SAN ANTONIO – A Council Consideration Request (CCR) that would determine regulatory measures needed to address the rapid growth of data centers in San Antonio will proceed to a special committee.
During Wednesday’s Governance Committee meeting, City Council members spoke on San Antonio’s influx of data centers and the need to consider potential risks they pose to water and energy resources.
“How do we understand that the benefit of these (data centers) outweigh the costs?” Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones asked.
Data centers, which house the computer systems that power online activities and services, have garnered controversy for reports of their extensive use of water and energy resources.
In November, District 6 Councilman Ric Galvan told KSAT that there are nearly 50 data centers either completed or planned to break ground in the San Antonio region.
Galvan, who filed the CCR in October, said this is “the first step in the right direction in creating that public conversation, making sure we’re clearing the air on what this industry is, what it means to our community.”
The Development Services Department (DSD) proposed the following steps to kickstart the process:
Compile a comprehensive list of applicable regulations at local and state levels
Engage stakeholders, including municipal utilities
Determine applicable code changes based on statutory allowances
Present recommendations to the Planning and Community Development Committee
DSD would coordinate with the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) and CPS Energy to review the actual impact of water and energy resources from data centers.
Galvan’s consideration also mentions possible amendments to the Unified Development Code, which guides land use in San Antonio and has no specific ruling on data center developments.
Jones said she had “heard discussion” on the potential development of data centers on San Antonio’s military bases’ available land.
“As part of that discussion, we want to understand those entities that are exercising their own agency, what that may mean,” Jones said in regard to the military bases.
The group voted in favor of allowing these discussions to continue with the Planning and Community Development Committee.
Councilmembers Edward Mungia (D4) and Teri Castillo (D5) both signed onto the CCR and comprise the Planning and Community Development Committee with Galvan and Sukh Kaur (D1).
Peter Bella, a former environmental planner and concerned resident, expressed his support of the CCR and said San Antonio citizens need to be cognizant of an impact to their water and electricity bills as well.
“We need to be extremely vigilant and make sure that the people, the customers, know what’s going on as far as the demands that data centers require of them,” he said.
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