeting Tuesday on data centers, where residents heard from experts and urged county commissioners to establish strong regulations and protections before any data center is approved.
WATCH FULL REPORT BELOW:
The meeting lasted more than 3 hours and covered topics ranging from different types of data centers to citizen concerns and ideas for how the county could regulate them. Speakers included representatives from Florida State University, the University of Florida, the Florida Technology Council, and the Taylor County Development Authority.
According to the meeting agenda, presentations were designed not to tell attendees "what to think" but "what to think about," so county leaders and residents could make informed decisions.
The heart of the controversy, residents said, is an effort to establish a streamlined permitting process for data centers on agricultural land — which they say could lead to projects being approved administratively through the county rather than through public hearings and a commission vote.
Neighbors who spoke at the meeting asked commissioners to make regulations that benefit the people who live in the county. Among their demands were requirements for public meetings on data centers, no automatic approval process, and strong water protections.
Resident Trey Blue called on the board to pause any action on data centers.
"Now I'm asking tonight that this board really needs to consider a moratorium, a temporary pause like numerous other counties in this area and the state have done to give us time to go to that land development that comp plan, and consider the guardrails that we want," Blue said.
Joy Towles Ezell, a lifelong Taylor County resident, said she wants a ban on data centers to protect the environment and expressed concern about several potential impacts.
"We are worried about the water. We're worried about the noise. We're worried about the tax implications if the county commission is going to let them get by with paying no tax, which we've had big companies that have done that here before. We are concerned about the health effects. I mean, there's just a whole myriad of things that we're worried about," Towles Ezell said.
She also raised concerns about long-term environmental damage.
"It's important for families, especially, to be listening about this. There's going to be air pollution. There's going to be a lot of noise. There's going to be water pollution. They've got to do something with all that water that they use to cool the data center equipment with, and we don't know where they're going to try to send that. We had to put up with a polluted river for 70 years, and we don't want that again," Towles Ezell said.
Experts at the meeting acknowledged those concerns as valid but said there are ways to operate a data center with minimal environmental effects. James Taylor, CEO of the Florida Technology Council, explained one cooling method used in modern data centers.
"Close loop simply means that those are filled with water and glycol, and it's a combination. It's a mixture, and that is sealed in there. And that's what recycles through the coolers. Cools down the facility, goes to the top, cools off the above. I talked about those giant fans running that's pulling the heat off of that and it cools down the facility," Taylor said.
The biggest theme across the meeting, from both experts and neighbors, was the need for the county to establish rules and regulations that protect Taylor County and its residents.
County Commissioner Pam Feagle echoed the call for a pause.
"I really would like to see a moratorium so that we can get our LDR in shape," Feagle said.
No formal decision on data centers was made at the meeting. The county will look into options for future meetings.
The meeting comes after counties like Wakulla enacted a permanent ban on large-scale data centers.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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