LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – It takes a village to make a change in government.
Just ask Stephen Sanders, who put together the ‘Save Lubbock’ group in May following the conversation about data centers at Texas Tech in May. After months of discussion, he was able to meet with city council and put pen to paper.
“We sat down, we went line-by-line,” Sanders said. “Christy Martinez-Garcia, Gordon Harris, the city’s attorney, we were all there at the table in Mark (McBrayer’s) office at Citizen’s Tower going through the information. Making sure it was legal and everyone was happy with the final product.”
After Tuesday’s council call for a temporary pause on large-scale data center approval in Lubbock, Sanders says things are heading in the right direction.
“I feel really comfortable and really confident in our P&Z committee and the city council when it comes to putting these guardrails in place, and they’ve been real clear about that,” Sanders said.
Not every council member agreed with the resolution, with Tim Collins and Tim Green voting against it. Green says there’s misinformation when it comes to data centers, suggesting residents are being misled on what they are.
“A lot of the misinformation is that all data centers use a lot of water, they don’t,” Green said. “The data centers didn’t do themselves any favors in the past, they did use a lot of water. Nowadays, they have new technologies. They want to be good stewards of the environment.”
Collins agreed with Green on one thing. He believes water usage is also not as great as has been reported but says being good stewards of city resources is job one as a member of city government. His decision to vote against the resolution had more to do with timing
“My hope would have been, and what I tried to express Tuesday, is not to say no to a moratorium, but let’s hold this in our pockets until such a time it becomes necessary to understand what new governance we may have coming from Austin, and I expect there will be some,” Collins said. “Let us understand that and then we can come in and say pause.”
While one chapter of the Lubbock data center conversation is finished, the book is still being written, and whatever side you’re on, work is underway to minimize the impact they may have on the city long-term.
“It’s going to be hard for data centers to come into Lubbock,” Sanders said. “You’re going to have to jump through some hoops, you’re going to have to do it our way and we’re going to regulate you or you’re not going to be doing business in our city. But we are open to business.”
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