Palm Beach County adopts one-year data center moratorium

Palm Beach County commissioners voted unanimously on Sept. 24 to adopt a one-year moratorium on new large-scale data center applications, closing out a process that began in July and putting the freeze in effect through Sept. 24, 2027.

Why it matters

This is the county’s third and final act on data centers this year, following our July 10 coverage of the initial vote to draft a pause and our Aug. 24 coverage of the Zoning Commission’s recommendation. The ordinance adds a formal definition of a “large-scale data center” to the county’s land code, tied to the same 50-megawatt anticipated peak load threshold state lawmakers set this year for large power users, and blocks new filings that meet it. It lands two months after commissioners voted 5-1 to deny Project Tango, the roughly 202-acre hyperscale campus proposed near the Arden community in Loxahatchee by a joint venture that included PBA Holdings, TPA Group, Ogden Cap Properties and Palm Beach Aggregates. That denial was without prejudice, meaning the venture can still submit a revised, larger application, but the county’s own staff report ties the new moratorium’s cutoff to whether an application has been deemed “Sufficient,” not merely filed. No revised Tango filing had cleared that bar by adoption, so any bigger version of the project now sits behind a year-long door. The site’s existing 2016 entitlement for roughly 206,000 square feet of data center space, alongside warehouse use, is untouched and can still proceed. See our full South Florida market coverage for the region’s other siting fights.

The numbers

The vote was 6-0, following a unanimous first reading on Aug. 27 and a unanimous Zoning Commission recommendation on Aug. 6. The moratorium threshold, 50 megawatts of anticipated monthly peak load over a 15-minute interval, mirrors Florida’s new large-load-customer statute exactly. County staff have estimated the freeze affects roughly two data center applications a year. Properties damaged by hurricanes Debby, Helene or Milton are exempted, and smaller filings under the 50-megawatt line can still proceed if a Florida-licensed engineer certifies the anticipated load.

What’s next

County staff spend the year drafting permanent rules, expected to address power caps, water and noise limits, and end-user disclosure, while a task force studies the technology’s trajectory. Watch whether the Project Tango joint venture returns with a scaled-down design that stays under 50 megawatts, since that would be the one path around the freeze, or instead builds out the smaller entitlement it already holds.