Martin and Broward Move Toward One-Year Pauses on Large Data Centers. Here Is What Changes for Industrial Land

Two South Florida counties are moving toward one-year pauses on large-scale data centers, and anyone pricing industrial land for that use now needs to confirm the jurisdiction, the application status and the power commitment before assigning it any data-center premium. Martin County commissioners advanced a moratorium at a first public hearing on October 13. Broward County commissioners take up a request to draft one on October 20. Neither is in effect today.

Martin County: first vote taken, final vote October 27

Martin commissioners voted unanimously on October 13 to move the proposal forward, WFLX reported. The ordinance, prepared by County Attorney Elysse Elder, would set a temporary planning period and stop the county from accepting applications for large-scale data centers while staff studies new rules. State law defines a large-scale data center as a single site with an anticipated monthly peak electrical load of 50 megawatts or more. The pause would last one year, with an option to extend it.

The county’s agenda item lists the concerns behind it: noise, water and electric power consumption, water disposal, compatibility with neighbors and other environmental effects. Elder told WQCS that the county’s existing land development code allows data centers but was written before facilities of today’s scale were imagined. The second and final hearing is scheduled for October 27 at 9:00 a.m.

Two limits matter. The moratorium would apply only in unincorporated Martin County. Stuart and other cities make their own decisions. And it would not reach applications the county deemed complete before the ordinance takes effect.

An application arrived the day before the hearing

The county received a data-center application on October 12 and deemed it sufficient, Elder told WQCS. WFLX described it as the first data center proposed in unincorporated Martin County, a hyperscale facility of more than 950,000 square feet on land off Kanner Highway west of I-95. Elder put its expected load at about 100 megawatts, smaller than the data centers proposed in Indiantown. A sufficient application is the start of a review, not an approval, and it is not a construction start.

Broward County: a request to draft, not a rule

Broward’s October 20 agenda includes item 26-1386, sponsored by Commissioner Lamar P. Fisher. It asks the commission to direct the County Attorney’s Office to draft an ordinance creating a one-year moratorium on large-scale data centers in unincorporated Broward, using the same 50-megawatt state definition. Approving the motion would start the drafting process. A draft ordinance would still need its own public hearings, and the item does not apply inside Broward’s municipalities, where most of the county’s industrial inventory sits.

Why counties are acting now

A new state law, Senate Bill 484, took effect July 1. It confirms that cities and counties may regulate data centers and other large electrical users through their comprehensive plans and land development rules. Both counties cite it directly. Expect more local governments to follow: in St. Lucie County, the planning and zoning board recommended denial of a request to build a data center on agricultural land, WQCS reported.

What this means for you

If you own industrial land, a data-center story can still add value, but only where the site sits in a jurisdiction that will accept the application, and where the utility can actually deliver the power on a known schedule. Zoning and power are two separate approvals, and energizing a large site can take longer than permitting it. If you are buying, ask for the application record and the adopted ordinance text, not a summary, before relying on any exemption for a pending application. If you are a conventional industrial user, very little changes. A warehouse, a fabrication shop or a service yard draws a fraction of the 50-megawatt threshold.

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