"Data Center" Tomorrow
Tomorrow is March 5th, which means it is a Planning and Development Commission (PDC) meeting. Looking at the agenda, there is only one application being considered, but that is a big one... the Holder Industrial Park and the "Data Center".
I use quotes there because it is not a data center application. It is a zoning application to change the zoning of rural residential land to industrial.
They are also wanting to amend the land use to allow a data center to be operated in land that is zoned industrial... however, nothing is binding. Even if that is approved, they are not bound to build a data center. They can build anything allowed to be built within industrial zoned property.
If you intend to go to the PDC meeting to express your support or to recommend denial, remember to stick to the facts. They are not supposed to consider anything that is not fact.
Things like roads, water use, environmental concerns, etc are all things that can be mentioned and discussed. They have real impacts on Citrus County.
Simply not wanting growth isn't sufficient.
Since there are two applications, you will get to speak twice... one for each... unless they combine them into one, but that is not what is on the agenda.
The first application deals with the Planned Service Area expansion and the data center. If you have facts about the data center, this would be the time to share those.
The 2nd application is the rezoning. This is where you talk about the zoning from residential to heavy industrial.
Keep your points on topic and directed at the right application. Talking about zoning for the first application does not help because it is not a zoning application. Save that for the 2nd.
Here are some concerns with these applications that you can use if you desire to do so.
1) There is no site specific site plan. They are asking to rezone almost 800 acres, but they have no site plan included to show what their plans are. This can be literally ANYTHING.... amazon warehouse, concrete/asphalt plant, truck stop, fuel depot... literally anything allowed within industrial use.
To approve this without a specific plan is crazy.
2) They reference end users in the slide, but no mention of what they will be doing. This goes back to #1... so let's see the plan. Far too often the commissioners approve a project after being "promised" something, but that something never comes to fruition.
Chic-fil-a anyone?
3) There is no buffer between uses. We talked about this with the asphalt plant. The comp plan was largely designed to taper down land uses. Rather than going from the highest intensity uses to residential, there is usually land between those uses to taper down intensity.
This would add industrial next to residential. While the initial change in zoning for the original industrial park did the same, Deltona owned the property between the industrial use and the houses that exist. Now, they are wanting to expand to go right next to those existing homes.
4) There is a large project that is pending for housing. It is around 600 homes on 200 acres off 200. The back of that project will back up to this project. What do they think of all this? Will they come out on record for or against the change?
5) Staff has concerns about the intensity of the project.
6) Staff is concerned about the traffic on 491 and 200 that this could potentially cause. Remember, it does NOT have to be a data center.
7) Staff has concerns about water availability and expressed concern that this project may be premature with pending legislation on data centers.
8) The county may not have enough water under our current SWFWMD permit to allow a data center to be built... which would be an allowable use.
8) They show a slide with projected job totals and projected economic impact to the county at buildout, but again, no site plan, no PUD... where are the numbers coming from? That is no competent substantial evidence. They are just throwing out numbers to make it look impressive.
They may have end users in mind, but the PDC and later the BOCC cannot use those numbers because they are not telling the boards who the end users are. They are just asking for an open ended rezoning. We assume its a data center and other things, but no one knows for sure.
Therefore, they should not consider those numbers until there is a concrete plan presented of what will be there. We don't know where they came from or how they got them. Remember math class? Show your work? Show us something.
9) That slide above also mentions 10 year operations. What happens when those 10 years are up? Does the entire thing disappear? The buildings will still be there.. what then? Is this 10 year project the end of life?
Again... what is the plan for all of this?
My opinion for what it is worth...
There are plenty of reasons to deny this application, which would be my preference. We are currently working on a LDC element that would relate to data centers. If this these applications are approved, this project would not be required to follow those regulations.
Due to that, I feel it is in the best interest for them to deny these applications, enact the LDC changes and then allow the applicant to come back with a more detailed project, specifically a site plan or a PUD to show everyone the exact plan. No reason to approve this without knowing exactly what it will be.