Pembroke Pines bars data centers from agricultural land

Data centers cannot be built on land Pembroke Pines has set aside for agriculture. The City Commission voted 5-0 on Wednesday to adopt the change to the city’s comprehensive plan.

The vote adopted Ordinance 2026-08 on second and final reading. Mayor Angelo Castillo, Vice Mayor Michael Hernandez and commissioners Thomas Good Jr., Maria Rodriguez and Jay D. Schwartz all voted yes, according to the city’s meeting record. The ordinance says it takes effect on adoption.

How data centers came into it

The ordinance began as a city staff proposal to add two kinds of use to the agricultural land use category. Staff said the change would match the permitted uses in the Broward County Land Use Plan. The two additions were:

• communication facilities
• public utilities, such as water and wastewater treatment plants, pumping stations, recycling facilities, electrical substations, electric lines and drainage structures, but not electrical power plants

The city’s Planning and Zoning Board recommended it 5-0 on May 14. No one from the public spoke, according to the board’s minutes. That version did not mention data centers.

At first reading on Aug. 5, Hernandez moved to add the words “excluding data centers” to both new uses. Rodriguez seconded, and the amendment passed, the city’s record of the ordinance shows.

The adopted text now allows “communication facilities, excluding data centers.” It also says “electrical power plants and data centers shall remain excluded from approved uses and shall be excluded from the definition of public utilities.”

What agricultural land can still be used for

The plan’s agricultural category already allowed, among other uses:

• crops, groves, nurseries, cattle ranches and horse ranches
• homes at no more than one per two net acres, or one per 2.5 gross acres
• recreation and open space
• cemeteries
• schools, day care centers, churches, libraries, and police and fire stations of up to 20 acres
• quarrying and transportation facilities

Also adopted Wednesday

The commission passed two other ordinances on final reading, each 5-0:

• Smaller mixed-use projects. Ordinance 2026-11 cuts the minimum size of a mixed-use development district from 25 acres to 10, citywide. Midtown Pembroke LLC asked for it through its lawyers at Greenberg Traurig. City staff said in the Planning and Zoning Board minutes that the change lets the company seek a rezoning of a site under 25 acres. Any such rezoning still needs the board’s review and the commission’s approval. The board voted 4-1 for it on Aug. 13.
• Water supply plan. Ordinance 2026-07 adopts an update to the city’s 10-year water supply facilities work plan and related changes to the comprehensive plan.

What it means for you

• A data center cannot be proposed on land the city’s plan marks as agricultural, under either new use.
• The mixed-use change does not approve any project. A rezoning request for a smaller site would go to a public hearing first, and you can speak at it. Public notices appear on our public notices page.
• City Commission meetings stream on the city’s live stream page. The final vote on the city’s e-bike and scooter rules is scheduled for Nov. 18.