{"id":87847,"date":"2026-11-11T20:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T01:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=87847"},"modified":"2026-11-11T20:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T01:21:22","slug":"auburndale-technology-center-faces-strong-opposition-at-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/11\/11\/auburndale-technology-center-faces-strong-opposition-at-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Auburndale Technology Center Faces Strong Opposition at Workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Auburndale Technology Center<\/strong> public workshop, held on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, at the Lake Ariana Civic Center, brought out hundreds of residents and community advocacy groups to voice strong opposition to the proposed facility.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Key Resident Concerns<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Enormous Power Requirements:<\/strong> TECO is slated to supply power to the 75-acre project, which is expected to start at 350 megawatts and eventually scale up to 700 megawatts<\/strong>. Residents said this single facility would draw enough electricity to power 350,000 to 500,000 homes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Water Usage & Environmental Impact:<\/strong> Despite developer plans for a closed-loop cooling system estimated at roughly 4,665 gallons per day, community members raised serious questions about long-term water depletion, runoff, and local environmental degradation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Quality of Life & Property Values:<\/strong> Homeowners voiced fears over persistent operational noise and a potential 10% or higher drop in surrounding residential property values.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Developer & City Response<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Pace Road DC Development \/ Hillwood:<\/strong> Representatives maintained that because the site already carries industrial zoning, no further formal City Commission land-use re-zoning is required. They noted the facility will generate nearly 300 permanent jobs, pay for all of its utility infrastructure, and operate within standard noise thresholds (50 decibels at the property line).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Auburndale City Commission:<\/strong> Commissioners emphasized that they are carefully scrutinizing the building permit and retrofit site plan applications submitted on November 4. Commissioner Sean Levy said he would not let a “rubber stamp process” compromise city resources, local schools, or the regional economy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n
      \n
      \"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

      What’s Next<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      The city is currently reviewing the submitted building permit and site plan applications.<\/sup> Local groups are hosting informational sessions ahead of the upcoming Auburndale City Commission meeting scheduled for Monday, November 16, 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Auburndale Technology Center public workshop, held on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, at the Lake Ariana Civic Center, brought out hundreds of residents and community advocacy groups to voice strong… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzExXC9pbWFnZXMtMS02LndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJBdWJ1cm5kYWxlIFRlY2hub2xvZ3kgQ2VudGVyIEZhY2VzIFN0cm9uZyBPcHBvc2l0aW9uIGF0IFdvcmtzaG9wIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.ysQN-7O-mCM7lRUrwQYuqDEMjhI7ZXYzBP8OsgiZI_4MQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzExXC9pbWFnZXMtMS02LndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJBdWJ1cm5kYWxlIFRlY2hub2xvZ3kgQ2VudGVyIEZhY2VzIFN0cm9uZyBPcHBvc2l0aW9uIGF0IFdvcmtzaG9wIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.ysQN-7O-mCM7lRUrwQYuqDEMjhI7ZXYzBP8OsgiZI_4MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[19107,19309,19310,16547,19311,19317,19316,19315],"class_list":["post-87847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-auburndale-city-commission","tag-auburndale-technology-center","tag-community-opposition","tag-data-center","tag-hillwood","tag-power-requirements","tag-property-values","tag-water-usage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87851,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87847\/revisions\/87851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}