On Monday evening, North Port City Hall and an overflow area were filled. Hundreds of people attended a public hearing for a data center moratorium, and public comments spanned several hours. Most of them were opposition.

In the end, the City Commission voted 4-1 on the ordinance’s first reading—freezing new data center applications for 18 months, as well as final approval on an 896,000-square-foot data center project—with only commissioner Demetrius Petrow opposed. (Petrow cast his sole opposing vote because he wanted the moratorium to stop the pending application entirely. He opposed allowing its processing and review to continue during the 18-month pause.)

The decision doesn’t prohibit data centers, reject the application already before the city or put the moratorium into effect. A second and final vote is scheduled for Sept. 22

The data center's applicant, North Port Holdings 300, LLC, could continue working through the city’s processing and technical-review stages, but the city couldn’t grant final approval while the moratorium remained in place.

That became the heart of the debate.

North Port city attorney Michael Fuino warned that completely halting the pending application could expose North Port to a legal challenge because applicants ordinarily have an opportunity to address deficiencies identified during staff review. 

North Port’s Unified Land Development Code doesn’t contain standards specifically regulating data centers. Commissioners differed over how completely the city should stop the pending project while it considers rules addressing water and electricity use, noise, emergency services, environmental protections and infrastructure.

Commissioner Phil Stokes supported applying the moratorium to the current proposal but favored allowing city staff to keep reviewing it. Under the approach the commission adopted, the applicant could address deficiencies and move through the review process. The arrangement would allow staff to continue reviewing the application while the city studies possible regulations, without permitting a final approval during the 18-month pause.

The application calls for roughly 896,000 square feet of buildings, including approximately 123,200 square feet of office space, on privately owned land north of I-75 and south of Yorkshire Street. The site is part of an area identified in North Port’s comprehensive plan as an “employment epicenter,” permitting commercial, industrial, warehouse, office, recreational and multifamily development.

North Port Holdings 300 LLC lists Avshalom Peretz as a representative and Avi Peretz as its agent, with a mailing address in Valley Stream, New York. A warranty deed shows that the LLC acquired dozens of Sarasota County parcels from SRQ–Tropical Land LLC in November 2022 for $1.74 million.

The data center would be part of a broader mixed-use concept spanning approximately 282 acres. Plans divide the property among commercial development near I-75, residential construction and an area containing retail, offices, banks, storage and the data center. Parks, open space and trails are also a potential part of the concept.

During Monday’s commission meeting, residents questioned how much electricity and water the complex would require and whether its demand could increase utility costs or strain supplies during droughts and hurricanes. Others warned of continuous noise from cooling equipment, transformers and backup generators, along with diesel emissions, light pollution and effects on nearby homes, schools, wildlife habitat and the Myakkahatchee Creek and Myakka River watershed.

Several commenters said a temporary pause didn’t go far enough and urged commissioners to ban data centers altogether. Others called for independent environmental and hydrological studies, substantial setbacks from residential neighborhoods and guarantees that the developer would cover infrastructure, mitigation and eventual decommissioning costs.

But the opposition wasn’t unanimous.

One commenter described large data centers as unusually valuable additions to a municipal tax base because they concentrate substantial taxable investment on a site without bringing a comparable number of residents who need government services. 

Another commenter opposed the 18-month moratorium. He noted that the property has been designated as an employment epicenter since 2002 and argued that descriptions of the proposed facility as “hyperscale" or inherently dangerous weren’t established by the application. He also pointed to the possibility of creating technology career opportunities closer to home for North Port residents who currently commute elsewhere.

Other speakers took a conditional position, acknowledging possible construction jobs, investment and tax revenue while calling for enforceable limits on resource use, noise and infrastructure costs.

The commission’s compromise keeps those competing possibilities alive. It allows North Port to continue gathering information about the proposal while withholding the decision the applicant ultimately needs: final project approval.

The city will hold a data center workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3. Representatives expected to participate include Florida Power & Light and the Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority, with discussion focused on electricity demand, water use and infrastructure planning.

Commissioners also postponed three related matters until Sept. 8: drafting land-use regulations for data centers, establishing a process for notifying commissioners about nondisclosure agreements and reconsidering the administrative approval process in North Port’s development code.

The moratorium returns for a final vote Sept. 22. If adopted, it would impose an 18-month freeze on new data center applications and approvals. The pending North Port Holdings 300 application could continue through processing and review, but the city couldn’t grant final approval during the pause.

For more information about data centers in our region, click here.