Project Tango grows: County staff grants administrative approval to larger data center
Palm Beach County staff approved a master-plan change that will increase PBA Holdings’ permitted data center space at Project Tango from 200,000 to 698,000 square feet. The approval has angered Arden-area residents and comes despite the County Commission’s rejection of a larger expansion, approval of a one-year moratorium on new data center applications, and ongoing zoning-rule revisions.
Palm Beach County zoning staff approved PBA Holdings’ request to reassign land uses within the previously approved master plan for Project Tango, a proposed hyperscale AI data center site near 20-Mile Bend and the Arden community. The change raises the permitted data center area from 200,000 to 698,000 square feet, although it is smaller than the 1 million square feet sought in an expansion rejected by the County Commission in July.
Residents opposing the project criticized the administrative approval as a backdoor expansion. The approval includes an 850-foot eastern buffer, sound studies, ongoing noise monitoring and a closed-loop cooling system. PBA Holdings has appealed the commission’s July rejection under Florida’s Land Use and Environmental Dispute Resolution Act, while WPB Logistics Owner is pursuing a separate effort to convert warehouse space on the site to data center use and remains involved in a legal dispute with PBA Holdings.
The commission previously approved a one-year moratorium on new data center applications while county officials rewrite zoning rules for hyperscale AI facilities. Commissioners are also considering hiring VHB, or Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, for up to $225,000 to advise on the zoning revisions.