What Florida counties can do about a large data center

1. Pick a county and a type of project at the top of Find. The map shows what each Florida county has done on data centers: no pause or ban found, paused, a vote pending, a ban, or not yet checked.

2. Read the cards. Each card says in one line what the item is and who would receive it. The colored label says whether it passes the framework's test. Tap More for what it does for the community, how it is rated, and the legal details for county staff.

3. Add items to your picks. My picks shows how they work together, what to watch out for, and, when you pick from more than one type of project, what they could add up to across your community.

What "in-kind" means: the project provides something real and usable, like land, equipment or computing time, instead of a cash payment (in a private agreement, the computing share defaults to an annual payment, and the community group may choose the computing itself). Cash can end up in a general budget; a thing built or delivered stays where it was meant to go.

The smaller line under a label gives the condition or the Florida law check in more detail.

Where it goes. A second label on each card names its home: County item (mitigation in the county's development agreement or an impact fee), County land lease (rent the county sets as landowner), or Private agreement (between the developer and a community group; the county is not a party).

The 8 parts of the In-Kind test

An item "works" only if it meets all eight. A strong showing on one cannot make up for failing another.

1. Cheap to share. It can be split off without hurting the project's own use, and it costs the giver little compared with its value to the public.
2. Someone ready to receive it. A public body or nonprofit exists by the time any agreement is signed, with the staff and authority to run it. One exception: a low-cost item that only keeps a future option open, such as spare conduit, can count with a likely future user, as long as it carries a review or end date.
3. Usable as is. The public can use it directly, without selling or converting it first.
4. Tied to the project's effects. There is a specific, written link between something the project causes and what the item provides, made separately for each item. For a county item this is the legal test: the item must answer an impact the county's impact study measures. For a lease or a private agreement it is a test of fairness, not of law.
5. Only the signer needed. Delivery cannot depend on anyone who did not sign, such as a neighboring business that may never arrive. Where it would, the developer can only promise to offer it.
6. Not a protected service. If a utility or franchise holder has the sole right to provide the service, the item must take a built form instead, such as equipment, conduit or a larger pipe.
7. Checkable by the public. Whoever receives it can confirm delivery with evidence it can get and understand, not only the giver's word.
8. Lasting. It survives a sale of the facility, and it does not lose its value just because it goes unused for a while.

Two kinds of items are left out even if they pass: help for people displaced by the project, paid for by the same company (In-Kind test 4.1: that help comes from public programs or the community's own resources, never from the company), and rules about what a business does inside its own building. A company's terms for its own employees, such as advance notice or severance, are a separate question. An item that passes then goes to one home: the standards ordinance, a county development agreement or impact fee, a lease of county land, or a private agreement the county is not part of (test 1.6). Source: In-Kind Eligibility and Characterization Test (Release 2026.4), Parts 3 and 4, in plain words.

Ratings compare items with each other. They are not dollar values.

Each card shows how far this framework's own wording for the item has got, from an idea to a provision that has held up. Every step is added only from a dated, sourced record.

1. Idea. Researched, not yet written as agreement text.
2. Drafted. Model text written; not yet reviewed by a lawyer.
3. Reviewed. Reviewed by a licensed attorney.
4. Adopted. Adopted in a county ordinance or agreement.
5. Delivering. Signed and delivering, confirmed by whoever receives it.
6. Upheld. Kept in force after a legal challenge or an annual review.

No item is past "Drafted" yet. A provision that has never been challenged is not proof it is sound; one that was challenged and held up is stronger evidence.

A separate question: has anyone, anywhere, actually done something like this item? It is about the idea, not this framework's wording.

• Yes, in Florida. An adopted rule, a signed agreement or a running program in Florida.
• Yes, elsewhere in the US.
• Only outside the US.
• Only as a company gift, not a deal term. Companies have given it voluntarily, but no signed agreement includes it.
• Something similar, not with this kind of project.
• We looked and found none.
• Not checked yet. The research has not finished for this item. It does not mean nothing exists.

If an example could not yet be confirmed against its source, the details say so.

Tap an i to see what each law does and how it changes the results.

Every provision on this page with its verdict, legal status and reason, as tab-separated text you can paste into a spreadsheet.

• 7 Nov 2026: headings renamed. The headings of the map, Step 1, "Imagine a partnership" and the printed county brief now speak of what each county has done on data centers, not where it stands; so does the "Start here" guide. What they show is unchanged. Notes on places not yet checked now speak of their actions on data centers, not their position.
• 7 Nov 2026: sources note corrected. The "Sources" note under "Sources, limits and privacy" said that county status comes from the Florida data center moratorium tracker. Since the county record update of the same day, it comes from the county record on this page, each action checked against its official record; the note now says so, and that for a county with no pause or ban found, the status rests on a search of news reports as of 28 Sep 2026. Polk County's printed brief now gives the date of that search as well, and "Imagine a partnership" says "no pause or ban found" for these counties.
• 7 Nov 2026: county record updated. Each county and city action now rests on its official record, read on 5 Nov 2026, and shows its vote, its number, the reasons the body stated and, for a moratorium, when it ends; on 6 Nov 2026 each summary was rewritten from that record. Each change was checked by one person, and each action says what changed. Corrected: the dates of the Franklin, Gilchrist, Manatee and Pinellas county actions; the DeSoto, Gilchrist and Marion county votes; the ordinance numbers of Holmes and Pasco counties and of Lakeland; Edgewater's action, a moratorium rather than a ban; and the scope that the Clay, Holmes and Sarasota county summaries gave. Votes, numbers and official records were also added, each vote in its record's words, and news links dated before the action, or whose titles show an earlier step, were removed. Removed: Alachua County's entry of 9 Jun 2026, since the County's update of that date states how its existing plan and code apply, and its highlights of that day's Commission meeting record a staff announcement, with no motion, vote or direction by its Board; the map rests on that update, which states that large-scale data centers are not allowed under the County's current plan and code. Not shown until their records are read: actions in Lake, Levy, Palm Beach, Putnam and Wakulla counties and in Titusville, Tallahassee and Fort Meade, and earlier research, from September, on 14 other counties and 4 cities. Waiting for the second check that new entries need: later actions in Escambia and Martin counties. This page shows all these places as not yet checked. Changed on 5 Nov 2026 in actions not yet shown, each checked by one person (for each, the body's reasons are not yet read): Titusville, 8 Sep 2026, vote corrected and ordinance number confirmed, from the minutes, and two earlier news links removed; Lake County, 8 Sep 2026, vote changed from "Unanimous" to 5-0 and ordinance number added, from the draft minutes, and an earlier news link removed; Levy County, 8 Sep 2026, vote added and ordinance number confirmed, from the signed minutes; Palm Beach County, 24 Sep 2026, vote removed, since it came only from a news site that turns away AI crawlers; Putnam County, 8 Sep 2026, vote and ordinance number added, from the draft minutes, in place of a vote that came only from such sites; Wakulla County, 21 Sep 2026, vote changed from "Unanimous" to 5-0, from the minutes. Corrected on 6 Nov 2026 in the page's own text: the Bert Harris Act note no longer says why most counties chose 12-month moratoria, or that two counties said so on the record, which no record read supports, and no longer cites a proposal in a county not yet checked; the SB 180 note gives Hillsborough County's action as a direction to draft a moratorium; the SB 170 note no longer calls Jackson County's ban ordinance a moratorium ordinance; the card for a county whose existing code prohibits data centers no longer speaks of a ban; and the card for a paused place no longer says it paused applications "while it studies the issue", a purpose not every body stated. The county record is checked again in January and July.
• 6 Nov 2026: Release 2026.4 published. The sources now link the published records: the model instruments (doi:10.5281/zenodo.24021154) and the guide, open legal questions and methodology (doi:10.5281/zenodo.24021153).
• 6 Nov 2026: Release 2026.4. The page follows the Release 2026.4 texts of the model instruments. Computing goes to a state college, university or other public or nonprofit institution that already runs computing or, under a private agreement only, to an established nonprofit public charity that does; the resident-run community computing trust is no longer part of the model. At a school district or state college host, residents reach the computing through an independent partner institution the developer pays. On county land, cash rent alone must meet the land's fair market rent, and rent in kind, including any county computing share, comes on top with no credit against it. Upkeep money for emergency power equipment given to the county goes into a restricted county account outside the general fund, in place of an independent fiscal agent, and shelter emergency power counts only people evacuated because of an incident at the data center. Under the standards, the operator reports water use every year, with a limit only where a county adopts one, and cleanup security can no longer be a parent company's promise. In the private agreement, the training equipment terms now have a list, a date and security, and the automation transition terms for the developer's own employees are drafted, with severance held for counsel. Cabinets at the site for an institution's own servers are limited by a sales tax rule, and whether the private agreement binds a later owner who does not assume it is still an open question. Several legal questions this page called open are now answered in the Open Legal Questions. The developer now pays every documented cost of administering the computing that no other payment covers, in advance on the host's published budget, so the computing's upkeep cost is now rated low. The standards bar groundwater pumped by or for the facility for cooling; drinking water from a public system follows the reclaimed water rule. State water law may not let a county apply that bar where a supplier pumps the water or the data center's peak load at one site is under 50 megawatts; a new card explains why, under a new heading for state law that may not allow a county rule. A county may also choose to bar drinking water for evaporative cooling even where reclaimed water is not available. The recovered heat card and its site question now say where heat fits: it is low grade, about 25 to 40 °C (77 to 104 °F), so it suits a nearby use that needs low heat, and working examples sit next door or within about half a mile. Showers at a pool or recreation center can use it only to preheat water, and under a private agreement the heat cannot go to a pool, center or other user that the county or another local government that acts on the project's approvals owns or operates. The page no longer rates how closely an item is tied to a project, because that depends on the county's own study of each project. A county sets an item as a condition of a project's approval only as mitigation of an impact its own study measures; each card says where any other item goes. On the list of other data center ideas, the public-safety radio site is now a county lease of space with the county as tenant, building upgrades and public sensor sites go only in a private agreement, harvested stormwater goes in a private agreement or a county purchase, and county backups at the developer's site elsewhere are a county purchase. Section references follow the Release 2026.4 texts. A heat connection point is no longer a county standard; a development agreement can require one where the county's impact study supports it, and a lease of county land can include one. The model standards add a section on burial grounds and archaeological sites. The Florida laws the page cites were rechecked on 6 Nov 2026, and these statements were corrected that day: the lawsuit and 14-day rules of SB 180; what s. 252.422 bars for a year after a hurricane, and the Hurricane Isaias declarations; that a county may set employment benefit terms, such as severance, leave or health coverage, only as a condition of a direct tax abatement or subsidy it gives an employer (s. 218.077); the rent control bar, quoted in full; the public safety exception for older coastal buildings, and which of them counties may still review; the subject of the state study SB 484 orders, and its name, since the act has no short title; who must prove an item's tie to the project and its proportion under s. 70.45, and which impact fees that section does not reach; a remark on SB 484 in the Walton County entry; and the wording or section numbers of several other notes, among them those on s. 163.3227 and the Impact Fee Act. The page also now says that other local governments that act on the project's approvals cannot receive a private agreement's benefits.
• 21 Oct 2026: county story corrected. When a set of private items included colocation or retired equipment, the county story said they could be rent in kind in a county lease. They cannot: colocation is a priced service and retired equipment a right to buy. Only the share of computing power can be, and the story now says so only when computing is in the set.
• 19 Oct 2026, night: three cards corrected. Colocation is now shown as a service the recipient pays for, and the retired-equipment right as a right to buy at fair value. Release 2026.3 says neither is in-kind capacity, so neither is counted as a benefit; both moved to the set-aside list. The heat card now says what the private agreement term requires today and what is still open.
• 19 Oct 2026, evening: other data center ideas sorted. A new list under the items shows the other data center ideas by where they belong: protections every project must meet, ideas that are already part of an item above, and ideas still being studied. None is counted or can be picked. The computing card now says on its face that a state college or university hosts the computing first.
• 19 Oct 2026: Release 2026.3 published. The sources now link the published records: the model instruments (doi:10.5281/zenodo.23482760) and the guide, open legal questions and methodology (doi:10.5281/zenodo.23482770).
• 19 Oct 2026: site facts in Scenarios, and an easier page to read. A hypothetical data center project with the recovered heat right, the heat-supplied greenhouse or dark fiber to schools now asks up to three questions about what is next to its site or near its fiber route, each answered yes, no or not known. The flow view marks those arrows, the summary lists the answers, and scenario codes and links carry them; codes made earlier open with every answer not known. Nothing asks where a site is, and the page does not rank sites. The page is also set in Atkinson Hyperlegible, a typeface designed for readers with low vision, and each tab has a menu of its sections.
• 19 Oct 2026: corrections. Corrected to match Release 2026.3 of the model instruments: the emergency power impact fee can cover a public shelter the county operates or designates where its study supports it; the agreement's heat and grid-support covenants apply where the county's impact study supports them; the developer, not residents or the public, pays a recipient's cost of giving residents access; provisions now in the Module M3 Options are cited there; and the s. 252.422 note states its trigger and the status of Hurricane Isaias.
• 18 Oct 2026: plain rewrite. The model instruments were rewritten in the usual form for each kind of document, with every rule kept. The two standards ordinances are now one, with a technical manual. Emergency power at county facilities and computing capacity are optional modules. The private agreement has a clause bank of optional terms. Section references on this page follow the new texts. A private agreement can carry some protections for the developer's own workers, because the state laws involved limit counties, not private parties.
• 17 Oct 2026: updates before release. The bar on considering private agreements now applies to every decision under either standards ordinance. The private agreement's cloud form is drafted, with rules for equipment and for services bought with its money. Hardware the recipient buys from the developer costs no more than an outside supplier's written offer; if the parties choose, the developer buys open hardware for the recipient at cost plus a stated fee; and the recipient can ask for open rack space in place of standard cabinets. The development agreement now covers the first phase unless the county board chooses a campus-wide envelope, lets the county's later standards apply to phases not yet begun, leaves the term to the county board up to the 30-year maximum, and no longer freezes fees or adds other assurances. The instruments and this page were revised so they do not favor the developer or assume an agreement will be signed, and where a choice exists they protect the public.
• 13 Oct 2026: Release 2026.3 working drafts. The page now follows the restructured model. The county's development agreement carries only mitigation of impacts its own impact study measures. A model impact fee ordinance covers fire rescue, emergency medical and emergency power at county public safety and water facilities. Computing time, training and other community benefits now sit in a private agreement between the developer and a community group, which the county is not part of. On county land, a lease can take part of the rent in kind. The emergency power tap is withdrawn: emergency power is now provided at county facilities, and nothing is delivered from the project site. The question about who could receive computing is gone, and the certification count is removed. Citations corrected. These are working drafts; none has been reviewed by a lawyer.
• 7 Oct 2026, evening. Copy a link that opens this page on a county, city, project type or a whole scenario. In Scenarios: compare one law at a time ("If these laws changed"); mark a project as already built so it offers only provisions that need no new construction or a small retrofit; and a completeness worksheet for staff that ties each effect of a project to what answers it. Fixed: reopening the page on the Scenarios tab could fail silently.
• 7 Oct 2026. Find: Add all and Clear all for each group of cards, and a City or town choice where a city has its own researched record. Scenarios: collapse projects, a trash icon, Clear this county and Clear the whole scenario with Undo; a switch to see the scenario as if every item were allowed; mark projects as signed so they stay fixed; one code per county, add county codes into a regional scenario, and print one county. My picks: a picks report for staff and counsel. How it works is grouped into sections with a guide for planners. Fixed: farm use under solar panels was drawn as food shipped regionally; it now stays on the site.
• 5 Oct 2026. New Scenarios tab: hypothetical projects in up to 10 counties, a flow view of what moves between them, and a summary for each project, county and the group. Set-aside items and items Florida does not allow today can be kept in a scenario without being counted. Every provision now has a sector and facility type, and its legal status and reason. Scenarios can be saved as a code, started from a region and printed. Facility combinations show what several projects can do together; each can be shown on its own or added to a scenario, and undone. New colors.
• 2 Oct 2026. Clearer labels and wording throughout, the 8 parts of the In-Kind test, and long lists that fold away.

Verdicts change only from a dated, sourced record. This list says what changed, not who asked.

Host institution

A state college, state university or other public or nonprofit institution that already runs computing, named in a private agreement or a county land lease to receive the computing share and run it for the public. Under a private agreement only, an established nonprofit public charity that already runs computing (a qualified operator) can serve instead. The county has no seat, role or claim in either.

Dark fiber

Fiber-optic cable laid but not yet in use, which the public can light for its own buildings.

Site facts

What a planner already knows about the area around a hypothetical project's site, answered yes, no or not known in Scenarios: whether a heat user is next to it or within about half a mile, whether there is room next to it for a community greenhouse, and whether its fiber route passes near a school, college, library or nonprofit clinic the county does not run. The page never asks where a site is and does not rank sites.

Colocation

Renting space in a data center to run your own servers there.

Impact fee credit

When a county charges an impact fee and the developer builds or delivers something in the same category, the county subtracts its value from the fee (s. 163.31801(5)), so nothing is charged twice. The model public safety and emergency power impact fee ordinance gives this credit for emergency equipment delivered in kind.

Standby right

A right that only switches on when something happens, such as a declared emergency.

Our model text

How far this framework's own wording for an item has got, from an idea to a provision that has held up.

Tried elsewhere?

Whether anyone has actually done something like the item, anywhere. It is about the idea, not this framework's wording.

In-kind

Something real and usable, like land, equipment or computing time, given instead of money (in a private agreement, the computing share defaults to an annual payment, and the community group may choose the computing itself).

Development agreement

A contract between a county and a developer, adopted after public hearings, that fixes the rules for one project for up to 30 years (Florida Statutes ss. 163.3220 to 163.3243). In this framework it carries only mitigation of impacts the county's impact study measures, the county's standards as recorded promises, and a dig-once conduit term the county pays for.

Standards ordinance

Rules every project must follow whether or not it signs an agreement, such as noise, water and flood limits.

Impact study (Exhibit "B-1")

The county's own study measuring a project's impacts, such as demand on fire rescue or shelters. Every county requirement must answer an impact it measures.

Mitigation

What a project pays for or provides to handle an impact it causes, sized by the impact study.

Impact fee ordinance

A county law charging a one-time fee for the capital cost of public facilities a project needs. The model ordinance covers fire rescue, emergency medical and emergency power at county public safety and water facilities and, where its study supports it, public shelters, for people evacuated because of an incident at a data center.

Ground lease

A lease of county-owned land. The county acts as landowner (s. 125.35) and sets the rent; under the model lease, cash rent is at full market value, with any rent in kind on top.

Baseline

Anything the standards ordinance or the law already requires. It is never counted as a benefit, and it is never traded.

Link to the project (nexus)

The tie between a condition the county sets and an effect the project itself causes, such as extra strain on the power grid. If the condition is challenged, the county must prove that tie (s. 70.45); the framework builds that proof from the county's own study of the project.

In proportion (proportionality)

An item has to be roughly the right size for the effect it answers, not more.

Exaction

A condition government attaches to a permit or approval. Florida lets a developer challenge one in court if it lacks a link to the project or is out of proportion (s. 70.45).

Private agreement (community benefits agreement)

A contract between the developer and an existing community group. It carries benefits that do not answer a measured impact, such as computing time or training. The county is not a party and does not ask for, negotiate, review or consider it.

Vesting

The rules in place when a development agreement is signed keep applying for its term (s. 163.3233(1)), unless, after a public hearing, the county finds that a later rule meets one of the tests in s. 163.3233(2), such as being specifically anticipated in the agreement. It is an effect of the statute, not a price paid for anything in the agreement.

Moratorium

A temporary pause on new applications while a county studies an issue.

Recipient

Whoever receives an item and reports what it got. For county mitigation, a county facility such as a shelter or fire station. For a private agreement, the public or nonprofit institution the agreement names, which for computing is a host institution or a qualified operator; never the county, a county department or another local government that acts on the project's approvals.

Type A, B, C

Every year (A), built or given once (B), or only in emergencies (C).

Preemption

When state or federal law takes a subject away from counties, so a county cannot regulate it.

Sources. Verdicts come from the In-Kind Eligibility and Characterization Test, in the guide, open legal questions and methodology record of the model instruments (Release 2026.4, doi:10.5281/zenodo.24021153). Section numbers refer to Release 2026.4 of the model instruments (the Model Host Community Development Agreement with its Exhibit S and Module M2, the Model Community Benefits Agreement and its Clause Bank, the Model Ground Lease, Module M3, and the model standards and impact fee ordinances), published in the instruments record (doi:10.5281/zenodo.24021154); earlier releases are listed on each record's page. County status comes from the county record on this page, each action checked against its official record, as of . For a county with no pause or ban found, the status rests on a search of news reports as of .

What this is not. Passing the test only means an item is not ruled out. It does not mean the item is lawful in a given county, wanted by whoever would receive it, agreed to by a developer, or worth a set amount. Each county item still needs its own written link to the impacts in the county's study, a value, and review by the county attorney. A private agreement item needs the community group's own counsel; the county does not review it.

About the descriptions. The one-line descriptions and "For your community" notes explain what each item is for. They are not estimates of value. What a resident actually gets depends on who receives the item, the site and the terms agreed. My picks applies fixed rules to the items you choose. It is a starting point for discussion, not an analysis of a real deal.

Privacy. This page itself collects nothing about you. It has no account, no form that sends anything, and no cookies, analytics, advertising or tracking tools of its own. Its fonts are served with the page. The choices you make here, such as your county, city, picks and plan, are saved only in your own browser so the page can remember them. They never reach the project, and clearing your browser's site data removes them. A link you make carries some of them in its web address, such as the county, city and open tab, and any scenario you share, with anything you typed into it. The host receives that address when the link is opened. Links to sources open other sites, under their own terms. The host, GitHub, keeps its own server records under its own privacy terms. The connection is encrypted. The project receives nothing about you from this page, so it has nothing from the page to show you or correct, and it never sells or rents anything about visitors. Questions about privacy go the same way as corrections: to contact@inkindstandard.org.

Citizen-prepared. Not legal advice.