“We Have the Tools, the Proof, and the Incoming Law — Now We Need Leadership”

For months, a growing group of Indiantown neighbors has been standing up for one simple principle: public office is a public trust. Under Florida Statute Chapter 112, public officers must act with independence and impartiality. They cannot use their positions to advance private economic agendas or allow closed-door groups to steer public decisions.

We have shown, with public records and documented facts, that several public officers simultaneously sit on the Planning & Zoning Appeals Board and hold leadership or active roles inside the Economic Council of Indiantown (ECI) — a private, paid-membership organization launched in September 2025 with no public bylaws, no open meetings, and no accessible minutes. We have documented the all-expenses-paid Loudoun County data-center trip, the overlapping roles of the Powers brothers on the Terra Lago CDD, and the documented financial ties between key ECI participants and the Silver Fox 606 applicant. These are not conspiracy theories. These are verifiable conflicts that Chapter 112 was written to prevent.

We have also raised the real environmental stakes. A recent Cambridge University study confirms that hyperscale data centers create urban heat islands and altered micro-climates, with documented temperature increases of three degrees or more in nearby residential and park areas. These facilities demand massive amounts of water and power, and their impacts are permanent. Once the land is paved and the servers are running, the traffic, the heat, the strain on our aquifer, and the changed character of our community remain long after any temporary construction jobs are gone.

We have been advocating for exactly what the law already allows: transparency, recusal where conflicts exist, and stronger local protections before projects like Silver Fox 606 move forward.

Now the State of Florida has given us even clearer authority on the horizon.

In March 2026, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 484. The bill is currently awaiting the Governor’s signature and will take effect on July 1, 2026. Once in force, it will be codified in § 163.326, Florida Statutes. This new law explicitly affirms that local governments retain full authority over comprehensive planning and land development regulations for large-scale data centers and other “large load” customers. It requires rigorous review of infrastructure capacity, land-use compatibility, and environmental impacts.

In other words: the tools are coming, and the statutory authority is already preserved. The Legislature has made it clear that cities like Indiantown have the power to create a new, specific overlay district tailored to hyperscale data centers with real protections for water use, heat impacts, noise, traffic, and environmental safeguards.

We do not need to wait for another study or another session in Tallahassee. The Village of Indiantown already has the home-rule authority — and soon will have the explicit backing of state law — to create that new overlay district right now.

The only thing still missing is leadership.

We have the tools. We have the proof. We have the law moving in our direction.

Now we need leadership.

I respectfully ask a member of this Council, or any leader who believes in protecting the people who actually live here, to step forward and move to create that new overlay district and form a citizen-inclusive task force with meaningful seats at the table for affected residents. Give that task force a minimum of 18 months to do the work properly — including calling independent experts and ensuring thorough public input.

The residents of Indiantown are watching, and history will record who chose to lead when the moment came.

Thank you.