The data center fight in Manatee County, Florida
As of October 1, 2026, Manatee County, Florida has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Jul 28, 2026).
Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.
Status today
Approved unanimously; term not documented in the coverage read, so no end date is recorded here — confirm the ordinance before citing a duration
SourceNews
read 2026-08-04
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
The project on the table
Bradenton Crossings Data Center — Withdrawn
Acres: 35
35-acre mixed development at 202 13th Ave E; data-center piece withdrawn July 2026. The withdrawal plus utility-strain concerns prompted county commissioners to draft a countywide data center moratorium ordinance.
Next: Withdrawn — confirm it is dead in the record and watch for the same site resurfacing under a new name or LLC.
Latest in the record
- 2026-08-04 — WUSF reported that residents cited severe drought conditions in West Manatee and insufficient water supply as reasons to pause data center development, noting such facilities can use up to 5 million gallons of water daily. · source
- 2026-07-28 — Manatee County commissioners voted unanimously to direct staff to draft an ordinance imposing a temporary moratorium on data center and other large-load utility applications, citing water and electrical grid strain. · source
- 2026-07-21 — The Bradenton Journal reported Manatee County was poised to consider a 12-month moratorium on new data centers to give the county time to develop rules protecting water supply and infrastructure. · source
- 2026-07-16 — The developer withdrew the data center component from the Bradenton Crossings project application amid mounting regulatory scrutiny in the region. · source
- 2026-06-16 — Residents urged Manatee County commissioners to proactively investigate and regulate data center development before any project is formally proposed. · source
- 2025-10-01 — A submission for the Bradenton Crossings development (a 35.28-acre site at 202 13th Ave. E. in Bradenton) included a data center component as part of the project application. · source
Full dated timeline on the project tracker.
Recent news
- Manatee County commissioners move forward with moratorium on new data centers
- Manatee County staff delivers ordinance on data center moratorium
- In Manatee County, Fla., a Data Center Moratorium Looms
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 3 headlines archived.
Where the decision gets made
Board of County Commissioners — Land use, rezonings and the county budget across five districts plus two at-large seats. The District 1 seat is vacant (as of Aug 2026). The county has advanced a data center moratorium.
Meets: Regular meeting the 25th of each month; Land Use meeting the 6th; both 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Where: Manatee County Administration Building, 1112 Manatee Ave West, Bradenton, FL 34205
Public comment: Residents sign up through the county's 'Sign up to Speak at a Public Meeting' page; agendas are on Agenda Online.
Read from the official page on 2026-08-05. Meeting details change — confirm before you go.
Who votes on it
| Name | Role | Phone | Recorded stance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amanda Ballard | Commissioner | — | 941-745-3702 | not recorded |
| Tal Siddique | Chair | — | — | not recorded |
| Mike Rahn | Commissioner | — | 941-745-3713 | not recorded |
| Dr. Bob McCann | Commissioner | — | 941-398-6758 | not recorded |
| George Kruse | Commissioner | — | 941-745-3714 | not recorded |
| Jason Bearden | Commissioner | — | 941-705-8709 | not recorded |
From the locality's own roster page; "not recorded" means no public statement is on file, not neutrality.
What to do next
- Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
- Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in Florida.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- Florida briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in Florida
- Sarasota County (21 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-07-08
- North Port (31 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Hillsborough County (33 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- DeSoto County (35 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-07-29
- Lakeland (46 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-08-03
- Zephyrhills (53 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-06-22
- Pasco County (58 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-07-14
- Hernando County (75 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-06-22
All 39 tracked actions in Florida are on the state page.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.