THE ACREAGE, Fla. — Project Tango, a proposed hyperscale AI data center in the Acreage, has been redesigned after months of community pushback over noise, environmental impact, and power consumption. Developer Ernie Cox says the changes are a direct response to concerns raised by residents — but not everyone is buying it.
WATCH:
The original plan called for 1.8 million square feet of data center space and 1.9 million square feet of warehouse space, proposed just 1,000 feet from the Arden residential community and the brand new Saddleview Elementary School.
Cox says the new proposal would significantly reduce the data center footprint, from 1.8 million square feet to 1,032,000 square feet. Warehouse space, however, would increase from 1.9 million square feet to just over 2.3 million square feet.
The redesign would also double the distance between the data center and the Arden community and Saddleview Elementary School, moving it from 1,000 feet to 2,000 feet. Cox says building composition would also change, designed to better absorb sound.
He also says water consumption has been dramatically reduced — from millions of gallons per day down to just 5,000 gallons per day.
Cox says all of these changes are a direct result of concerns the community has voiced.
WPTV reporter Michael Hoffman analyzed those changes and sat down with Rachel Smith, who has been standing against the project since its announcement. The two looked through the renderings and updates together. Smith says she is still not convinced.
"I think that it could potentially be a Trojan horse. I think there's been enough distrust at this point that trusting in the developers is really hard," Smith said.
Smith says she still wants to see independent studies done before she is convinced.
"There's not enough solid information for me to feel comfortable with these changes that are being proposed," Smith said.
"He still has not convinced me. So I think it's great that they're trying to work with us, but I also think it could be partially a facade to get what they want passed, and then once it's passed, they can kind of do whatever they want," Smith said.
Cox says the updates are still subject to change. County commissioners are set to vote on the project's future in April.
Click here to see the full proposal on the Project Tango website.
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