The future of approximately 1,200 acres located on the east side of Minute Maid Road in unincorpo-rated St. Lucie County is currently unknown. Will it be the site of a massive data center?
Slated for Sentinel Grove Technology Park, a proposed data center – which extends approximately 2,600 feet north of Orange Avenue on a former citrus grove – would include almost 15 million square feet of 60-foot-tall buildings.
The St. Lucie County Planning and Zoning Commission, at its Oct. 16 meeting, rejected in a 4-to-2 vote a proposed future land use map amendment to change from Agricultural-5 to Special District.
But developer Timberline Real Estate Partners can still take the denied project to the Board of Coun-ty Commissioners (BOCC), though that has not happened at this point, according to St. Lucie County Director of Communications Erick Gill.
“They would need to submit their plan to the Planning and Development Services staff with a request to bring it to the BOCC for approval,” said Gill via email.
According to Gill, the developer paused the project with the intention of doing additional outreach in the community before bringing it to the BOCC. No upcoming meetings are scheduled.
Gill also said that the BOCC was slated to discuss possibly visiting existing large-scale data centers in Georgia, North Carolina and/or Virginia at an informal meeting set for Jan. 13.
The future of data centers constructed in Florida may have a steep hill to climb because of their size, extensive use of water, noise and traffic concerns.
Opponents on the board and local residents had many concerns at the meeting.
“That’s the last agricultural area we have left in St. Lucie County, please don’t destroy it,” said Cyn-thia Adams at the October meeting. “St. Lucie County was built on agriculture. Please don’t forget that.”
“If we can wait it out, we are going to have farms,” said Charles Paschal, who has property on Orange Avenue near the proposed center and believes farming will be making a comeback.
“If you read this plan, this is like a teenager writing their own permission slip to a party,” Paschal said. “I believe in development. We’re going to grow. Responsible development is what’s needed.”
Peter Harrison, an Orange Avenue resident who owns an 18-acre homestead and is an officer of the nearby 4-H ranch, said, “The size and scope of the project is just unprecedented. The numbers are just off the chart.”
Once county commissioners visit other data centers, they may have a better idea.
The list of those who might not approve of a huge data center is Gov. Ron DeSantis. Last month, the governor announced a proposal to protect Floridians from Hyperscale AI Data Centers and to “em-power local governments to reject their development.”
“Today (Dec. 4th) I proposed new legislation on artificial intelligence and AI data centers to protect Floridians’ privacy, security and quality of life,” DeSantis said.
Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County President and CEO Wes McCurry contended there would be two more hearings on the matter. “This is early in the process,” said McCurry in Octo-ber (he was elevated to his current position on Jan. 1).
“I think a lot of businesses are really interested in using artificial intelligence and getting a lot more storage for the data,” said county Senior Planner Thad Crow, who was a presenter at the meeting. “This is a large-scale technology park. It’s a low-traffic generator. The inland location reduces tropi-cal storm and hurricane impact risks.”
“We see this project advancing the county’s goals for targeted industries,” said Patty Tobin of HJ De-sign Studio, who spoke about the project to the commission, explaining how the center would be built in three phases. “This project would put SLC on the map.”
“There’s plenty of room for open space, green space,” said Scott Bullock of Timberline Real Estate Partners. The property developer also said there was no tenant at the time.
Bullock tried to allay concerns of huge amounts of water consumption that the data centers are known for, saying, “We anticipate a very large decrease in water consumption. The technology today is using a fraction of existing data centers.”
The center would be “the largest such facility in the region once constructed, and – as a targeted in-dustry – will enhance the County’s tax base significantly without an adverse impact to the residents of St. Lucie County, as well as provide high-tech, high-wage jobs,” reads a narrative document in the agenda packet on the subject.