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Escambia Commission Approves Ordinance Banning Data Centers, Starting Process For Moratorium
August 7, 2026
The Escambia County Commission is making it abundantly clear — data centers are not welcome or allowed in the county.
On Thursday night, the commission approved an ordinance banning large-scale data centers in the unincorporated areas of Escambia County outside the City of Pensacola and the Town of Century. And, the commissioners started the legal process to also implement a moratorium.
The actions came on the heels of a resolution approved in late July that officially memorializes the county’s 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.
William Nelson, county attorney designate, said the ordinance was acceptable, but not required, to clearly ban data centers.
“In my opinion, the cleanest thing to do is to continue to use the Land Development Code because it prohibits these activities because they are not specifically included in the code,” he said.
‘It’s just not permitted, and I think the problem is if we start trying to define this ourselves, then we are going to have problems,” Commissioner Steve Stroberger said.
“I think that is correct,” Nelson responded. “When we get into some of these definitions, the very technical aspects of this are unclear.”
Commissioner Mike Kohler called for approval of the ordinance and a moratorium on data centers, with other commissioners concurring.
“If that is what is going to take to ensure an additional blanket level for our community, I don’t have an issue with that,” District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry said.
“It’s banned, clearly, because the Land Development Code does not allow for it,” Commissioner Lumon May, who cast the lone vote against the resolution, said. “It’s banned. So when we say we are going to do a moratorium, well you’ve lessened the ban. Just be consistent with what we have already been doing.”
Nelson said a moratorium would require two noticed public hearings before a vote, and was not an available option for Thursday night’s action.
At a future meeting, the commission will vote on advertising the two public hearings in order to vote on a data center moratorium.
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.”
Comments
11 Responses to “Escambia Commission Approves Ordinance Banning Data Centers, Starting Process For Moratorium”
Water is a close loop system, so once filled, it is good. Energy consumption is a problem. What happens when it is obsolete? Tell me of the county revenue
Id rather ban criminals from living in the County. I’ll take the data centers over them any day.
Great news and yes, we know why we don’t want them. “jobs and tax revenue”? We don’t need it nor want it.
Ive built several data centers and people are scared of them due to fake news on the tv and other people’s opinions. They literally are much safer than the plants in cantonment
They don’t even understand what they are voting against
@William Gardner
A data center would consume vast more amounts of water than a auto plant. That water is needed to cool all that electronic equipment. Are you prepared for increased ECUA bills when they have to increase supply to the Data centers and they pass that cost on to us? Likewise data centers consume a lot of power. Any upgrades/expansion cost that FP&L would have to do wouldn’t be on the data centers, we’d all have to pay. I’m not willing to! I work in the industrial water filtration company and the company I work for is doing a lot of work at new power plants that will feed the data centers. We also are in a few data centers as well. I see how much they use of those two resources!
William Garner-
The Chinese have been fully behind the Data Center scare.
They know how weak we are and Wii overtakes us because of the new Bogeyman.
Good! Now do something to get rid of the multitude of sex offenders.
The major flaw in the Land Development Code protection is that it can and has been recently added a new code to add more residential homes per acre in the OLF8 OUTLYING project..CODES CAN BE AMENDED BY THE REQUEST OF THE DEVELOPER/ BUILDER.
We don’t need or want data centers. AI is dangerous!
Data Centers will be somewhere. The jobs and tax revenue will go somewhere. But, due to this moratorium, it won’t be here.
The rural south aches for opportunity. Huge car plants are scattered across the south offering high wages and a career. Data centers offer the same, on a smaller scale. They are no more damaging to the grid, or the environment than a car plant.
I don’t understand the movement against the data centers. Electric rates have not risen in Virginia where there are many DCs. They use closed circuit cooling, so water demands are not excessive. Loud? Not compared to an airport or a car plant.
Why can’t our people have the opportunity to build data centers, to maintain them, and to work them? We have people aching for a technical career, why can’t it be here?