DADE CITY — Pasco County officially has a year to think things over.
County commissioners voted unanimously to approve a 12-month moratorium on new data centers, freezing building permits, rezonings and site plans for the massive server farms across unincorporated Pasco.
The moratorium is retroactive to May 27, the day the county first advertised the hearing.
“I think you guys did a great job in speed getting it forward,” Chairman Jack Mariano told staff. “I think what you’ve isolated is this moratorium is rock solid for us, and we don’t have to worry about any data centers for a year.”
It was the kind of vote county commissioners love, with zero controversy, no drama in the outcome and an easy win for the board.
The suspense had already drained from the room by the time Mariano opened the floor to public comment, joking that the crowd could simply “wave in support” instead of using their three minutes.
“Not a big forecaster,” he said, “but it looks pretty good from what I can see.”
Nobody waved. Nearly two dozen residents lined up anyway, turning in a relatively informative and agreeable one-hour public comment session.
For some, one year wasn’t enough. San Antonio’s Cindy Skarda thanked the commissioners before reminding them that Florida’s aquifer was fragile and insisting that there were enough data centers. She also cited a recent case where a massive Meta AI data center contaminated the wastewater in Wyoming with a rare bacteria.
“I appreciate your moratorium consideration,” she said, “but I also think maybe we need a permanent ban.”
Spring Hill’s Angela Rene Camenzuli made a similar request.
She said that her family has a 100-acre farm and was recently “aggressively” approached about selling it for the use of an AI data center.
“I met his aggressive yes with an extremely emphatic no,” she said. “So I am very very happy to hear that we are now looking at having at least a one-year moratorium. As a landowner and as a Pasco County citizen, I would very much appreciate a consideration of three- to five-year moratorium for this (to hold off prospective buyers). … I don’t think that we’re safe with a mere one-year moratorium.”
The moratorium, according to Pasco attorney Jeffrey Steinsnyder, can only legally be in place for a year, though increments can be tacked on if commissioners decide they need more time.
Retired U.S. Central Command portfolio manager Jeff Roberts, who also worked for NASA, told commissioners there are already about 100 data centers operating in Florida and roughly 12,000 worldwide, and they serve 95% of users with no issues. He warned that a global “land rush” for AI-driven hyperscale centers could take 3-5 years to shake out, and that Pasco should hold back until the dust settles.
Residents raised the usual concerns about noise, air emissions, water consumption and contamination, wildlife impacts and even potential health effects.
Planning staff also confirmed the moratorium closes the door on a long-debated data center proposal near I-75 and State Road 52. The developer of that data center had spoken at two previous meetings, imploring commissioners to make an exception for smaller facilities like his, which he said was 19.9 mega-watts.
Commissioners agreed to tighten an exemption for small data centers, capping their power draw at 2.5 megawatts, down from an earlier 10-megawatt threshold, and adding e-waste disposal to the list of conditions any future agreements would have to meet.
“The proposal over at Double Branch is inside this moratorium and cannot proceed,” said planning and economic development director David Engel.
For now, Pasco joins a growing list of Florida counties hitting pause on data centers while trying to figure out how to regulate water use, noise and power demand from an industry that is growing too fast for government rules to keep up with.
It joins 25 other counties and two other cities in Florida that are either considering, enacting or have already enacted similar halts, according to planning development and economic growth staff Amanda Hill.
Commissioners now have a year to do their homework, and whether the moratorium gets extended, or made permanent, is a conversation for 2027 after their unanimous roll call vote.
“Passed unanimously,” Mariano said, before asking the crowd to refrain from applause.