# Model Instruments for Data Center Development in Florida Counties
## Guide, Open Legal Questions and Methodology

**Release 2026.4** · In-Kind Standard · DOI: `10.5281/zenodo.24021153`

Companion record (the model instruments, CC0 1.0): `10.5281/zenodo.24021154`

Earlier releases of this record: Release 2026.3, `10.5281/zenodo.23482770`; and, published as the Automation Resilience and Community Benefit Framework, Release 2026.2, `10.5281/zenodo.22969877`, and Release 2026.1, `10.5281/zenodo.22216263`.

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## What this is

A plain-language guide to the model instruments, the legal questions they raise with the answers the primary sources support, and the two tests used to decide what belongs in a county instrument. In-Kind Standard is the name of the citizen-prepared project that writes them. The instruments themselves are in the companion record under CC0, so that a county can adopt them without attribution.

## Contents

| File | What it is |
|---|---|
| `Plain_Language_Guide_Release_2026_4.md` | The instruments in plain English, for residents, commissioners and county staff |
| `Open_Legal_Questions_Release_2026_4.md` | For each legal question the instruments raise, the answer the primary sources support and how firm it is, the change it calls for, and the narrower question left for counsel or an agency. Nothing in this record is a legal review |
| `In_Kind_Eligibility_and_Characterization_Test_v1_10.txt` | Where a proposed item belongs: in a standard, a fee, a development agreement, a lease or a private agreement, or nowhere |
| `Consideration_Adequacy_and_Fit_Test_v1_6.md` | For a County ground lease or a private agreement only: whether what is received is adequate and fits the need |

Navigation and license files: `000_START_HERE.md`, `CHANGELOG_v2026.4.md`, `002_MANIFEST.txt`, `LICENSE_RECORD_1_CC0.txt`, `LICENSE_RECORD_2_CCBY.txt`.

## Known limitations

- No county has commissioned the impact study or the impact fee study. Every mitigation amount depends on one.
- The author's comparison with adopted ordinances and executed agreements, as of October 2026, found no Florida county that has adopted data center performance standards, no executed ground lease of public land for a data center, no data center community benefits agreement of 2025 or 2026 without a government party, and no executed United States data center agreement that dedicates computing capacity to a community, so those features are untested.
- Not adopted anywhere. Not reviewed by licensed counsel. The work of one person.

## Status

Citizen-prepared work product. Not legal advice. The author is not licensed to practice law and is not affiliated with, and does not write on behalf of, any university, law school, clinic, law firm, or governmental body. No attorney-client relationship arises from this deposit or any use of it.

## License

CC BY 4.0. See `LICENSE_RECORD_2_CCBY.txt` for the suggested attribution. If you modify this material, you must indicate that you did so.

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*Prepared by Timothy Smith · Citizen-prepared working draft · Not legal advice.*