Instructions
Community Action Letter Template: you can copy and paste the letter text below in and email (or click on the email addresses one at a time below for an email to auto-populate, then you can add your name and address to the letter. We are also sending physical letters.
Why physical letters IN ADDITION to emails? Commissioners get flooded with hundreds of emails a day, and it is incredibly easy for an assistant to bulk-archive them into a single folder.
When a physical, hand-signed letter arrives on a commissioner's desk, it has a completely different psychological and bureaucratic impact. Here is why doing both is a critical strategy:
1. The Legal "Paper Trail" Requirement
By mailing physical letters via USPS (or hand-delivering them to the clerk), you are officially entering these documents into the permanent public record for any future land-use lawsuits. If the county staff tries to sneak an administrative approval through later, they cannot claim they weren't warned about the specific health and legal liabilities.
2. Bypassing the Digital Spam Filters
Physical mail in government offices must be opened, sorted, and logged by administrative assistants. When a stack of identical letters from the same ZIP code lands on a commissioner’s desk, it creates physical clutter that serves as a constant, visual reminder of our community's voting power.
3. The Two-Pronged Mobilization Strategy
Step 1 (The Speed Wave): Copy/paste the email template, add your name, and send it immediately. This creates instant digital noise.
Step 2 (The Heavy Wave): Print out 8 copies of the physical letter, sign it in blue ink, and drop it in the mail to the main governmental center downtown.
[Commissioner's Name]
Palm Beach County Governmental Center
301 N. Olive Avenue, 12th Floor
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
The Email List Checklist
District 1: Maria G. Marino (MMarino@pbc.gov)
District 2: Gregg K. Weiss (GWeiss@pbc.gov)
District 3: Joel G. Flores (JGFlores@pbc.gov)
District 4: Marci Woodward (MWoodward@pbc.gov)
District 5: Maria Sachs (MSachs@pbc.gov)
District 6 (Your District - Arden/The Acreage): Sara Baxter (SBaxter@pbc.gov) — Target her heavily; she is your direct representative!
District 7: Bobby Powell (BPowell@pbc.gov)
PZB Executive Director: Whitney Carroll (WCarroll@pbc.gov) — Crucial because she oversees the administrative staff.
Crucial: How to Email the Commissioners
Do not send one single bulk email to all the commissioners at once. Bulk emails are easily caught by administrative spam filters, grouped together, and archived with a single click.
To maximize our impact and force the county to act, we need to flood their individual inboxes. Follow these three quick steps:
Step 1: Send Separate Emails. Copy our letter template and send it individually to each commissioner’s email address listed below. Seven separate emails mean our objections are logged 700 times instead of just once.
Step 2: Alert Our Direct Representative. When emailing Commissioner Sara Baxter (District 6), add this sentence to the top of your email: "As your direct constituent in Arden, I am looking to you to lead the charge on closing this loophole."
Step 3: Print and Mail a Copy. After emailing, print out the letter, sign it in ink, and mail it to the Palm Beach County Governmental Center downtown. Physical mail creates a mandatory, permanent paper trail that cannot be deleted.
Let's make our voices completely unavoidable!
The Letter
Subject: URGENT: Close the Administrative Loophole on Data Center Conversions Near Arden
Dear Palm Beach County Commissioners,
First, thank you for protecting our families during the recent Project Tango zoning hearing. Your explicit recognition on the official record that AI data centers are a completely different industrial animal from legacy definitions was a vital victory for public health.
However, our community remains in immediate jeopardy due to a severe loophole in the 2016 Unified Land Development Code (ULDC). We understand that 1.2 million square feet of previously approved warehouse space can still be converted into a data center through a purely administrative process—completely bypassing public notifications, community hearings, and your legislative vote.
As residents, we refuse to let an obsolete administrative checkbox invite a heavy industrial utility plant into a zone designated for light-industrial or residential harmony.
Please consider the unmitigated technical facts and national precedents regarding this administrative loophole:
1. The Measurement Deception: The current ULDC evaluates noise strictly in dBA decibels, a scale engineered to mimic human speech that intentionally filters out and hides low-frequency sound. While an AI facility can measure as "compliant" in dBA on paper, it simultaneously emits a massive, unchecked continuous hum in the C-weighted (dBC) spectrum.
2. Acoustic Inevitability & Health Liabilities: Low-frequency waves possess macro-wavelengths that cannot be stopped by standard concrete perimeter walls or residential windows. They easily penetrate concrete block and glass, invading the sanctuary of our homes 24/7/365. Decades of peer-reviewed medical research prove that this permanent hum acts as a toxic neurostressor, forcing the human nervous system into a continuous 'fight-or-flight' response that triggers severe sleep deprivation, impaired childhood brain development, immune dysfunction, anxiety, and heightened risks of cardiovascular disease and cancer.
3. Clear National Precedent: Closing administrative loopholes is exactly how proactive local governments are protecting their residents. In Northern Virginia—the data center capital of the world—counties rapidly overhauled their zoning ordinances to strip away "by-right" administrative checkbox approvals. In 2026, Prince William County eliminated administrative status for data center zones, legally mandating that all data center proposals or conversions face a strict Special Use Permit process. Similarly, Fairfax County and Loudoun County revoked administrative sign-offs, forcing all data center infrastructure through mandatory Special Exception frameworks and rigorous public hearings.
4. The Fallacy of Vested Entitlements (The Bert Harris Act & SB 180): We respect the law regarding vested rights. The developer holds a 2016 entitlement to build standard storage warehouses. However, an AI data center utility plant introduces a radical, unmitigated escalation in operational intensity and environmental risk. Regulating a documented public health hazard and preventing a 24/7 localized public nuisance does NOT "inordinately burden" a property under the Bert Harris Act, nor is it constrained by Senate Bill 180, because the baseline right to build the approved warehouses remains completely untouched.
5. The Zoning Director's Immediate Authority: Under the current code as it stands today, the Zoning Director holds clear, existing authority to impose strict conditions on a use specifically to prevent off-site adverse impacts. Because staff has the power to stop measurable off-site harm today without enacting new legislation, using a scientifically accurate C-weighted (dBC) threshold to evaluate and control that harm is the only legally and medically defensible path forward.
Now that these medical, technical, and legislative facts are an official part of the county record, a NO vote or an immediate administrative stay is the only defensible path forward. Allowing an administrative workaround to quietly bypass public accountability is an unacceptable exposure to public health and municipal liability.
I urge you to follow the blueprint set by other leading counties and immediately protect your constituents by taking two actions:
1. Direct the Planning, Zoning, and Building Department to implement an immediate moratorium on all administrative warehouse-to-data-center conversions.
2. Mandate that any proposed data center use within 3 miles of a residential zone or school must go through a full, transparent public hearing and a Board of County Commissioners vote.
3. Direct the Zoning Director to exert their existing authority to mandate that any administrative sign-off for this site require strict, verifiable compliance with a C-weighted (dBC) threshold and a total prohibition on continuous low-frequency tonal vibrations at our residential property lines.
Do not let an administrative loophole undo the vital protections you championed this week. Please protect our homes, our property values, and our children at Saddle View Elementary.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
[YOUR ARDEN SUBDIVISION / ADDRESS]
[OPTIONAL: YOUR PROFESSION/BACKGROUND]
When customizing the Letter, don't hesitate to include your background if you work in healthcare, engineering, education, real estate, or local business (e.g., "From: John Doe, Arden Resident / Registered Nurse" or "From: Jane Smith, Loxahatchee Resident / Acoustic Engineer"). Showing the Commissioners that our community is packed with professionals who understand biology, structure, and land use makes this document impossible for county staff to brush aside as just emotional complaints.
By keeping the entire body text exactly the same and just swapping out the sender, the county will receive an identical, undeniable wall of technical objections from voters across the entire area.