- September 16, 2026
Large-scale data centers? Not in unincorporated Volusia County.
The County Council unanimously voted on Monday, Aug. 17, to have staff pursue an ordinance that would ban large-scale data centers on land under county jurisdiction. Though officials did not approve a moratorium, because an ordinance is now in the works for a ban, a data center cannot file an application with the county.
"These data centers can be loud," County Councilman Troy Kent said. "They can negatively affect people's sleep. They're a huge drain on the water supply. They're a huge drain on the electricity supply. ... Why the hell would any sane person want these in your community? There's nothing positive that I heard."
The Aug. 17 discussion came after the County Council asked staff in early June to research data center development in Volusia County and bring information concerning possible regulations. This also came after the governor signed Florida Senate Bill 484, which allows local governments to implement regulations for data centers. This created a limited exception on Senate Bill 180, which restricts local governments from adopting more restrictive land development regulations.
An 18-month moratorium was also recently approved in the city of Ormond Beach.
What is a large-scale data center? According to the county presentation, it is a facility that houses computing equipment to process, store and transmit digital information. A large-scale data center has an anticipated monthly peak electrical load of 50 megawatts or more. They operate 24/7 and require constant temperature control, redundant power, fiber connectivity and physical security and can generate noise and low-frequency sound that travels far.
"Their defining characteristic is intensity in resource demands, preliminarily electricity and water," said Carol McFarlane, county director of Planning and Development Services. "Every smartphone that we use, folks who are using Netflix to stream videos, AI queries — those are all computations that go through a data center."
An AI data center has an electrical demand of anywhere from 200 megawatts to more than 500. This is equivalent to 133,000 to 333,000 households.
"You're looking at something like Gainesville or almost the entire households in Volusia County, including the cities," McFarlane said.
A smaller data center, such as company's private facility to store IT infrastructure, could have an electrical demand of 1-10 megawatts — about 660-6,600 households.
An AI data center could use the same amount of water as up to 16,700 households.
County staff also noted in their presentation that data centers don't typically generate many local jobs after they're constructed, as the majority of employees are usually remote.
The county's current regulations didn't mention data centers. Any type of data center use (from the smaller kind, like an accessory server room, to an AI data center) was allowed under Heavy Industrial I-2 zoning.
Only one area of the county is zoned I-2: Five properties north of Hull Road near the city of Ormond Beach.
After the county's presentation, Councilman Don Dempsey voiced his opposition to data centers and asked staff to display a map from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection depicting sinkhole susceptibility. Volusia County was shown to be favorable for the possibility of sinkholes.
"My concern is, in this county, I believe we are more susceptible to sinkholes arising from one of these large-scale data centers sucking up all 5 million gallons [of water] a day, than maybe one of the counties to the south or to the north, which are not in that category," Dempsey said.
County staff was recommending the council adopt a 12-month moratorium as new regulations were drafted to avoid any legal risks and conduct a study.
But Dempsey laid out a way the county could pursue a ban, Kent said. Every resident that spoke at the meeting also opposed data centers.
Initially, Councilman Matt Reinhart made a motion for a 12-month moratorium before adopting a ban, but changed his mind near the end of the meeting and asked for an outright ban. Dempsey, Reinhart, Kent and Chair Jeff Brower were on board.
"Don, you're right – We have to stand up to the state and say, 'Look, this is the health of the people that we represent,'" Brower said. "Don't ask me to back up. Don't ask me to play coy and be afraid that you might sue us. Let's take a fight to them."
The rest of the councilmen expressed some hesitation, but they did vote in favor of the ban.
"There's a lot of people that have complained in the past about Senate Bill 180 or other legislative bills that have passed in Tallahassee that we don't like," Councilman David Santiago said. "Then you hear the drum pounding saying, 'They're telling us what to do. The Legislature is controlling us.' ... A lot of that is the result of times when communities don't follow the law."
Santiago argued that putting a moratorium in place did the same thing as an outright ban, but allowed staff time to follow legal procedures.
"My intent is to do it the right way to not put you all at risk, and another thing that you should know is there's only one parcel — one in all of Volusia County unincorporated area — that would qualify for this, and it's too small for a large-scale AI data center," Santiago said. "Which means what? It'll never happen."
The proposed ordinance will be reviewed by the Planning and Land Development Regulation Commission at an upcoming meeting. Following that, it will require two public hearings.
