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Escambia Commission Bans Data Centers; Barry Says No Projects Ever Under Consideration In District 5
July 24, 2026
The county commission voted unanimously Thursday night to ban data centers in the unincorporated areas of Escambia County.
The ban is essentially two parts:
- An approved resolution now officially on the books memorializing its position that data center facilities are not permitted under the County’s Land Development Code and are not an appropriate form of development within the unincorporated area of Escambia County.
- A forthcoming ordinance, to be considered at a public hearing on August 6.
“Data center facilities are not identified as a permitted or conditional principal use in any zoning district,” the resolution states. “The Board further memorializes its position that data center facilities are not an appropriate form of development within the unincorporated area of Escambia County.”
The ordinance to be considered by the board on August 6 is expected to strengthen the data center ban, and clear up an ambiguity. Commissioners are expected to tweak ordinance language to ban data centers smaller than 50 megawatts, which is the state’s threshold for a “large-scale data center.”
“Your code does not anticipate any size as a permitted use,” County Attorney Alison Rogers told the board.
Rogers said server rooms or small data centers would be allowed “where they are an accessory use like at a Navy federal, or UWF, or a hospital. Those are already going to be allowed because they are accessory uses. The county has a server room.”
Commissioners were unified in their position against data centers in Escambia County.
“We all believe this. None of us want data centers. It’s not happening,” Commissioner Steve Stroberger said while holding up a “No Data Center” sign.
After discussing that District 5 is the only district in the county that would potentially have enough land for a large-scale data center, with two-thirds of the land mass, District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry said there has never been one under consideration in the district.
“There’s not been a single approach made, no proposal or even an off-conversation at the gas station about a project involving any type of data center in District 5,” Barry said. “I think what we are doing is prudent, but just to be clear there hasn’t been a push. I don’t want people in our community to feel like someone else in their community has been working behind their back to try to flip one of these in.”
“It hasn’t happened. It has not happened, so I don’t want people to feel like other people in their community have been trying to do something underhanded,” he added.
“They are not real jobs,” Commissioner Lumon May said. “There are construction jobs. Then there is AI, then they maintain 10 or 15 jobs.”
“It’s security people and a couple of engineers,” Barry interjected.
“To me, it should not even be a consideration because it would be an economic development project and they can’t create jobs,” May continued. “They hurt the environment.”
NorthEscambia.com image.
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