The Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners voted 3-2 on Sept. 15 against moving forward with a 12-month moratorium on data centers, with a majority saying the regulatory framework the board ordered earlier this month should be allowed to run its course.

• Commissioner Paul Mixon proposed the moratorium during commissioners’ comments at the end of the meeting, after a public comment period that several commissioners said showed residents had misunderstood the board’s earlier action. His motion would have directed staff to bring back an agenda item for a public hearing on a proposed moratorium. Commissioner Sherri Cox seconded the motion.

Chairman Trey Goodwin and Commissioners Carolyn Ketchel and Drew Palmer opposed it. Palmer initially said he would support the moratorium before changing his position during the discussion.

On Sept. 3, the board voted unanimously to direct staff to develop a regulatory framework for data centers. A staff report presented at that meeting noted that data centers are not specifically addressed in the county’s comprehensive plan or land development code. Deputy County Administrator Jason Autrey said he would return within 60 days with a skeletal outline of the core issues.

‘We’re not the enemy’

Ketchel opened commissioners’ comments by addressing the tone of some speakers earlier in the meeting.

“We’re not the enemy. We’re trying to be public servants,” Ketchel said. “We answer your emails. We are looking very closely at what could happen here with data centers. [It] Doesn’t mean we’re going to put data centers here. In fact, when all the information comes in, we may decide that it’s the worst idea ever.”

• “A lot of stuff that comes out on social media anymore isn’t even true. It’s not true,” she added. “So don’t believe everything you read. Talk to us. Make appointments to see us. Write us.”

Palmer said the county is not recruiting data centers and that tax incentives have never been on the table as far as he is concerned.

“We’re not courting them. We’re just saying that, we don’t have any rules right now, and so we should put rules in place,” Palmer said.

Palmer said the concerns raised in the discussion included noise barriers, closed-loop cooling systems to limit water consumption, requiring any data center to strengthen the power grid so the cost does not fall on the community, and keeping data centers out of Shoal River Industrial Park, where the county is working to create jobs.

The moratorium motion

Mixon said the misinformation did not come from the board’s earlier meeting, where commissioners discussed adding guardrails and regulations for data centers.

Because the source of that information was unknown, Mixon said he wanted to see whether the commission had an appetite to add an item seeking a 12-month moratorium while the county explores its regulations.

“Moratoriums are short. They’re made to be temporary. They’re not permanent,” Mixon said, adding that without regulations in place, the county may be better protected by having a moratorium until rules are adopted.

When Palmer asked whether a moratorium would end once a policy was in place, Mixon said he believed it could be written to end on a set date or when a policy took effect, and that the board could end it at any time. Mixon said his immediate focus was protecting Shoal River Industrial Park but that he had no objection to a countywide moratorium while regulations are developed.

Goodwin said he believed a moratorium would require a public hearing.

Palmer initially said he would support the motion, especially since it would go to a public hearing, but said he did not want the moratorium to be a knee-jerk reaction.

“I want this to be a contemplated and a considered action,” Palmer said. He added that the longer the county goes without regulations, the longer it remains at risk.

‘Let what we did last meeting stand’

Ketchel said she was reluctant to vote against the motion but believed the board’s Sept. 3 action was sufficient.

“I loved what we did last meeting. I thought it was a mature, adult conversation about data centers,” Ketchel said. “I think we just ought to let what we did last meeting stand because we did all the right things last meeting.”

Mixon responded that the concern Ketchel described was the danger of gossip and fear-mongering.

“My efforts and the intentions behind my efforts is really just to be able to give some solidified peace to folks who obviously have taken this into a role of absolute anxiety,” Mixon said. “This effort would just give us something in the meantime while staff has the time to work this out and the opportunity to do their full research, because it’s not a quick process either to create these regulations.”

Goodwin said he preferred to let the board’s earlier action stand on its own, saying he was concerned the board would be reacting to “uninformed emotion.”

• “I don’t think the board did anything irresponsible,” Goodwin said. “In fact, I think we did something, frankly, far more responsible than I’ve seen out of some other local jurisdictions.”

Goodwin said the county’s code does not define data centers, which staff would need to do even before a moratorium could take effect.

“You can’t just write an ordinance that says data centers are banned. If somebody wants to make an application, they’re going to have a field day with that type of overbroad definition and probably crush us,” Goodwin said. “You’ve got to define what they are.”

He said he does not necessarily support having a data center in the county, particularly the large industrial complexes residents have raised concerns about.

Goodwin also said there is no risk of a data center going into Shoal River Industrial Park because the county owns the developable land there and would not have to allow one.

“It’s not a land use issue, it’s a land ownership issue,” Goodwin said. “I don’t know that the moratorium harms anything other than the perception of our resolve to govern and stick to good policy.”

Goodwin said some speakers who addressed the board urged regulation of water, power, infrastructure costs, buffers and sound.

“Frankly, just about everything we articulated at our last meeting, we’re already doing,” Goodwin said. “When I hear somebody come forward with sound logic like that and they’re basically repeating the action we’re already taking, that tells me we are doing what our citizens expect us to do as policymakers.”

Cox, Mixon make their case

Cox said she agreed the board acted properly on Sept. 3, but that the public came away with a different understanding.

“What the public left with was something far different, and we saw that today,” Cox said. “What we heard emphatically was an outcry for us to ban them.”

Cox said a 12-month moratorium would give the board time to review whatever staff brings back, whether regulations or a ban, and give the public something more fully digested.

Palmer then said he would not support the moratorium.

“I think we did the right thing last time,” Palmer said, following Goodwin’s comments. “So even if we did have a moratorium, we don’t have anything defined as to what a data center is.”

Mixon said many projects are built without coming before the commission, as long as they follow county policy, and that the state and neighboring communities have already defined data centers.

“I still stand that we don’t have a protection at this time,” Mixon said.

What’s next

Goodwin suggested Mixon withdraw the motion and said staff could include its view on a moratorium in the outline it is already preparing.

Mixon declined, saying the proposal was in his notes before public comment began.

After the vote, Goodwin said staff could still brief the board on what a moratorium might look like as part of the plan Autrey’s staff is developing. That outline is expected within 60 days of the board’s Sept. 3 vote.