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Indiantown proposed data center plans scrapped as village sets record straight on undeveloped land

Silver Fox 606 has scrapped its proposal for a massive data facility, but neighbors are now raising concerns over Florida Power and Light's rezoning request for 5,700 acres of undeveloped land
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INDIANTOWN, Fla. — A developer has withdrawn a proposal to build a massive 2 million-square-foot data processing center in Indiantown, but residents continue to raise concerns about other undeveloped land in the area.

WATCH BELOW: 'The main thing I’m concerned about is environmentally,' Carroll Slay McAllister tells WPTV Cassandra Garcia

Data center concerns in Indiantown

Silver Fox 606 withdrew its proposal for the facility on Wednesday. A formal request with today's date was sent to the village manager stating the withdrawal of the master site plan application. The project had previously received pushback from the community after WPTV's Ethan Stein first reported on it in February. The project would have been located on 13820 Silver Fox Road.

The withdrawal comes amid a growing number of large-scale data centers proposed across the region, stretching from Palm Beach County to Okeechobee and the Treasure Coast.

Now, a rezoning request from Florida Power and Light for 5,700 acres of land on Kanner Highway, west of Warfield Boulevard, has neighbors talking.

During a recent village council meeting, Florida Power and Light said they could build a data center on the site, but it does not mean they will. Bellow is their full statement:

The Tesoro Groves Planned Unit Development (PUD) application establishes a planning framework for future development, not a specific project or site plan. Any future development would require local approval, detailed site plans, public engagement and compliance with environmental standards. If a data center were ever proposed, it would be required to pay for 100% of the power infrastructure needed to serve it, protecting existing customers.

WATCH: Data centers are Florida's newest threat to wildlife, experts warn

Proposed data center could threaten hundreds of acres of wetlands

Carroll Slay McAllister and her sister, Myrtle Green, love the rural lifestyle and fear it’s disappearing.

“They are taking farmland–agricultural land and turning it into light industrial,” said McAllister.

McAllister and Green worry the rezoning is paving the way for a data center.

“The main thing I’m concerned about is environmentally, what it does to us,” McAllister said. “I’m concerned about what it does to our water table, all the animals that’s on the property.”

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Green fears the heat and noise will affect their quality of life. She said she drove past a data center in Kentucky and remembers the sound well.

"It’s pretty loud,” Green said.

The village council meeting is Thursday at 6 p.m. McAllister said she’ll be there.

READ FULL WITHDRAWAL BELOW:

“The Village of Indiantown in my opinion has lost its vision. They’re turning it into a light industrial community,” said McAllister.

“That is not on the table, all that’s on the table is a rezoning. What Florida Power and Light has indicated to us is the first thing they will be doing is building a substation,” said Indiantown Village Manager Taryn Kryzda.

She said the full plans for the property are still unclear, but she supports the rezoning.

“The planned unit development document itself allows us to put in as I said those additional restrictions and layers of guard rails and protections,” said Kryzda.

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This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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