HAINES CITY, Fla. — A potential data center in Haines City remains on hold because of the city’s limited water capacity.
Deputy City Manager James Keene points to the city’s rapid growth in recent years as the reason.
“Since 2020, we’ve had more than 10,000 single-family and multifamily residential units that have come to Haines City,” he said.
Keene said another 8,000 homes are still in the works and will rely on the city’s utility system. Currently, he said Haines City has the capacity to produce 10 million gallons of water a day and uses just over 7 million. To keep up with demand, city leaders are looking to upgrade the water distribution system.
“We’re also in our modification period with SWFWMD to modify our permit to 16.42 million gallons a day,” Keene said.
Keene said the water use permit was originally issued by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) in 2011. At the time, he said no one anticipated the city would reach its capacity so quickly.
“Haines City is pretty much leading the charge on development,” he said.
Leaders said they explained this to Texas-based company Cielo Digital Infrastructure after the company made a preliminary inquiry about utility service for a potential data center near Marion Road and State Road 544 East. Developers requested up to 150,000 gallons of potable water per day, which city officials said was recently added to the city’s pending water use permit modification.
“They have to request outside of our 16.42. So, they’re still in their phase waiting on SWFWMD’s Board of Directors’ approval,” Keene said.
Some residents, like Jule Cortez, said they’re worried about the impact.
“Haines City and surrounding areas are already having a water problem by not having enough and stuff. Making a data center that’s going to be, what, 150,000 gallons a day — it doesn’t make sense,” Cortez said.
Keene said even if SWFWMD approves the developer’s request, the project would still have to go through a lengthy review process.
“No data center has even come before our commission to approve or not approve,” he said. “So, they were in their due diligence phase looking at the property, and they’re still on step one.”
Like other developments, officials said residents will be notified if the project moves forward. Besides the utility inquiry, officials said they haven’t received any other formal requests related to the data center.
Spectrum Bay News 9 reached out to SWFWMD about the water use requests. In a statement, a spokesperson said:
“Haines City submitted a modification application for additional quantities in June 2022, and the District is still awaiting the final response to our request for additional information. However, the application does not request an allocation for data center use, and the City has not made an official request for the additional 150,000 gallons per day.”
Alexis Jones
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