{"id":112101,"date":"2026-01-06T01:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T01:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/112101\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T01:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T01:17:07","slug":"el-paso-county-takes-first-step-to-develop-practices-guide-for-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/112101\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso County takes first step to develop practices guide for data centers"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 On Monday, El Paso County took the first steps to address the potential impacts of data centers on the community. <\/p>\n

County Commissioners’ court unanimously agreed on the importance of having transparent discussions about the long-term effects of data centers, such as the Meta data center being built off US 54 and Stan Roberts Sr. Avenue in Northeast El Paso.<\/p>\n

\"Area<\/p>\n

Area where Meta data center will be built.<\/p>\n

This comes after County Commissioner Jackie Arroyo Butler called for a slowdown and the establishment of ground rules before more projects move in.<\/p>\n

“We want the community to be involved and to get as much community input about what that best practices guide should look like early on in the process,” Butler said.<\/p>\n

The commissioner’s court has directed staff to develop a best practices guide, focusing on community engagement and assessing impacts on resources like water and electricity. <\/p>\n

Butler noted the urgency of these discussions, stating, “I personally feel a sense of urgency in making sure that we’re having robust and comprehensive conversations with our community.”<\/p>\n

RELATED: El Paso County commissioner calls for guidelines on data center growth<\/a><\/p>\n

\"El<\/p>\n

El Paso County Commissioner Jackie Arroyo Butler during the commissioners court’s Monday meeting. Jan. 5, 2026. Credit: KFOX14\/CBS4<\/p>\n

Butler has engaged in national discussions through the National Association of Counties, learning from other regions’ experiences with data centers. <\/p>\n

“Some communities have seen a net benefit… it’s increased [their] property tax revenues,” Butler said, adding, “I’ve heard from other counties that say we can’t afford the electric rates that are being brought on by these data centers.”<\/p>\n

Butler highlighted the need to understand economic incentive agreements and their actual benefits to the community. <\/p>\n

“If the major proponent and reason why data centers are a positive thing is economic development and increasing revenues for local governments and property taxes, how are we measuring that?” Butler asked.<\/p>\n

The county plans to involve the community in future meetings to ensure that any development aligns with El Paso’s unique needs and priorities. <\/p>\n

“We hear the concerns of the citizens and our constituents and we’re listening,” Butler said, emphasizing the goal of informed decision-making.<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED: Project Jupiter ignites debate: Economic tech boom or ecological bane for Borderland?<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Clark is a concerned citizen who attended Monday’s commissioner meeting about the potential impacts.<\/p>\n

Clark highlighted issues with utilities, noting that he’s afraid that utility rates and infrastructure costs used by these centers could be passed on to taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\"Citizen<\/p>\n

Citizen Michael Clark attended the commissioner’s court on Monday to voice his concerns. Jan. 5, 2026. Credit: KFOX14\/CBS4<\/p>\n

“Someone wants to come out to develop, they should have to pay for some of that infrastructure,” Clark said.<\/p>\n

Clark also raised concerns about water usage, particularly by data centers, and emphasized the need for collaboration between county commissioners and developers.<\/p>\n

“As long as everyone’s working together, I see no problem with it, but if we’re not and we’re working isolated, that becomes an issue,” Clark said.<\/p>\n

Sign up<\/a> to receive the top interesting stories from in and around our community once daily in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 On Monday, El Paso County took the first steps to address the potential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":{"0":"post-112101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-el-paso","9":"tag-el-paso-headlines","10":"tag-el-paso-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}