Martin County commissioners are moving toward a temporary moratorium on large-scale data centers, with a second public hearing scheduled for Oct. 27 for final approval.
County Attorney Elysse Elder said the proposal would prevent data center projects with an electrical demand of 50 megawatts or more from advancing during the moratorium.
“The county would not be able to accept applications, and applicants would not be able to submit applications for the development of large-scale data centers,” Elder said.
If approved, the moratorium would initially last one year, with the option to extend it.
“That's to give staff sufficient time to investigate, to research and determine what kind of regulations are necessary to address large-scale data centers in Martin County,” Elder said.
Data centers are currently permitted under the county's land development code. Elder said the existing rules do not adequately account for the scale of facilities now being proposed.
“At the time of that adoption, nobody could fathom the scale of a large-scale data center. So those code provisions are really insufficient to address these large-scale data centers,” she said.
The proposed moratorium would apply only to unincorporated areas of Martin County. Municipalities such as Stuart would not be covered by the county's restrictions, meaning data center proposals could still be considered within city limits.
The measure also would not apply to applications submitted before the moratorium takes effect. Elder said the county has already received an application for a data center just the day prior to the Oct. 13 meeting.
“The county received and was deemed as sufficient an application for a data center. It's not to the magnitude of the data centers that have been applied for in Indiantown. I'm told 100 megawatts,” Elder said.
Commissioner Edward Ciampi said he has heard support for the proposed pause from people on opposing sides of the data center debate.
“The feedback that I have received has been positive from both sides so that they could have an opportunity to present what they think is their opinions in a calmer kind of forum where we don't have to worry about an application coming in right behind,” Ciampi said.