<body><div>Facing growing public anxiety over energy grids, water supplies and rural preservation, the Marion County Board of County Commissioners convened a workshop on Sept. 21 to establish proactive guardrails for potential data center developments before a formal application hits county desks.Although the county says no active data center applications are currently before the board, commissioners made it clear that Marion County was concerned about creating land use policies that would give “by-right” land use for data centers.These decisions come at a time when the state and environmental advocates are raising an alarm for Marion County about low water levels, placing our springs at 50% their normal flow, and increased demand for water as our population grows.As previously reported, in 2025 Marion County was placed under a state Basin Management Act Plan to restore springs to healthy levels over a 20-year period. The commissioners have currently hired lobbyists to negotiate the state’s directive.Although state legislation limits data centers to industrial zoned properties, Marion County has reserved large swaths of land for industrial zoning to draw distribution centers to the area. To complicate matters, legislators have also encouraged local government to consider rezoning requests for industrial land to meet needs for affordable housing.<h2>Commissioner priorities: Special use permits and strict control</h2>At the top of the meeting, commissioners outlined their individual priorities for managing large-scale data facilities.A central consensus emerged around Commissioner Matt McClain’s position that data centers must be restricted strictly to industrial zoning districts and require a Special Use Permit (Special Exception) for approval. Under this framework, data center developers cannot build “by right” without public scrutiny; every proposal must come before the county commission for individual review and legislative approval.Commissioner Michelle Stone strongly agreed with McClain’s stance on special use permits, emphasizing that keeping projects under conditional oversight protects the community while allowing incoming policy parameters to be established.Other commissioners highlighted additional priorities:Chair Carl Zalak III pushed for a proactive “two-pronged approach,” drafting strict performance standards alongside a temporary moratorium so the county remains legally protected if a moratorium faces court challenges.Commissioner Kathy Bryant urged the board to enact interim restrictions capping data center power capacity at 20 megawatts (MW) rather than 50 MW until comprehensive Land Development Code updates are finalized.Commissioner Craig Curry focused on nationwide infrastructure strains, noting sky-high land speculation where data-center-zoned land in major hubs commands up to $6 million per acre, alongside immense strains on local electrical grids.<h2>Lessons from “Data Center Alley”: Loudoun County’s best practices</h2>To guide the county’s regulatory framework, Growth Services staff brought in Loudon County, Virginia, Vice Chair and Ashburn District Supervisor Michael R. Turner. Loudon County ishome to “Data Center Alley” and the highest concentration of data centers in the world.Turner presented 15 core “best practices” based on six critical factors: noise, power, water, emissions, setbacks and appearance. His primary recommendations included:<ol><li>Eliminate “by-right” approvals: Never allow data centers as a permitted-by-right use under standard industrial zoning. Require mandatory public hearings for every application.</li><li>Prohibit non-disclosure agreements (NDAs): Local governments must refuse to sign NDAs with developers to ensure complete transparency with taxpayers.</li><li>Mandate closed-loop water cooling: To protect local water supplies, local codes should mandate closed-loop internal water systems that continuously recycle cooling water rather than consuming potable groundwater.</li><li>Strict noise controls and novel enforcement: Establish low-frequency noise limits (dBC tonal noise) at property boundaries. Turner recommended seeking authority to impose tax rate penalties on non-compliant facilities as an effective enforcement tool.</li><li>Power line setbacks and integrated substations: Require utilities to disclose maximum power requests in writing, mandate that substations be included in base applications rather than added piecemeal and enforce setbacks so new transmission lines are not built near residential backyards.</li><li>Buffers and appearance: Require a minimum 500-to-1,000-foot setback from residential zones, alongside natural berms, screening and building height restrictions.</li></ol>The Marion County Board of County Commissioners voted to place a 12-month moratorium on large-scale data centers in a 4-1 vote during its Sept. 15 Planning &amp; Zoning meeting. The new ordinance would prohibit any sort of permitting, for site, usage or special use for any large-scale center, defined as more than 50-megawatts. A 50-megawatt facility is estimated to use the same electricity amount as 10,000 to 15,000 households.As to the current moratorium set by the Marion County Commissioners, Turner responded, “I think 50 is too high… I’ve seen every executive order I’ve seen from a governor and every contemplated piece of legislation uses either 20 or 25 megawatts as the threshold for a large power consumer.”Turner expressed concern that facilities under 50 megawatts can bypass regulatory scrutiny. “I think you can have a functioning data center that theoretically could violate every one of the six factors at 49 megawatts and not be subject to any kind of scrutiny. That’s what concerns me. In most cases, there are data centers going to operate below 50 megawatts and have all the attendant problems that a data center has under 50 megawatts, Turner told the commissioners. “That’s just a guess. All I’m saying is, every constraint that I’ve seen from a state constraint uses 20 or 25 megawatts as the term,” he said.<h2>Water authority: St. Johns River Water Management District oversight</h2>Addressing widespread public concern over groundwater depletion, Clay Coarsey, P.E., Division Director of Water Supply Planning and Assessment for the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), clarified the state regulatory process.“The legislature in the 1970s, when they enacted Chapter 373 of Florida statute, envisioned growth happening in Florida. That’s one of the reasons they created the water management districts, to help manage our water supply when that growth happens. They saw what was happening out west with water supply and said we want to do it a different way in the state of Florida,” he told the commissioners.Coarsey noted that under Florida law (including newly enacted Senate Bill 484), the water management district holds exclusive, preemptive authority over Consumptive Use Permits (CUPs).Under new regulations:<ul><li>Mandatory board review and public hearing: Any proposed large-scale AI data center seeking a water permit from SJRWMD must undergo a formal public hearing and receive direct approval from the district’s Governing Board.</li><li>Reclaimed water requirement: Data centers are legally required to use reclaimed water instead of fresh groundwater or surface water whenever lines are available at the property boundary.</li><li>Three-prong legal test: Every application must prove it is a “reasonable-beneficial use,” will not interfere with existing legal users and is consistent with the public interest — with Silver Springs Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs) acting as a firm environmental ceiling.</li></ul>Zalak asked Coarsey whether the St. Johns River Water Management District examines water treatment and disposal in its review process.Coarsey explained that the disposal would be handled by the Department of Environmental Protection, “if we’re talking about the discharge of water from any water treatment system. That’d have to go through their (FDPA) permitting process.”“What we would be looking at is the water that’s being extracted in Marion County most likely be pulled from aquifer systems. What sort of potential impact would that have to existing legal users in our natural systems pulling that water out of the [aquifer],” Coarsey explained.<h2>Regional recap: How other Florida counties are reacting</h2>Michelle Morrison of the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council provided a recap of how neighboring jurisdictions across Central Florida are scrambling to regulate data centers:<ul><li>Lake County: Recently enacted a 90-day suspension on all application acceptances while quickly drafting a specialized data center ordinance focused on industrial zones and conditional use permits.</li><li>Orange County: Evaluated a moratorium while researching a tiered classification system that groups data centers into four categories based on power capacity (0–5 MW, 5–20 MW, 20–50 MW and 50+ MW).</li><li>Osceola and Sumter counties: Both opted against moratoria. Osceola is pausing code changes until a state OPPAGA study finishes in 2027, though its early draft proposed requiring cooling water to originate from precipitation outside urban boundaries. Sumter is conducting utility capacity analyses and reviewing areas with available reclaimed water.</li><li>Seminole County: Currently conducting site suitability analyses and considering a potential moratorium.</li></ul><h2>The Volusia parallel: Porous geology and sinkhole fears</h2>Morrison’s most striking regional update came from Volusia County, drawing direct parallels to Marion County’s fragile environment.During a three-and-a-half-hour deliberation on a proposed one-year moratorium, Volusia officials confronted the reality of their porous karst topography — a geologic formation of soluble limestone highly prone to sinkhole collapse when groundwater levels fluctuate or heavy surface loads are applied.After recognizing that massive water withdrawals for evaporative cooling over unstable karst terrain pose severe sinkhole risks, Volusia County pivoted from a temporary moratorium toward an outright ban on data centers, which is heading to public hearings.This concern in Volusia mirrors Marion County’s own underground geography. According to the Marion County Comprehensive Plan and county vulnerability assessments, large portions of Marion County feature unconfined karst limestone where groundwater recharges rapidly, making the region “most vulnerable” to both aquifer contamination and sinkhole formation.As Marion County staff go back to the drawing board to draft local regulations, the lesson from regional neighbors and environmental experts is clear: protecting the Floridan Aquifer and preventing structural collapse requires tight local zoning, mandatory special use permits and strict limits on groundwater extraction.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1ir3Xa_1FOzQfcp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1ir3Xa_1FOzQfcp00" width="716" height="600" ></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0RdY9f_1FOzQfcp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0RdY9f_1FOzQfcp00" width="800" height="481" ></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2eNsx9_1FOzQfcp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2eNsx9_1FOzQfcp00" width="800" height="473" ></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2Pi7Av_1FOzQfcp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2Pi7Av_1FOzQfcp00" width="800" height="586" ></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0bzJve_1FOzQfcp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0bzJve_1FOzQfcp00" width="658" height="599" ></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2IojBl_1FOzQfcp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2IojBl_1FOzQfcp00" width="799" height="533" ></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4A8bu4_1FOzQfcp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4A8bu4_1FOzQfcp00" width="800" height="446" ></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1wRPFb_1FOzQfcp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1wRPFb_1FOzQfcp00" width="609" height="600" ></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2GZ40d_1FOzQfcp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2GZ40d_1FOzQfcp00" width="797" height="600" ></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2unLXZ_1FOzQfcp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2unLXZ_1FOzQfcp00" width="566" height="600" ></figure></div></body>

Block Source: Ocala Gazette

Misinformation

Clickbait

Old or repetitive news

Explicit content

Location not relevant

Facing growing public anxiety over energy grids, water supplies and rural preservation, the Marion County Board of County Commissioners convened a workshop on Sept. 21 to establish proactive guardrails for potential data center developments before a formal application hits county desks. Although the county says no active data center applications...

Marion County Commissioners weigh data center rules

NewsBreak

Ocala Gazette

Facing growing public anxiety over energy grids, water supplies and rural preservation, the Marion County Board of County Commissioners convened a workshop

Marion County Commissioners weigh data center rules

Comments / 1