As James Boger became aware of the proposed Project Tango data center in Palm Beach County, he wanted more information. When was the next community meeting about the proposed $2.6 billion development? Where did he need to send his concerns about the data center's impact on water and energy resources?
At the same time, he knew other projects were moving forward across Florida. There was constant chatter about the projects on his social media feeds. Nearby customers could see their energy bills skyrocket once a data center gets built. The facilities consume vast amounts of water resources at a time when much of Florida is in a drought. His social circle was very against the data centers, they just felt lost when it came to next steps.
Then he had a lightbulb moment.
" I'm 21-years-old, and for the past three years of my life, I've been doing web development, basically building websites for small businesses and stuff like that," Boger told WLRN. "So I decided to take my skills and build a website based around this rising issue so everybody could use it."
The result of his labor is an online database called Florida Data Centers, a website that would help residents track the projects across the state. The website does not even have an associated company, it's just Boger as a private resident behind the operation.
"I didn't really understand the whole scope of it when I first started," said Boger. " It's a growing issue, so the faster that I have a resource up and everybody gets aware of the issue before it starts to happen, the faster everybody could take action to stop it before it does."
The website created by Boger launched about a month ago. From the top to the bottom of the peninsula, the site shows specifics about current and proposed developments.
READ MORE: AI data center in Palm Beach County heads to zoning hearing
The website has already received over a million visits, he said, showing a hunger for the information he provided.
The site reads like a journal of what is happening in one-off local media reports across the state. A proposed 1,200 acre, $13.5 billion data center in St. Lucie County was temporarily withdrawn in February after facing community opposition. The project would have been the largest data center in Florida. Another proposed data center was cancelled in Okeechobee County amid fierce community opposition in April.
Elsewhere, things move forward. A 606 acre project called "Silver Fox" in Indiantown in Martin County is marching ahead. Same with a 1,300 acre project in Fort Meade, Polk County, even as it faces legal challenges by local residents, who remain largely opposed.
There was no secret sauce to compiling the relatively comprehensive information about different projects, said Boger. It was just that no one else was doing it publicly.
" I don't have insider data. Everything that I have is just on the internet, and it's all public records. I just aggregated it... and compiled it nicely to a way that everybody could go on and understand it," he said. "Like, county commission websites. I went on [Florida Power & Light] and some of the water district websites to find out all of the grids and stuff like that, and how everything's being planned and proposed so far within the utility sectors of it."
The information gathering process is human, and it is not perfect. For example, the website still lists an application to build a massive data center in Citrus County as active. But that proposal was withdrawn in late June, information that was only reported by a hyperlocal Facebook group The Citrus Insider.
That major news on an 813 acre project is only being reported on by a local blog on Facebook is indicative of the news hole that Boger is hoping to fill, and to amplify when necessary. The local blog is listed as a source in other sections of the website. Major, multi-billion dollar projects should have major scrutiny, but many of these large-scale projects happen in rural areas where media outlets have died in recent years.
A state law that went into effect on July 1 preserves the ability of local governments to approve or reject major data center projects for zoning purposes. The bill was a priority of Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Boger said it was important because it preserves the right of local residents to offer their opinions to county and municipal governments.
To help make money and keep the website going, Boger offers a service where he will send a letter in opposition to a project to a county commissioner for a $9 fee. The service is decidedly against data centers. Over 1,600 letters have been sent, according to the website's live ticker.
The service is capitalizing on civics 101. By providing local governments with specific comments about a proposed project it creates leverage to be used against sitting politicians who might want to support the data center project.
" By the time the developers come in and file the plans and put them on the board's table, there's a giant list from all the residents saying, 'Do not build these here. We don't want them,'" said Boger. "So it makes it very difficult for the town and the developers to act when they have a giant list on the public record of everybody opposing them already."
As the name suggests, Florida Data Centers was meant to focus on Florida. Boger lives in West Palm Beach after all. But as the site has quickly proven successful, Boger has started to provide some information about projects happening in other states. A name change could be in the cards for the future, he suggested.
Newly up on the website is a series of t-shirts, banners and hats featuring anti-data center slogans for purchase.
"They want our water. They want our power. They want our land," reads one of the shirts. "We said no."
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