Jobs, taxes and technology are being weighed against concerns about water, electricity, wildlife and political influence
By Citrus County Independence
Citrus County has found itself in the middle of a national debate over one of the fastest-growing parts of America’s technology industry: massive data centers used for artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital services.
Supporters see data centers as an opportunity to expand the county’s tax base, bring construction and technology jobs to the area and make use of industrially zoned land.
Opponents see something very different: enormous electricity demands, potential pressure on groundwater, industrial development near rural neighborhoods, around-the-clock noise and another threat to the natural resources that make Citrus County part of Florida’s Nature Coast.
The debate is not simply theoretical. Earlier this year, a proposal involving the Holder Industrial Park brought the issue directly before Citrus County residents and commissioners.
What was proposed in Holder?
The Deltona Corporation sought land-use changes involving hundreds of acres near County Road 491, Tram Road and U.S. 41 in the Holder/Lecanto area. Approximately 557 acres were already designated for industrial development, while Deltona sought to substantially enlarge the industrial area.
County officials and news organizations reported that an AI data center was among the potential uses for the expanded property.
The issue produced packed government meetings and significant opposition from nearby residents.
Deltona representatives promoted major potential economic benefits. According to figures presented during the process, the development was projected to produce approximately 2,500 construction jobs, 825 company jobs and $105 million in property-tax revenue. Those figures were projections made in support of the development, however — not guarantees that a specific data-center operator had contracted to produce that number of jobs or taxes.
That distinction matters.
A rezoning can make a project possible. It does not necessarily guarantee what eventually gets built.
The project is no longer active
On May 26, 2026, Citrus County commissioners unanimously approved a roughly one-year moratorium on new data-center-related development approvals while the county studies possible regulations.
Because Deltona’s application had been submitted before the moratorium, the Holder application continued through the review process.
On June 18, the Citrus County Planning and Development Commission recommended denial of the Holder Industrial Park proposal following a lengthy hearing.
Deltona then asked to postpone the final county vote. Commissioners unanimously rejected that request.
On June 23, Deltona formally withdrew applications CPA-2-2025-000012 and CPA-2025-000013. The scheduled July hearing was subsequently canceled.
So, as of August 2026, the most accurate description is:
The Holder data-center proposal is withdrawn, not approved and not under construction.
Public reporting reviewed for this story does not identify another active hyperscale AI data-center development in Citrus County. That does not mean ordinary corporate computer facilities or small server rooms do not exist in the county; those are very different from the enormous hyperscale facilities at the center of the current controversy.
Why developers are interested in Holder
The Holder Industrial Park did not suddenly appear because of artificial intelligence.
Citrus County has spent years attempting to prepare the industrial area for economic development.
County records show that officials pursued infrastructure funding for Holder Industrial Park, including a $2.8 million federal Economic Development Administration request for wastewater infrastructure with a $700,000 local match. County economic-development material also cited Duke Energy economic modeling estimating thousands of jobs if the entire industrial park were eventually built out with manufacturing, warehousing and industrial uses.
That investment predates the current data-center controversy and should not automatically be characterized as data-center funding.
It does, however, help explain why developers may view Holder as attractive: industrial zoning and publicly supported infrastructure can make a site easier and less expensive to develop.
The economic argument for data centers
There are legitimate reasons local governments pursue them.
Large projects can require enormous construction expenditures. Contractors, electricians, heavy-equipment operators, engineers and other workers may benefit during construction.
Data centers can also place extremely valuable buildings and equipment on a local property-tax roll.
Their owners may pay for new electric substations, fiber-optic connections, roads and other infrastructure. A carefully negotiated project could potentially require the developer — rather than existing taxpayers or utility customers — to shoulder much of that cost.
They can also help diversify a county economy that otherwise relies heavily on residential development, tourism, health care and retail.
But the economic analysis should separate construction jobs from permanent jobs.
A huge building can require thousands of workers to construct while requiring far fewer workers to operate once the servers are installed. Consequently, county officials should demand binding estimates of permanent local employment rather than relying only on the much larger construction-job number.
The electricity question may be even bigger than the water question
Modern AI data centers require extraordinary amounts of electricity.
The U.S. Department of Energy says electricity demand from American data centers has grown rapidly and could double or triple by 2028.
Some hyperscale facilities effectively function as small industrial cities from an electrical standpoint.
That can require new substations, transmission lines and sometimes additional generating capacity.
For Citrus County residents, one of the most important questions therefore isn’t simply:
“How much electricity will the data center use?”
It is:
“Who pays for the electrical infrastructure required to serve it?”
If a utility must spend hundreds of millions of dollars expanding infrastructure, regulators must determine how those costs are allocated.
That issue has become politically important across Florida and nationally because residents fear that ordinary utility customers could eventually subsidize infrastructure built primarily for extremely large industrial users. Spectrum News specifically noted the concern that data-center electricity demand can have ripple effects on local rates.
A strong Citrus County ordinance could require developers to disclose projected peak electrical demand before receiving approval and provide evidence concerning who would pay for associated infrastructure.
What about water?
This is where the debate often becomes oversimplified.
It is incorrect to say that every data center consumes millions of gallons of water every day.
It is also incorrect to say that data centers have no meaningful water impact.
The answer depends heavily on the cooling technology.
Traditional evaporative cooling towers remove enormous quantities of heat by evaporating water. The U.S. Department of Energy describes cooling towers as water-intensive and notes that constant facilities such as data centers can create significant continuous cooling demand.
Other technologies can dramatically reduce direct water consumption. Closed-loop liquid cooling and dry cooling can reduce or avoid much of the evaporative water loss, although some approaches can increase electricity demand or carry other engineering tradeoffs.
That means Citrus County does not have to debate an imaginary “average data center.”
It can require a developer to say exactly what it proposes to build.
Residents should know the proposed maximum daily water withdrawal, water source, cooling system, wastewater discharge, emergency water requirements and projected water consumption during the hottest part of summer before a project receives final approval.
Why water matters more in Citrus County than it might somewhere else
Citrus County’s natural environment is unusually connected to groundwater.
The county sits above the Floridan aquifer, which feeds the springs responsible for some of the county’s most recognizable natural resources.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District says the Crystal River/Kings Bay springshed covers approximately 310 square miles. The Homosassa springshed covers roughly 286 square miles. Groundwater levels help drive spring flow in both systems.
Florida environmental officials already identify problems including nitrate enrichment, changing salinity, reduced desirable aquatic vegetation and concerns about historical spring flows.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has also identified areas of the Citrus County aquifer as especially vulnerable because water can move relatively easily from the surface into the underlying Floridan aquifer.
That doesn’t prove a Holder data center would damage Crystal River or Homosassa Springs.
It does mean that Citrus County should demand site-specific groundwater modeling before approving a large industrial water user rather than assuming effects will be insignificant.
Springs, manatees and the Nature Coast economy
Environmental protection in Citrus County is not simply about scenery.
Crystal River/Kings Bay contains more than 70 springs and is one of Florida’s largest spring systems. The Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge was created specifically for protection of the Florida manatee, which depends on warm spring water during cold weather.
Citrus County also contains or borders extensive aquatic preserves, marshes, forests and wildlife habitat supporting recreation, fishing and tourism.
That gives natural resources economic value as well as ecological value.
A project that increased the tax base but damaged water resources could therefore generate revenue in one portion of the economy while imposing costs on another.
Conversely, claiming that any industrial development automatically destroys the springs would go beyond what the available evidence establishes.
The important question is location, design and cumulative impact.
Land clearing and wildlife
An 800-acre industrial development can have consequences even if its cooling system uses little groundwater.
Clearing forest can eliminate wildlife habitat, fragment habitat corridors and increase stormwater runoff.
Industrial development also creates large areas of roofs, roads and parking surfaces that no longer absorb rainfall the way undeveloped soil and vegetation do.
Stormwater design therefore becomes especially important in a county where groundwater and springs are closely connected.
Florida DEP notes that development and stormwater runoff can transport pollutants into the aquifer through the natural recharge process, ultimately affecting spring-fed rivers and coastal waters.
Any future data-center application should consequently be evaluated not just by the building footprint but by the entire developed area — including transmission infrastructure, substations, backup generators, roads, retention systems and associated industrial development.
Noise is another legitimate concern
Data centers operate 24 hours a day.
The servers themselves are indoors, but cooling equipment, large fans, transformers and other mechanical equipment may operate continuously. Backup generators must also be periodically tested.
That does not mean every data center will produce unacceptable neighborhood noise.
Distance from homes, berms, building orientation, equipment selection and sound barriers can make enormous differences.
But residents should not be asked to rely on assurances such as “noise will meet code.”
A future Citrus County ordinance could require independent computer noise modeling before construction and enforceable nighttime noise measurements after operation begins.
What about backup generators and air pollution?
Large data centers generally require backup power to maintain operation during grid failures.
Traditionally this has involved banks of diesel generators, although batteries, natural gas and other technologies are increasingly used.
The environmental effect therefore depends greatly on the proposed facility.
A project containing dozens or hundreds of diesel generators presents a different air-quality issue than one using large-scale batteries with a much smaller generator system.
Again, the solution is disclosure.
Citrus County could require future applicants to disclose the number, size, fuel source, expected testing hours and projected emissions of backup generators.
Following the money
This is one of the most sensitive parts of the debate, and accuracy matters.
There is significant political money flowing from the artificial-intelligence industry into Florida politics.
A pro-AI super PAC called Leading the Future committed millions of dollars to supporting Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds. In March, Leading the Future transferred $3 million to American Mission Florida, a newly formed Florida political committee. WUSF reported that portions of the money were subsequently used for pro-Donalds television advertising, including buys in the Tampa television market.
Leading the Future is supported by prominent technology investors and AI figures, including OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and Andreessen Horowitz.
Separately, reporting has identified Build American AI, an organization connected with the broader pro-AI political network, as a dark-money group that paid online influencers to promote pro-AI messages without initially making the financial sponsor obvious to viewers.
That is a legitimate transparency issue worthy of public attention.
But there is an equally important fact:
The evidence reviewed for this article does not establish that this money financed Deltona’s Holder proposal, was given to Citrus County commissioners in exchange for support, or was used directly to bring the Holder data center to Citrus County.
Calling it proof of a local payoff would therefore be unsupported.
What can accurately be said is that a large, well-financed political campaign exists nationally and in Florida to influence AI policy and the political environment in which data centers are developed.
Residents are entitled to know about that influence while also distinguishing it from the local land-use proceeding.
There is also public money behind industrial development
This is a separate issue from dark money.
Citrus County has sought government funding and committed local money to infrastructure at Holder Industrial Park. Public records show the county pursuing millions for wastewater infrastructure while describing Holder as an economic-development site.
That money is not secret political money.
It is government economic-development spending.
Residents can reasonably debate whether those investments are worthwhile, but labeling a disclosed federal grant or county appropriation “dark money” would be inaccurate.
The central question for Citrus County
The data-center debate does not have to be reduced to “technology versus the environment.”
A county can allow technology development while imposing stringent protections.
Likewise, economic-development projections should not automatically override legitimate questions about water, electricity, wildlife and quality of life.
The Holder controversy may actually provide Citrus County with an opportunity.
Because the Deltona applications have been withdrawn and the moratorium gives officials time to develop regulations, the county can establish rules before another company arrives with lawyers, engineers and a multimillion-dollar proposal.
Future applicants could be required to disclose their actual owner and operator, electricity requirements, maximum water consumption, cooling technology, generator emissions, noise, tax incentives, permanent employment, utility infrastructure requirements and environmental effects.
Those requirements would not constitute a ban on data centers.
They would allow residents and commissioners to understand what Citrus County is being asked to trade — and what it would receive in return.
Who residents can contact
The current Citrus County Board consists of Chair Diana Finegan, Vice Chair Janet Barek, Jeff Kinnard, Rebecca Bays and Holly Davis. The county’s current public-information sources list the BOCC at 110 N. Apopka Avenue, Inverness, FL 34450, phone 352-341-6561.
| Official | Contact |
|---|---|
| Commissioner Jeff Kinnard | jeff.kinnard@citrusbocc.com — 352-341-6561 |
| Commissioner Diana Finegan | diana.finegan@citrusbocc.com — 352-341-6561 |
| Commissioner Janet Barek | janet.barek@citrusbocc.com — BOCC: 352-341-6561 |
| Commissioner Rebecca Bays | rebecca.bays@citrusbocc.com — 352-341-6561 |
| Commissioner Holly Davis | holly.davis@citrusbocc.com — 352-341-6561 |
| Citrus County Growth Management | 3600 W. Sovereign Path, Lecanto — county Growth Management/Economic Development officials have handled Holder planning matters. |
| Citrus County Water Resources | 352-527-7650, 3600 W. Sovereign Path, Suite 291, Lecanto |
| UF/IFAS Citrus County Extension — natural-resource questions | citrus@ifas.ufl.edu, 352-527-5700 |
Bottom line
Citrus County does not currently face a choice between accepting the withdrawn Holder project or rejecting technology entirely.
It has something more valuable right now: time.
The county has the opportunity to determine how much electricity, water, land and public infrastructure it is willing to dedicate to this new industry — and what protections taxpayers and the environment should receive in return.
The debate should include potential jobs and tax revenue.
It should also include the Floridan aquifer, springs, wildlife, nearby homeowners and electricity customers.
And residents deserve full disclosure of both public economic-development money and private political influence surrounding an industry powerful enough to reshape communities for decades.
That is not an argument for or against data centers.
It is an argument that before Citrus County gives hundreds of acres, millions of gallons of potential water capacity or massive amounts of electricity to any new industry, residents should know exactly who is coming, what they are building, who is paying for it — and what Citrus County will look like when they are finished.