Materials / Release 2026.4
Release 2026.4
Release 2026.4 of "Model Instruments for Data Center Development in Florida Counties", published on 6 November 2026. Every file here is identical to the copy kept at Zenodo, a public archive; a program checks each one against Zenodo's own list.
The release's own known gaps: no county has adopted these instruments, no licensed attorney has reviewed them, and none of the studies they depend on has been done.
Read "Before relying on any of it" in the start-here file first. The files are plain text and Markdown text, which a browser shows unformatted or may offer to download.
Two records
Zenodo keeps the release as two records. Each has a license and a DOI, a permanent address to cite. Later corrections are listed on each record's page there.
Record 1: Instruments
The model ordinances, agreements, modules and forms, the impact study outline, and the Drafter's Notes
You may adopt, adapt, excerpt and codify this material without attribution and without permission.
If these instruments inform an adopted ordinance or executed agreement, a citation to the deposit DOI helps others trace provenance and locate errata.
To cite: doi:10.5281/zenodo.24021154
Record 2: Guide, Open Legal Questions and Methodology
A plain-language guide, the open legal questions, and two tests for deciding what belongs in a county instrument
To credit this record, use the attribution in its license file.
To cite: doi:10.5281/zenodo.24021153
Where to begin
The release's start-here file suggests this order.
- Plain Language Guide: if you are not a lawyer.
- Model Data Center Standards Ordinance, with Exhibit A, Data Center Standards: the standards a large data center must meet, adopted as part of the land development code.
- Drafter's Notes: for each instrument, the blanks to complete, what sets each one, and the statute that requires the provision.
- Open Legal Questions: the legal questions the instruments raise, the answer the primary sources support for each and how firm it is, and the narrower questions left for county counsel.
Documents in Record 1
Each instrument comes as two files. The annotated copy opens with a heading block on what the instrument is and does, what to settle before use and its known gaps, and keeps the drafting notes. The clean copy is the same text with the heading block and the drafting notes removed, the starting point for a county's own draft. The Drafter's Notes and the About file come once.
Model Data Center Standards Ordinance, with Exhibit A, Data Center Standards version 3.14
Adopting ordinance and Exhibit A, Data Center Standards: tiers and applications, siting, screening and lighting, water and cooling, water withdrawal and wells, sound, generators, stormwater, karst and flood, burials and archaeological resources, hazardous systems, equipment stewardship, decommissioning, review, monitoring and enforcement
Data Center Technical Manual (Exhibit B to the Standards Ordinance) version 1.11
Exhibit B to the Standards Ordinance: methods, submittals, tests and report formats
Module M1, Conditional Use Review version 1.2
Optional conditional use review procedure (Sec. 15A of the Standards)
County Procedure and Records Kit version 1.12
Staff report, Sec. 15A insert, resolution, business impact estimate, hearing calendar, gap check, and a plan policy on data center water sources
Model Data Center Public Safety and Emergency Power Impact Fee Ordinance version 0.8
Impact fee for fire rescue and hazardous materials facilities and, where the technical study finds need and benefit, emergency medical services and emergency power at County facilities
Model Host Community Development Agreement version 2.20
Host Community Development Agreement under ss. 163.3220 to 163.3243, Florida Statutes, for mitigation of impacts the County's study measures
Model Host Community Development Agreement: Exhibits and Forms version 2.12
The agreement's exhibits, and forms of utility cost affidavit, letters of credit, emergency equipment lease, decommissioning security, and commitment status table and completion statement
Schedule of Supplemental Operating Covenants (Exhibit "S") version 1.9
Exhibit "S": operating covenants beyond the Standards, for the agreement or a County ground lease
Module M2, Emergency Power for County Facilities version 1.5
Optional: emergency power capability at County facilities
Exhibit "B-1" Outline and Methodology version 1.9
Outline and method for the County's own Exhibit "B-1" impact, nexus and proportionality findings
Model Ground Lease version 1.17
Ground lease of County land for a data center, with the County as landlord
Module M3, Civic Compute Allocation version 1.10
Optional: computing capacity as part of lease rent (Part 2) or under the private agreement (Part 3)
Module M3 Options version 1.5
Optional provisions of Module M3 (a County computing share, an Instruction Share, open hardware obtained through the developer, and first refusal on retired equipment), each inserted at its number when chosen
Model Community Benefits Agreement version 0.15
Private agreement between the developer and a community organization. The County is not a party
Community Benefits Agreement Clause Bank version 1.8
Optional terms for the private agreement, and the terms not yet drafted
Drafter's Notes version 1.20
By instrument and section: each blank, what sets it, and the statute that requires the provision
About Record 1
Documents in Record 2
Plain Language Guide Release 2026.4
The instruments in plain English, for residents, commissioners and county staff
Open Legal Questions Release 2026.4
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 version 1.10
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 version 1.6
For a County ground lease or a private agreement only: whether what is received is adequate and fits the need
About Record 2
Navigation and license files, in both records
Start here
Orientation
Change log
Release notes, corrections and current versions
List of the release's files (manifest)
License for Record 1
CC0 1.0 dedication for Record 1
License for Record 2
CC BY 4.0 license for Record 2
On this page, the names of documents that show a version, the descriptions, the known gaps, each record's contents and Record 1's license notes are taken word for word from the release's own files. So are the notes under "Where to begin". They keep the licenses of the records they come from. The rest is this site's own summary.
Page updated 12 November 2026.