Hippo statues around Hutto.

Hippo statues around Hutto.

Peter Scamardo/MySA

Residents of another small Central Texas city are pushing back against a proposed data center coming to their neighborhood. Zydeco Development, a commercial real estate firm based in Austin, is seeking to build a data center in Hutto, a town about 27 miles north of Austin. 

The property, located at 450 Ed Schmidt Blvd., is currently zoned as a Planned Unit Development (PUD) specifically for residential and mixed-use retail projects. Zydeco is now requesting the city’s approval to rezone the site to allow heavy industrial use in order to begin construction on the data center. 

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Hutto’s Planning and Zoning Commission held a meeting on Tuesday, April 7, where dozens of locals packed City Hall to hear a presentation from Zydeco and share their concerns. This comes as small Texas towns continue to worry about running out of water, and Hutto residents reported wastewater issues earlier this year, including discolored water stemming from increased water pressure stirring up natural iron deposits in the system. 

Zydeco Development’s principal, Wes Gilmer, began by explaining that the company’s goal is to be an “environmentally responsible project” using a closed-loop cooling center for Hutto water use. 

“This is an opportunity for the city of Hutto to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in taxable value by taking the existing infrastructure on an otherwise very constrained and restricted site,” Gilmer said. “Not all data centers are created equal, and what we’re proposing tonight is a low-impact, thoughtful neighbor with minimal burden on city utilities.”

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Gilmer said that “operations of the data center also use around two homes’ worth of water on [an] annual basis.” However, including irrigation for the entire site, “that number could be closer to 15.” He added that in order for the project to be approved, Encore and ERCOT must run an interconnection analysis to ensure this data center will not impact existing residential customers. 

Texas residents speak out against proposed data center

Several Hutto residents spoke out during public comments at Tuesday’s meeting, including Nick Crannock, who was against changing the zoning for the data center because he believes “there’s threats to long-term sustainability and quality of life in the community.” Using the data centers in Round Rock as an example, Crannock said he doesn’t think one to two-year-old statistics are enough to show the future impacts on Hutto. 

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“My biggest concerns are water and then the electric grid, because there could be issues with the facility consuming a lot of water and then obviously the Texas power grid,” Crannock said. “Having more draw on the electric grid is not good, especially with Central Texas growing as it is.”

David Garza, who grew up in Hutto and lives across the street from the proposed development, said that while he’s not necessarily opposed to data centers in general, he doesn’t understand why the data center is being built near his neighborhood and nearby schools.

“There could potentially be better uses for that land,” Garza said. “If I sell my home, and I’m putting a listing on Zillow, what I don’t want is under amenities to put a data center 1,000 feet away.”

Hutto officials address data center concerns

After Tuesday’s Planning and Zoning meeting, Hutto City Council member Peter Gordon wrote in a Facebook post that the committee couldn’t decide on the data center rezoning and will have a special meeting on April 20, where the public hearing will continue and a formal vote will be made on Zydeco’s proposal.

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“My intention has been to ensure all citizens have as many facts at their disposal as possible, to make informed decisions, and to hear both sides of an argument,” Gordon said. “I watched the entire meeting and have noted the concerns that were raised.  I will definitely take everything I heard (and that I will hear on the 20th and May 7th) into consideration when this comes before Council.”

Mayor of Hutto Mike Snyder also responded after the meeting, explaining the city’s two options for Zydeco’s initial proposal in March, which included a 500-acre system in the City of Taylor, which neighbors Hutto. Snyder said Zydeco is asking Hutto to supply the data center with water and presented two options: either negotiate with them to move the project into Hutto or fall under the city’s zoning and development code.

“Now, make no mistake.  I am not proposing doing or not doing this.  What I am letting the public know is that things like this come before us regularly,” Snyder said. “So, does the Hutto City Council work to regulate it?  Or take our chances with them going on the edge of our town and having them build something gigantic? If decisions were only easy…..”

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Gilmer estimated that the earliest possible construction could begin in 2028. MySA reached out to the City of Hutto for comment.Â