Orange County commissioners will consider a temporary moratorium on new artificial intelligence data centers at a September 15 meeting, as Vice Mayor Kelly Martinez Semrad pushes for a one-year pause to study the massive facilities' demand for water, electricity, and land before approving any more applications.
"We have to push pause. We have to get the county time to figure out what we're signing up for," Semrad said. The proposal arrives as Orange County's land development code has no specific language to regulate data centers, which are implicitly allowed under industrial zoning districts. "We're starting from ground zero," she said.
Scale and resource demands under scrutiny
Under Florida law, large-scale data centers are facilities anticipating monthly peak loads of at least 50 megawatts. A single modern AI data center can consume as much electricity as 100,000 homes, according to research from the World Resources Institute and 1000 Friends of Florida cited in Semrad's report. The average data center site in 2024 covered about 224 acres - roughly the size of 450 football fields.
Water consumption raises additional concerns. The Environment and Energy Study Institute reports that large data centers can use up to 5 million gallons of water per day. Semrad's report notes that Orange County Utilities relies on groundwater for its primary drinking water supply, with a projected regional groundwater shortfall of 96 million gallons per day by 2045. "Right now is the time period to push pause to figure out whether or not we have the existing resources to support facilities like this," Semrad said.
What the moratorium would do
The proposed moratorium would apply to prospective data center applications in Orange County and last at least one year. During that time, county staff would study environmental, social, and economic impacts, consult with experts and residents, and review existing policies and development standards. The research would cover natural resources, community character, the economic landscape, zoning implications, and energy capacity.
"A moratorium is not anti-business, it's not anti-technology. It's a timeout to give our local government time to get policy, get regulation, to determine if we can even host these facilities," Semrad said.
Why this matters for real estate, development, and government professionals
For developers and real estate professionals eyeing industrial-zoned parcels in Orange County, the moratorium signals a potential regulatory shift that could reshape site selection timelines and project feasibility. Government and planning staff in other fast-growing regions will watch how Orange County builds a data center oversight framework from scratch - particularly how it reconciles economic development goals with groundwater constraints and grid capacity. IT and infrastructure professionals should track whether the county's eventual code sets precedent for power and water usage thresholds that other municipalities adopt.
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