INDIANTOWN — Another data center might be in the wings in Indiantown.
Florida Power & Light — before a packed crowd at the Bob Souza Center April 16 — jumped a hurdle to develop about 5,700 acres annexed recently into the village and could build a data center on it.
“Once we let the genie out of the bottle here, it’s not going to be able to go back in,” said Susan Gibbs Thomas, former mayor and a member of the village’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board, which voted 3-2 April 16 to recommend the Village Council approve a rezoning of the land, a zoning agreement and a master site plan.
A master site plan is a preliminary step toward a final site plan, which indicates what will be built on the property. South and west of the village’s core, FPL’s land is north and south of Southwest Kanner Highway and west of Southwest Warfield Boulevard.
Nelson Ferreira has proposed building a 2.2-million-square-foot data center in Indiantown, which the village was reviewing in January. No public hearings have been held on the proposal.
Gibbs Thomas and PZAB chair Christa Miley dissented April 16, concerned that FPL would determine what gets built on the property without having to get approval from the Village Council. That will happen if the Village Council adopts what the PZAB recommended for approval.
Transparency and public meetings
“We need transparency,” Miley told TCPalm after the meeting. “How will the public know before major changes transpire.”
But FPL will ask developers building non-utility projects to hold a public meeting about their project, Jamie Gentile, executive director development for FPL, said to the PZAB during the meeting.
FPL has no plans yet to build anything on the property, FPL spokesperson Bryan Garner said following the vote. Any future development will be done on terms favorable to the village, he said.
FPL would build out the project in three phases, according to village documents. Already on the site is FPL’s Monarch solar facility, documents show.
Gifts from God
“This PUD agreement is a gift from God for Indiantown,” said PZAB member Scott Watson, who made the motion to recommend approval.
The alternative is not a good idea because FPL could build a much denser development than what they have proposed under this agreement, Watson said.
FPL would commit to the traffic equivalent of 2 million square feet of light industrial space, said Brian Nolan, co-owner of Lucido & Associates, a land planning firm representing FPL.
And FPL committed to no residential on the property, Watson said.
“Another gift,” he said.
“FPL … will increase our tax base tremendously,” he added.
“We have the opportunity in the next 10 years,” Watson said, “to become the richest city in the state of Florida without question because our tax base is going to increase exponentially because of projects like this.”
So, things like youth sports can be funded, he said. The village has spent nothing on youth sports, he said.
Another benefit
“The size of the site and the location supports major employers,” said Deanna Freeman, community development director for Indiantown.
Indiantown in recent years has been trying to add employers to provide jobs and diversify its tax base away from FPL. Tax revenue from FPL makes up more than 50% of the Village’s tax base.
“5,720 acres provide a lot of opportunity for industrial development that can balance out the housing that’s being built within the village,” she said. “You know we need to have that employment and residential as a balance.”
Keith Burbank is a watchdog reporter for TCPalm, usually covering Martin County. He can be reached at keith.burbank@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Another data center might be proposed for this Florida village
Reporting by Keith Burbank, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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