Miami Lakes Council Member Pushes to Ban Data Centers Outright

Miami Lakes Town Council Member Steven Herzberg is pushing an item that would direct staff to draft an ordinance defining data centers in the town’s Land Development Code for the first time, and prohibiting them outright as a principal use anywhere in the town’s limits.

Why it matters

Data centers are the fastest-growing asset class in commercial real estate nationally, and Miami has been one of the sunbelt markets developers point to for hyperscale and colocation buildouts. Miami Lakes moving to ban the use before a single application arrives is a preemptive strike, not a reaction to a specific project, and it puts a small, built-out South Florida town squarely in a fight playing out in more than a dozen Florida counties this year. Herzberg has said the town’s code currently only captures “data processing” as an ancillary use inside office buildings, with no standalone definition or use category for a dedicated data center facility. His argument for going first: “Data centers obviously have their time and place, but I don’t believe Miami Lakes or other similar areas is that place,” citing a town that is “compact, primarily residential” with “limited commercial and industrial land.”

The numbers

Herzberg’s proposal would create a new, defined use category in the Land Development Code specifically to prohibit it, since the code has no current entry for a freestanding data center. He is citing SB 484, the Florida Hyperscale Data Center Act, which Governor Ron DeSantis signed on May 7, 2026 and which took effect July 1, 2026. The law classifies facilities drawing 50 megawatts or more at peak demand as large-scale, bars utilities from shifting those costs onto residential ratepayers, and, critically for Herzberg’s push, explicitly preserves local authority to deny or add stricter conditions to data center projects.

What’s next

The item goes to the full Town Council for a vote on whether to direct staff to draft the ordinance; if approved, staff would return with formal code language for a first and second reading before it could take effect. No specific data center project or applicant has been identified in Miami Lakes, and the town’s move mirrors a wave of moratoriums and bans already adopted or advancing in Sarasota, DeSoto, Clay, Lake and Nassau counties, plus a moratorium ordinance directed in Palm Beach County, since SB 484 cleared the way for local governments to act.