Breaking: Haines City Data Center: New Documents Reveal What Commissioners Were Told Before the Public, and When

HAINES CITY, Fla. — New details have emerged about how and when Haines City officials were informed about a proposed hyperscale artificial intelligence data center inquiry, following an exclusive interview with Deputy City Manager James Keene and the release of an internal city email obtained by The Citrus Tea. We sat down with city officials to get answers.

Haines City Board of Commissioners

Keene confirmed that on June 10, 2026, Interim City Manager Loyd Stewart sent an email to all five commissioners notifying them that a public records request had been received regarding the Cielo data center inquiry and that a concurrence letter had been issued in November 2025.

That email, obtained by The Citrus Tea, reads in part: “Obtaining such approval would represent only one step in a lengthy review process, as any proposed data center would remain subject to numerous additional development, engineering, utility, environmental, permitting, and regulatory requirements before it could be considered for approval. Since issuance of the concurrence letter, the City has not received any development application, site plan, zoning request, development agreement, or other formal request related to the proposed project. As a result, no further action has been taken by the City.” The actual concurrence letter was not attached to that email, but can be found here.

When Commissioner Anne Huffman first read the full text of the concurrence letter after The Citrus Tea shared it with her directly, she described its contents as very different from what Interim City Manager Loyd Stewart had told her the day before. Her response was made in good faith. The June 10 email notified commissioners that a concurrence letter existed and summarized its key points, but the document itself was not provided at that time.

Huffman confirmed her position clearly. “Transparency is one of the main cornerstones of public trust, and it wasn’t provided to me as an elected official and the Haines City residents,” she wrote. “I remain steadfast on my position to oppose the Cielo data center and should it come before the city commission, my vote will be NO.”

Vice Mayor Kim Downing also issued a formal written statement on June 26, 2026, stating her opposition. “I am opposed to the data center project if or when it comes before us,” Downing said. “While I support responsible growth and economic development, I have concerns about the potential impact a project of this magnitude could have on our community, including increased demands on infrastructure, energy and water resources, traffic, noise, and the overall quality of life for our residents.”

Commissioner Lekia Johnson, who was sworn in as Haines City Commissioner for Seat 2 on May 8, 2026, also serves as CRA Manager for the City of Fort Meade, a full-time position confirmed in the Fort Meade CRA’s 2024-2025 Annual Report. Questions had been raised on social media about a potential conflict of interest given her dual role and Fort Meade’s approval of the Stonebridge data center project. Johnson addressed both questions directly. However, the Fort Meade CRA boundary map, maintained by the Central Florida Regional Planning Council, confirms that the Stonebridge data center site, located northwest of downtown Fort Meade on former phosphate-mining land, falls entirely outside the CRA district boundary. The CRA’s jurisdiction covers downtown Fort Meade and its immediate surrounding corridors, leaving it with no role in the Stonebridge data center approval process. Johnson confirmed this directly. On the Fort Meade CRA’s involvement in the Stonebridge project, she stated: “It was handled through the Fort Meade City Commission.” On her position regarding a potential data center in Haines City, Johnson was clear:

“I vote in opposition. We are trying to preserve what we have now for the community.” — Haines City Commissioner Lekia Johnson, seat 2

The Formal Concurrence Letter

The Citrus Tea previously reported that it had obtained a formal concurrence letter dated November 17, 2025, signed by Keene and addressed to Christopher J. Maier, Senior Vice President of Implementation at Cielo Digital Infrastructure.

In a follow-up Zoom interview on July 2, 2026, Keene provided The Citrus Tea with important context about that language. He explained that the city’s standard operating approach with any potential developer is guided by the internal question of ‘how do you get to yes,’ meaning staff’s role is to determine whether a developer can meet all the requirements for their application, rather than to support or oppose any specific project. That decision, he said, belongs solely to the elected commission.

Keene also clarified what a concurrence letter means in practice. It is not a development approval, a contract, or a legal commitment. It is the city’s formal response to a developer’s request for confirmation that the city has the capacity to serve their needs. In this case, the answer was no. The city does not currently have sufficient permitted water capacity, but here is what would need to happen for that to change. This is what Interim City Manager Loyd Stewart also confirmed on the record during the June 18 commission meeting.

The Data Center Inquiry

The introduction between Cielo and city staff came through the Haines City Economic Development Council, which markets vacant land in the city’s industrial corridor to potential developers. According to Merissa Green, Communications and Marketing Manager for the City of Haines City, the EDC’s standard process is to market available properties, facilitate contact when a developer expresses interest, and then connect that developer with city staff. Keene confirmed he attended the November 4, 2025 virtual meeting with Cielo representatives along with consultants working on the city’s existing Water Use Permit modification with the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

Water Capacity

Keene confirmed the city does not currently have sufficient permitted water capacity to meet Cielo’s request of 150,000 gallons per day. The city has been pursuing a Water Use Permit modification with SWFWMD since 2022, requesting 16.42 million gallons per day to accommodate existing and future municipal growth, a process Keene described as extensive, requiring multiple studies, consultant involvement, and years of back-and-forth with the district. Cielo’s 150,000-gallon-per-day request has been added to that modification as a separate line item, but it requires its own approval by the SWFWMD Governing Board at a public meeting, above and beyond the city’s own request. Keene said he is very doubtful SWFWMD will approve the full amount needed to accommodate Cielo. Anything less than 16.57 million gallons per day total, he said, means the data center is not even a consideration.

The Application Process

Keene confirmed that any business seeking to locate in Haines City, regardless of whether it is already zoned for the property, goes through a full review process and ultimately comes before the commission. If zoning changes are required, the application must first go before the Planning and Zoning board before it ever reaches the commission. The commission, he said, is always the final stop.

Keene also noted that Haines City’s land development regulations do not currently define data centers as a specific use category. He confirmed he would direct his staff to require full planning and zoning review for any new use type not specifically defined in the existing code. As of July 2, 2026, no moratorium or formal policy discussion related to large-scale data center development has taken place in Haines City.

No formal application, site plan, development agreement, or zoning request has been received from Cielo Digital Infrastructure. Keene noted that in 2025, data centers were not a public concern or widely understood in the way they are today, and that the city was fortunate in hindsight that it lacked the water capacity to advance the conversation further at that time.

Keene noted that if he were sending that concurrence letter today, he would likely have left out the last paragraph, which reads, “We look forward to working with Cielo Digital Infrastructure to support the successful development of your data center campus in Haines City. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or for further coordination.“

Media Confusion

Several regional media outlets have incorrectly attributed the city’s engagement with Cielo Digital Infrastructure to former City Manager Jim Elensky. The concurrence letter was signed by Deputy City Manager James Keene, who confirmed this on the record and remains in that role today.

Adding to the confusion around data centers coming to Polk County, a technical error in the City of Lakeland’s online permit-tracking system briefly listed Project Swan, a proposed 600,000-square-foot hyperscale data center near Old Tampa Highway and Wilkinson Road, as withdrawn on June 2, 2026. Multiple outlets, including The Citrus Tea, reported the withdrawal based on that system status. The City of Lakeland issued a correction the following day clarifying that the developer’s legal counsel had only canceled a scheduled Development Review Team meeting, not withdrawn from the development review process itself. Project Swan remains an active concept review as of publication, with no formal application filed, no approvals granted, and no deadline for the developer to respond. The Tampa Bay Times confirmed as of July 2, 2026, both Project Swan in Lakeland and the Stonebridge Project in Fort Meade are still active.

While Cielo Digital Infrastructure lists the project as planned on commercial data center tracking websites such as Cleanview, Deputy City Manager Keene confirmed no formal application, site plan, or development agreement has been received by the city, and the designation reflects the developer’s own stated intentions rather than any official city process or approval.

Public Comments

Residents who wish to weigh in can do so at the next Haines City Commission meeting. The commission regularly meets the first and third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. in City Commission Chambers at Haines City Hall, 620 E. Main Street. A CRA board meeting precedes the regular commission meeting at 5:30 p.m. Meeting recordings are available at pub-hainescity.escribemeetings.com. For information on city business, visit hainescity.com.

Mayor Vernel Smith and Commissioner West have not responded to requests for comment; however, the Citrus Tea News will continue to update this story.

Note from the Editor: The Citrus Tea is committed to fair, accurate, and balanced reporting on issues that matter to Polk County residents. Our goal in covering this story has been to present the full picture, giving every party the opportunity to respond before publication, correcting misinformation where it exists, and letting the facts speak for themselves. We will continue to follow this story and update our reporting as new information becomes available. If you have information relevant to this or any story, you can Contact The Citrus Tea News.

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Sources: Concurrence Letter, City of Haines City to Cielo Digital Infrastructure, November 17, 2025, obtained by The Citrus Tea; Zoom interview, Deputy City Manager James Keene, City of Haines City, July 2, 2026; Internal email, Interim City Manager Loyd Stewart to Haines City Commission, June 10, 2026, obtained by The Citrus Tea; Written clarification, Merissa Green, Communications and Marketing Manager, City of Haines City, June 29, 2026; Email statement, Commissioner Anne Huffman, City of Haines City Seat 5, July 1, 2026; Official statement, Vice Mayor Kim Downing, City of Haines City Seat 4, June 26, 2026; Haines City Commission public comment transcript, June 18, 2026, pub-hainescity.escribemeetings.com