Miami Lakes Weighs Ban on Data Centers as Principal Land Use

The Town of Miami Lakes will consider an item Tuesday, September 15, sponsored by Council Member Steven Herzberg, that would direct the town attorney to draft an ordinance defining and permanently prohibiting dedicated data centers as a principal use anywhere in South Florida’s smallest incorporated town. It is not yet a drafted ordinance or a recorded vote, but a directive to write one, and it puts Miami-Dade County on the map of local governments moving to zone the industry out before it arrives.

Why it matters

Data centers are the single most active development category nationally right now, chasing power capacity and land wherever they can find it, and Miami Lakes’ move is the local siting backlash showing up on Miami-Dade’s own doorstep. Herzberg’s rationale is explicit: the town’s Land Development Code currently defines only “data processing” as a use within office buildings, with no standalone data center category at all, and he wants that gap closed with a prohibition, not a permitted use, before an applicant tests it. For developers scouting Miami-Dade sites, the signal is that dense, mostly residential suburbs with thin commercial and industrial inventory are increasingly hostile ground for hyperscale projects, pushing the realistic siting map toward heavier-industrial corridors and counties actively courting the load.

The numbers

More than 500 counties and municipalities nationwide have restricted or banned data center facilities, and in Florida more than a dozen counties had adopted or advanced moratoriums or bans by late June, according to Florida Politics. Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Florida Hyperscale Data Center Act in May 2026, which bars utilities from shifting data center power costs onto residential ratepayers and also affirmed local governments’ authority to regulate the facilities through their comprehensive plans, authority Herzberg has cited directly. “Data centers obviously have their time and place, but I don’t believe Miami Lakes or other similar areas is that place,” Herzberg said, citing the town’s compact, primarily residential footprint.

What’s next

If the Council approves the directive Tuesday, the town attorney would return with a formal ordinance adding a data center definition to the Land Development Code and codifying the prohibition, a process that typically requires a planning board review and at least one additional public hearing before final adoption. Developers with Miami-Dade data center ambitions should watch whether neighboring municipalities follow Miami Lakes’ template, since a codified ban in one town tends to accelerate similar items on adjacent dais agendas.