The data center fight in Manatee County, Florida
Manatee County has an active data center moratorium on this tracker. 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
Source
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.
Recent news
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 1 headline 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.
Elsewhere in Florida
- Flagler County — Enactedexpires 2027-08-03
- Lakeland — Enactedexpires 2027-08-03
- Pasco County — Enactedexpires 2027-07-14
- Sarasota County — Enactedexpires 2027-07-08
- Citrus County — Enactedexpires 2027-05-26
- DeSoto County — Enactedexpires 2027-07-29
- Taylor County — Rejected
- Palm Beach County — Enactedexpires 2027-07-31
- Escambia County — Enacted
- Santa Rosa County — Enactedexpires 2027-07-23
As of August 2026 · 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.