Bonita Springs mayor says facility on Imperial River Road will not be a data center

A proposed fiber optic hub on Imperial River Road in Bonita Springs has sparked concerns among residents.

The plan, in development since last year, involves building a facility to operate fiber optic cables running under the Gulf, creating a new internet network between the U.S. and South America.

City documents from last year referred to the facility as a data center, but Bonita Springs Mayor Mike Gibson said that description is inaccurate.

"We are talking a very small building, more like an office building," Gibson said. "It uses standard electrical connections, standard water connections. They did not ask for anything bigger than that because they don't require anything bigger than that, and not having anything bigger than a regular electrical collection connection."

Huzefa Kagdi, dean of the U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University, said facilities like this do not have the same environmental impact as artificial intelligence data centers.

"They don't contribute to the noise levels, right, which have been a concern," Kagdi said. "Some of the other impacts, like the water consumption being discussed, to cool all these data centers down, those factors are not really that much of a concern."

The mayor said residents within 1,000 feet of the project should have received a notice from the developer. However, several neighbors told Gulf Coast News they are just learning about the project after never receiving anything in the mail.

"We saw your news coverage, and we looked online on the Facebook page and saw that people were reacting to it. We had no idea. We literally live within a home run distance of it," said Glen, a Bonita Springs resident.

Despite assurances from city officials, neighbors still have questions about the project.

"I'm really kind of in shock that, what's this do to my property values? What's this do to my safety for my family? What's this do from a pollution and hurricane perspective, and what is the service actually doing for the community?" Glen said.

The number of servers planned for the building remains unclear, but residents have also raised concerns about gopher tortoises living on the land slated for development. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said the developer applied for a permit in May to relocate the tortoises to a wildlife sanctuary. The permit has not yet been granted.

Mayor Gibson said the developer held neighborhood meetings before and after the sufficiency review, and the city council approved the project without opposition.

"They had their pre-pre neighborhood meeting and then post sufficiency neighborhood meeting and then you know, it goes to council to get voted on, and you know, there was no opposition for it because it's basically a small office building," Gibson said.

Glen, however, questioned the communication process.

"If not one person showed up, it tells me the communication plan wasn't very effective," Glen said.

While a development order has been issued, records show the builder is still awaiting a permit to begin construction on the site.

Gulf Coast News has reached out to TelcoFacilities, the developer behind the project, multiple times with no response.