FORT MEADE — City commissioners have given the green light to a gargantuan data center in Fort Meade, despite fervent opposition from many residents.
Commissioners voted 5-0 at their April 14 meeting to approve a development agreement between the city and the developer, Stonebridge, operating as Fort Meade LLC. It was the final and binding vote on the matter.
But there was one caveat. The agreement is contingent upon Stonebridge getting a permit for water use from the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
The Tampa Bay Times reported on April 14 that the district told Fort Meade the data center’s water use could not be permitted under the city’s current water allowances. The governing board of the district would have to approve the water permit for the center.
Mayor Jaret Landon Williams and the other commissioners — Candice Lott, Petrina McCutchen, Matthew Taylor and Jim Watts — voted in favor of the agreement, after a parade of residents urged them to either vote no or delay action.
Stonebridge, based in suburban Washington, D.C., plans to build a 4.4 million-square-foot, “hyperscale” facility on 1,300 acres in northern Fort Meade. The data center would contain eight large buildings arrayed around a central hub on a former phosphate mine just west of U.S. 17-98.
Stonebridge has offered to pay Fort Meade $10 million in advance, to be used for infrastructure improvements. The city would then deduct that amount from property tax payments.
The developer also offered Fort Meade $300,000 to be used for securing future water supplies, City Manager Troy Bell said. That would most likely be through a participating membership in the Polk Regional Water Cooperative, yielding access to water through the Southeast Wellfield project.
Stonebridge has not yet revealed who the ultimate owner and operator of the data center will be. Tech giants such as Amazon, Google and Meta use hyperscale facilities.
The facility would be the first hyperscale data center in Florida, according to Christina Reichert, a senior attorney with Earthjustice who represents the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida. The data center would use 1.2 gigawatts of electricity, about twice the power used by the city of Tallahassee, Reichert said.
The developer wants to begin construction this year and expects to have the first building operating by 2028 or 2029. The developers say the data center would create 456 jobs when fully operational, with an average salary of more than $100,000.
The proposal has provoked months of opposition from some Fort Meade residents. Citizens have spoken at previous meetings, and they challenged statements by Stonebridge executives at a public forum the company held on Jan. 29.
Before the April 14 vote, residents against raised objections over their concerns about electricity and water demands, air and water pollution, noise intrusion and a change to Fort Meade’s rural qualities.
Fort Meade’s Planning and Zoning Board voted 6-0 at its April 7 meeting to recommend approval of the development agreement, with minor amendments.
A staff memo said that the Fort Meade City Commission adopted an ordinance in 2025 amending the future land-use map to designate the site as industrial. Commissioners also approved a rezoning to industrial planned unit development and approved a master development plan for a development of up to 4.4 million square feet.
The development agreement is not a request for new development entitlements, the staff memo said.
Fort Meade City Attorney Zackery Good said at the April 7 Planning and Zoning Board meeting that the data center was already an “allowable use” for the property.
Doug Firstenberg, an executive with Stonebridge, said the data center would use a “closed-loop” to cool equipment, recirculating water rather than needing new supplies. The facility will require 50,000 gallons of potable water a day, as specified in the development agreement.
The data center will receive power from Duke Energy and not Fort Meade’s electrical utility. Stonebridge chose the site largely because of its proximity to Duke’s Hines Energy Complex, a natural gas power plant.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Fort Meade approves deal for Florida’s first hyperscale data center
Reporting by Gary White, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
