Last year, Fort Meade granted a zoning change and tax break for developer Stonebridge, which wants to build a 200-acre hyperscale artificial intelligence data center on a 1,300-acre plot.
In its latest move, the city's planning commission voted Tuesday to recommend a 20-year agreement with the company.
It’s still a mystery who’s going to lease or buy this facility, which would require 1.2 gigawatts of electricity to function.
“Think about how many generators would be required to power the entire city of Tallahassee times two. That's how much we're talking about here,” said Christina Reichert, senior attorney for Earthjustice.
Air quality and noise
Doug Firstenburg with Stonebridge explained to city planning commissioners why the center needs 100% backup generation.
"All of us want to watch our Netflix, or the hospital may want to access their records, or we may want to get ChatGPT or whichever one you want to answer our questions,” Firstenburg said.
Residents are concerned about the generators degrading their air quality by emitting harmful pollutants like nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and carbon monoxide.
Firstenburg said in a typical year, the generators will run 40 hours with the permitted restriction of no more than 100 hours annually.
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One resident had doubts about that low annual number due to recent hurricane activity knocking out power for days at a time.
In terms of noise pollution, Firstenburg said that a half-mile away from the site the generators will be heard at 50 to 52 decibels, which is roughly equivalent to a quiet conversation or moderate rainfall.
Reichert said there are still health impacts from low-frequency sounds, which are linked to symptoms such as severe annoyance, sleep disorders, cognitive impairment, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
“I am concerned about my sleep,” said resident Lisa Rice, who also loves photographing wildlife.
“I get excited when I take pictures of some of the birds that migrate – mainly the kites. They fly over us to get to Africa, and that is one of the few wildlife corridors in that area. So, they will no longer be able to take a break there to continue."
Water usage is still unclear
Data centers require a lot of water to cool down computer systems that are constantly running.
Original talks for this facility had the H2O amount at 140,000 gallons a day.
Now, Stonebridge is saying it will only need 50,000 gallons a day – and not even for cooling but just for servicing everyday operations, like for the bathrooms or break rooms.
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The updated agreement says the center will use what’s called a closed loop system for cooling in which the same pool of water is used over and over with no discharge.
Firstenburg added that at some point the old water may need to be trucked out and new water trucked in, but didn’t specify how much or how often.
Reichert said while the development agreement limits how much potable water the facility can use, she’s not convinced it will actually be able to function at that agreed-upon level.
“There's no existing AI data center that uses that amount of water. They all use significantly more water, including data centers that are large and rely on closed loop cooling,” she said.
“So, while the agreement may say these things, if a developer moves forward with their project and finds – surprise, surprise – they actually need 5 (million) to 8 million gallons of water a day, where does that leave the city if they've already agreed to this data center?”
She also challenged Firstenburg’s description of a closed loop system, saying there will be some water evaporation and leakage.
Unanimous vote despite lack of expert opinion
While the city planning commissioners seemed content with Firstenburg’s answers to concerns over traffic, noise, utility usage and pollution, 15 residents still spoke against the proposal.
"I feel that this has been presented hastily. … We're rushing. We don't know anything about them,” said 69-year-old Tina Barnett, adding she’s had a hard time finding evidence of Stonebridge’s past data center successes.
“I wanted to know where these data centers that they have successfully built were, so I can make a personal visit. I feel like our commissioners need to make a visit to see these sites, to be in these communities … but they said, ‘This is confidential.’ ”
A Winter Haven resident asked commissioners if they’d considered how this development would impact towns outside of Fort Meade.
“Do I want my energy bills to go up because you got something that I don't benefit from?” asked Roxanne Reyes.
“After all the dust is settled, the developer is gone, the lawyers are gone, the city council changes, and the taxpayers are still here … living with the repercussions.”
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Ultimately, the planning commission voted unanimously in favor of the agreement, citing economic benefits like using part of $10 million from Stonebridge to upgrade the water systems.
“I think the benefits are really going to be the economic benefits. I don't know about the professional and technical people that will be working in a data center. I really don't, but I'm sure there's going to be some employment to Fort Meade,” said planning Chair Richard Cason.
Commissioners also didn’t comment much on the environmental and health concerns raised by their residents – passing the responsibility onto state and federal agencies.
“They will have to abide by OSHA, EPA, as well as the oversight of the committee, the city. So, I'm in favor of recommending it to the commissioners to make their decision,” said new city manager Troy Bell.
The Fort Meade city commission will have final say on Tuesday.
Before then, Reichert said Fort Meade should look to Palm Beach County, which is trying to get concrete answers before deciding on a project of this magnitude.
"Because they recognize that those are the pieces of information that the commission and the board need to know in order to really assess whether this is a good choice," she said.
Reichert pointed out how Fort Meade has yet to hear from an expert, like an engineer, to confirm that a data center can actually operate using the adjusted parameters promised by Stonebridge.
"These promises from the developer don't line up with real world experience," she said.
