Why Nassau County is High risk
Score calculated from four factors: power infrastructure, water capacity, land availability, and current exposure. Nassau's score reflects the NextNRG announcement — if the 12-month moratorium passes June 8, the county's risk profile reduces significantly for the next year.
Limited in-county generation, but adjacent counties have significant capacity. NextNRG's original pitch included an on-site 200 MW microgrid for exactly this reason.
St. Johns River Water Management District — mixed urban/rural, moderate capacity. One of the healthier water profiles among at-risk counties.
Rural with significant open land. NextNRG holds a lease option on 1,600 acres plus potential access to 6,000 more.
NextNRG's September 2025 announcement — later walked back to "solar farm" — triggered the moratorium discussion.
The facts, as filed.
A pre-emptive moratorium, and a company that changed its story.
At its April 13, 2026 meeting, the Nassau County Board of County Commissioners directed County Attorney Denise May to draft an ordinance placing a 12-month moratorium on new data center development within unincorporated Nassau County. Commission Chair Alyson McCullough (R-District 4) has been the public face of the push. In an April 14 news release, the county stated that there are no active or pending applications for data center development in unincorporated Nassau County and framed the moratorium as a proactive measure to give staff time to develop appropriate standards before any developer files under the existing zoning code.
The current zoning code has no standards specific to hyperscale data centers. Under existing rules, a developer could potentially file and proceed under the general industrial designations. The moratorium, if adopted, would pause acceptance and processing of new data center applications for twelve months — time the county would use to draft a land-development-code update with data-center-specific standards around water, power, air, noise, setbacks, and disclosure.
The process has three scheduled steps: an initial discussion of the draft ordinance on April 27, 2026, a first public hearing on May 11, 2026, and a second public hearing plus expected final vote on June 8, 2026. All three meetings are scheduled for 5 PM in commission chambers at 96135 Nassau Place in Yulee. The May 11 and June 8 hearings are the meaningful public comment windows. If adopted, the moratorium would make Nassau the first Florida county to impose a formal pause on data center development.
Nassau is not the first U.S. jurisdiction to try this — at least six states, from New York to Georgia, have proposed moratoriums on new data center construction as a way to buy time for regulation. Florida has passed statewide data center legislation that takes effect July 1, 2026, but that law primarily addresses utility tariffs and confidentiality. Local siting, water, and land-use decisions remain the county's responsibility.
In a September 22, 2025 news release, Miami-based NextNRG (NASDAQ: NXXT) announced it had secured a long-term lease option on 1,600 acres in Nassau County from timber and real estate company Rayonier. The release described plans for a 200-megawatt smart microgrid on roughly 1,200 acres, with the remaining 400 acres described as "ideal" for hyperscale data center development. The release also cited potential access to an additional 6,000 acres for future expansion and positioned the site near Jacksonville International Airport as attractive for AI and cloud infrastructure growth.
Six months later, Nassau County officials said they had no information about the project — no rezoning request, no site plan, no contact from the company despite attempts to reach out. On April 6, 2026, the county issued a statement to that effect. NextNRG did not respond to reporter inquiries in early April.
Following commissioner action on the moratorium, NextNRG founder and CEO Michael D. Farkas — who also founded electric-vehicle charging company Blink Charging — gave an interview to First Coast News clarifying the company's position. Farkas said the original intent was a solar-energy project: solar panels, battery storage, and sales to local utility JEA. He acknowledged the company had considered a data center when the solar project ran into difficulties but said a data center is not the direction NextNRG intends to pursue. JEA confirmed NextNRG has reached out but said no agreements have been made.
The credibility question for residents and commissioners is which framing reflects the company's actual intent. The original release was public, specific, and described the site in explicitly data-center terms. The walk-back came after a moratorium was already on the table. No application of any kind — for a data center, a solar farm, or anything else — has been filed with Nassau County as of April 2026.
How we got here.
For Nassau County residents.
What the moratorium would actually do
A moratorium freezes the acceptance and processing of new data center applications in unincorporated Nassau County for twelve months. It is not a permanent ban and does not retroactively cancel approved projects (there are none to cancel as of April 2026). Its practical purpose is to give county staff time to draft land-development-code standards specific to data centers — rules around water draw, noise, air emissions from backup generators, setbacks from residences and schools, and disclosure requirements for developers. Without those standards, a project filed today could potentially proceed under generic industrial zoning rules that were not designed for hyperscale facilities.
What the moratorium would not do
The moratorium, as described in county statements, applies to unincorporated Nassau County only. Incorporated areas such as Fernandina Beach, Callahan, and Hilliard make their own land-use decisions. The moratorium also would not affect solar farms, microgrids, or other non-data-center uses of the NextNRG site. If NextNRG's walk-back is taken at face value — a solar project serving JEA — the moratorium would have no direct effect on that plan.
How to weigh the NextNRG walk-back
Residents and commissioners are left to decide how much weight to give NextNRG's revised framing. Arguments for accepting it: the original announcement used hedging language ("ideal for"), no application has been filed, and the CEO has now stated publicly that data centers are not the company's business. Arguments for skepticism: the September 2025 release was specific about the 400 acres, fiber latency, and hyperscale fit; the walk-back came only after a moratorium was on the table; and NextNRG was publicly unreachable for six months until coverage escalated. The moratorium resolves the asymmetry by making the question moot for twelve months.
Where residents have the most leverage
The two public hearings — May 11 and June 8, both at 5 PM in commission chambers at 96135 Nassau Place in Yulee — are the meaningful input windows for the moratorium itself. Residents who want the moratorium to pass should plan to attend and speak at one or both. Residents concerned about the broader question of whether Nassau ends up with data centers after the 12-month pause should also engage with the county's land-development-code drafting process, which is where the permanent rules will be written.
Reporting we relied on.
- Jacksonville Daily Record / Jax Daily Record — moratorium drafting coverage, county statements, NextNRG corporate profile
- Jacksonville Today — April 13 commission meeting coverage and moratorium framing
- Action News Jax — moratorium hearing schedule, McCullough interview
- First Coast News — interviews with residents and NextNRG CEO Michael D. Farkas on the solar vs. data center question
- Data Center Dynamics — original NextNRG lease announcement and company specifications
- Nassau County Board of County Commissioners — agendas, news releases, meeting notices
Nassau is voting on Florida's first data center moratorium.
Chair Alyson McCullough is driving a 12-month moratorium. County Attorney Denise May is drafting. April 27 discussion, May 11 first hearing, June 8 second hearing plus vote. If Nassau passes this, it's the first moratorium in Florida — and the template other counties will copy. NextNRG's Michael Farkas has already walked his pitch back from "data center" to "solar farm."
Your Nassau Defense Kit is written for your address and your specific concerns — your family's health (diesel backup generators, air quality), your well or JEA water, the 24/7 industrial noise and light, your property value, your FPL/JEA bill. It includes a Preparation Brief on the moratorium timeline and what it means for your property, a Nassau County public comment letter in your voice calibrated to the moratorium hearings, a 2-minute hearing script, contact info for all five commissioners plus Denise May's office, and what Florida's SB 484 protections mean for Nassau specifically.
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More on what data centers mean for Florida residents
- Water usage & aquifer impact
- Well water contamination
- Your FPL / Duke / electric bill
- Industrial noise & decibels
- Property value impact
- Health risks & air quality
- Is one near my home?
- HOA & deed restrictions
- Selling a home near a data center
- How to find a proposal
- County commission hearings
- Writing a public comment letter
- How communities stop data centers
- Data centers coming to Florida
- What is a hyperscale data center?