Data centers and associated facilities are prohibited uses within the unincorporated area of Jackson County, without an electric-load threshold.

No person may establish, construct, expand, intensify, operate, or seek County approval for a data center or associated facility within the unincorporated area.

The County may not accept, process, review, approve, or issue development applications, development orders, development permits, building permits, construction-plan approvals, concurrency certificates, capacity reservations, comprehensive-plan amendments, rezonings, special exceptions, conditional uses, variances, site-plan approvals, or other County approvals for data centers or associated facilities.

The prohibition applies to applications submitted after the effective date and to pending applications lacking a final, unexpired development order or building permit, subject to legally protected vested rights.

The prohibition takes effect immediately upon filing with the Florida Department of State and remains in effect unless the Board repeals or amends it by ordinance.

The prohibition extends to broadly defined associated facilities, including cooling systems, generators, battery storage, fuel storage, water-treatment or cooling-water facilities, electrical compounds, utility yards, telecommunications equipment, and other infrastructure designed or used to support, power, cool, secure, connect, or otherwise function with a data center.

Limited exceptions allow ordinary repair, maintenance, or replacement; certain interior alterations; emergency work; correction of unsafe conditions or code violations; government-owned public-safety and critical-infrastructure facilities; public-utility infrastructure not primarily supporting a data center; telecommunications facilities not primarily used as data centers; accessory computer or server rooms supporting a lawful principal use; and development already authorized by a final, unexpired development order and building permit issued before the effective date.

The Board removed the proposed exception that would have allowed it to grant future exemptions from the prohibition by individual approval.

[ { "provision": "Ordinary repair, maintenance, or replacement of existing lawful equipment, structures, or facilities" is allowed, provided the work does not establish, expand, intensify, or operate a data center or associated facility." }, { "provision": "Development authorized by a final, unexpired development order and building permit issued before the effective date may proceed if it remains consistent with those approvals and does not require a material modification." }, { "provision": "Vested rights may protect a project from the prohibition to the extent required by law. The applicant must request a vested-rights determination and identify the property, proposed development, approvals, good-faith expenditures, and relief sought." } ]