Defund Oligarchy Blessed by Liberty - Polk-FL

06/04/2026

06/04/2026

Many of you have asked specifically how you can help with the costs associated with the legal work needed to stand up to large-scale development.

We are a grassroots, community-funded organization. When we face challenges like the Dorman Road proposal, it requires professional legal expertise to ensure our collective voice is heard and our rural zoning is defended.

Because so many of you have asked for a way to help us cover these larger expenses, we are set up to accept donations on our website.

How you can contribute:

Visit our website, scroll to the very bottom and you'll see a donate button.

Why we need this: These funds go directly toward legal expenses, allowing us to stay on equal footing with developers and protect the future of our land.

Important Note: Preserve Rural Lithia is a Florida nonprofit corporation. We are not a 501(c)(3), so please note that contributions are not tax-deductible. We are, however, committed to full transparency and are only collecting funds to cover our necessary expenses for the good of our community.

We are so grateful to every one of you who has shown up at hearings, shared our posts, and asked how you can do more. Whether you can chip in or simply help us spread the word, every bit of support keeps our community strong.

Thank you for standing with your neighbors.

06/03/2026

This isn't done. This is like playing whack-a-mole. We need to continue demanding a moratorium in all of Polk County and stand with Fort Meade, Haines City, and Auburndale and other towns being targeted.

Not because we're afraid.
Not because we're falling for the hype.

But because we have seen the published research and believe the most prudent course of action is for our county to create regulation, code, and legislation before jumping into bed with a data center developer.

A proposal to build a data center in Lakeland, named “Project Swan,” was marked “Withdrawn” in the city’s online iMS system Tuesday.

06/02/2026

Unusual coalition 😂 We believe the biggest factor uniting us is more that most of us are native or generational Floridians, and that's why we are reacting so strongly to this issue because it attacks something that's a huge part of our Floridian identity.

More than 50 residents attended Monday's City Commission meeting, despite a city effort to explain that the project remains in the earliest stages of review. Eighteen spoke against the proposal during audience comments.

https://www.lkldnow.com/broad-coalition-rallies-against-lakeland-data-center-proposal/

06/02/2026

DOBL member Atheena making public comment during City of Lakeland commission meeting 06.01.26 in opposition to the data center.

06/01/2026

Did you miss the commission meeting? Many community members were there. Please check out these public from your neighbors. A couple of us from DOBL were there.

Some highlights
- Speaker who gave his name as "Good Citizen." A lot of people don't know this: while you have to fill out a speaker card, you do not have to fill out every single box. However, we've never really seen someone refuse to give their name before, and we didn't know that was also an option. Another speaker later on also said he would not be giving his name because he did not trust the government.

- A former commissioner it was also an engineer gave very thoughtful commentary on what types of questions the commissioner should ask of the proposal when it comes to them.

- While we also spoke up about the data center, one of our members also popped up a lot to speak for the trees and the wildlife in regards to development items on the agenda.

- We were surprised to see the America 250 monument proposal be a point of contention.

- We need to support reduction of property taxes, NOT completely abolishing. Too many people are normalizing property tax abolition. We need to keep our autonomy and not be dependent on Tallahassee for funding. We also need to be using taxes to discouraged certain types of developments. Property taxes enable us to govern ourselves and keep our independence.

- What was your favorite part?

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1J48YapevQ/

05/29/2026

What it's like living next to a data center.

Lakelanders, is this what you want our town to become?

What's the true cost of the AI revolution and who should be paying for it? We went to Georgia to find out. Demand for data centers is booming as ChatGPT and ...