PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Pasco County commissioners are moving forward with a second hearing on a moratorium targeting large-scale data centers, after dozens of residents packed Tuesday's Board of County Commissioners meeting to voice their support for the pause.
Tampa Bay 28 Annette Gutierrez was at last week's Planning Commission meeting, where she heard from many Zephyrhills residents who say they are against data centers, and is now following through on the story.
WATCH: Pasco County commissioners move forward with 2nd hearing on large-scale data center moratorium
At Tuesday's meeting, nearly 30 people took the podium to share concerns about the impact on wildlife, public health, noise pollution, energy use, overheating, and water conservation.
"I'm violently against AI data centers," one resident said.
"Once you make that decision, it's done — you can't go back and undo it," another resident said.
"What do you see as a benefit — is it just financial?" another resident said.
"Infrastructure sound at high volumes directly affects the central nervous system and heart function," one resident said.
"We are a natural disaster magnet — I'm telling you data centers of any size don't belong in this state," one resident said. "They belong in a mountain, in other states where it's cooler, they don't have the issues we do — we're competing for drinking water, etc."
At the meeting, some attendees wore "No Data Center" pins while others held signs reading "FL Water for People, Not Data."
Not everyone at the meeting opposed data centers entirely. One man from South Florida said he wants to operate a nearly 20-megawatt data center in the area. He said his 200,000-square-foot facility would not use water for cooling and would use only approximately 200,000 gallons for restrooms.
"My facility, again, would use less water than a typical coffee shop," he said.
County commissioners discussed the moratorium language to ensure there were no loopholes before voting on it. District Chair Jack Mariano said he is pleased the county is taking a proactive approach.
"I'm glad the county commissioner's taken this step forward to make sure that we're going to protect our citizens from too much water consumption, too much electricity consumption that could affect our business long term," Mariano said. "I think a lot of our decisions do get impacted with citizens' input to find out what's important because if it's important to them, it's important to us."
The next hearing on the topic is set for July 14.
And the hearing on this topic in Zephyrhills is set for June 22.
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