ALACHUA – The Alachua City Commission voted unanimously Sept. 14 to pursue a 12-month moratorium on data center applications, even though city officials say no data center project has been proposed in Alachua.
Vice Mayor Jennifer Ringersen made the motion, and Commissioner Shirley Green Brown seconded it. The motion directs staff to draft an ordinance establishing a temporary moratorium on accepting, processing, reviewing and approving application ns for new data centers within the city. It also directs the city attorney to review the ordinance for legal compliance.
Ringersen said she had heard from many residents over the past several months and wanted the city to begin moving forward on the issue.
Planning and Community Development Director Bryan Thomas told commissioners the concern began with a rumor. He said a real estate broker listed a property as a potential data center location.
That parcel is not in the city of Alachua, Thomas said. It sits in unincorporated Alachua County, so the city would have no authority to review or approve a data center there.
Thomas also said the city has not been contacted about any data center project. “There is no potential project,” he said, adding that to the best of his knowledge, no one is looking at Alachua as a data center site.
Asked by Commissioner Jacob Fletcher whether the parcel could be annexed into the city, Thomas said it theoretically could. He noted, however, that the property has a substantial known contamination issue dating to its use as a battery plant. Annexation would be a legislative decision left entirely to the commission’s discretion, he said.
Several residents asked for a longer moratorium. Interim City Attorney Scott Walker said moratorium length is one of the more heavily litigated areas of Florida law and that a 10-year pause would not hold up.
Walker said 12 months would allow staff to study the issue, bring proposed regulations to the commission and complete state review. A moratorium can be extended if there is a reasonable basis, he said.
Walker said the city will use definitions from Senate Bill 484, a new state law, and that a draft ordinance will be presented for discussion at the commission’s Sept. 28 meeting.
Before voting yes, Fletcher said the motion had been made without commission discussion. He said he emailed the city attorney six questions about data centers on June 11 and had not received answers.
After the vote, Fletcher moved that staff advise the commission on whether proposed comprehensive plan language relating to data centers should be separated or deferred until the moratorium is complete. The motion died for lack of a second.
Many of the residents who spoke supported the moratorium, and several objected to the proposed comprehensive plan language that would address data centers on industrial land.
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