VICTORY: Citrus County unanimously freezes all AI data centers — residents pack commission chambers

In a unanimous 5-0 vote on May 26, 2026, the Citrus County Board of County Commissioners approved a one-year moratorium on all rezoning applications that could lead to data centers in the county.

Dozens of residents lined up for public comment ahead of the vote, furious about a planned 800-acre facility by the Deltona Corporation near the intersection of U.S. 41 and North Lecanto Highway in Holder. Commission chambers were standing room only.

The moratorium gives county staff 12 months to study data center impacts on groundwater, the electrical grid, and quality of life — and to draft permanent regulations before any project moves forward.

What residents did right

Community members organized ahead of the commission meeting, spread word through neighborhood networks, and showed up in numbers. Formal public comment letters — the kind that become part of the official public record — gave commissioners the political cover to act unanimously.

Florida’s Commerce Secretary Alex Kelly had already come out sharply against a similar Polk County proposal in April, warning that data center projects present “significant risks to Central Florida’s energy capacity, water resources, and transportation infrastructure.”

What happened next: Deltona walked

The moratorium did not stop the Deltona project on its own — the company’s application predated the ordinance and was exempt from it. So Deltona tried to outlast the opposition instead. On June 17, the night before its Planning and Development Commission hearing, its attorney asked the county to push the July 14 County Commission vote past the November election.

It didn’t work. On June 18, after a hearing running roughly nine hours with more than 200 residents attending, the PDC voted unanimously to recommend denial. On June 22, commissioners denied the delay request unanimously, with Chair Diana Finegan leading. On June 23, Deltona formally withdrew both applications — CPA-2-2025-000012 and CPA-2025-000013 — and the July 14 hearings were canceled.

Withdrawal is not denial, and that distinction cuts in residents’ favor here. By pulling the applications rather than losing a vote, Deltona also surrendered the exemption that kept it outside the moratorium. Any return is a new filing, and new filings are frozen. “I think this is good news because now they are under the moratorium for data centers,” Commissioner Holly Davis said. Finegan cautioned that Deltona could come back with something different, but said the county expects stronger permanent regulations in place first.

Why this matters beyond Citrus County

Citrus is the first Florida county to adopt a data center moratorium. Nassau County followed on June 8, 2026, unanimously passing Ordinance 2026-044 — two weeks after Citrus. Nationally, Maine came closest to a statewide ban and its governor vetoed it; the override failed by five votes. No state had managed a statewide pause until New York’s governor signed a one-year moratorium in July. Meanwhile Data Center Watch counted 75 projects worth $130 billion delayed or canceled in the first quarter of 2026 alone — matching all of 2025 — as active opposition groups more than doubled to 833 across 49 states. Local moratoriums are the thing that actually works: 116 municipalities now have one.

Every commissioner who votes for a moratorium makes it easier for the next commissioner in the next county to do the same. Your county could be next — or the next to get a 1,200-acre rezoning application.