<\/p>\n
An anti-data-center sign is posted at the farm of Derek Emadi near Lockhart on June 4. City leaders later directed staff to draft stringent regulations for data centers after debating whether to ban the facilities outright.<\/p>\n
Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Another small Texas town has joined the growing number of communities<\/a> considering action as data centers expand across the region<\/a> and draw scrutiny from lawmakers.<\/p>\n Leaders in Lockhart, 30 miles south of Austin and the \u201cBarbecue Capital of Texas,\u201d have directed city staff to develop \u201cvery strict standards\u201d for the resource-heavy developments after City Council members said an outright ban, while preferred, could expose the city to legal challenges.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI would prefer an outright ban, but I don\u2019t know that it\u2019s the best choice for us because of the possibility of years and years of litigation and excessive expense for the city,\u201d District 1\u00a0Councilmember\u00a0Juan Mendoza said in a specially called meeting Thursday. \u201cWhat I would like to see what the city can come up with as far as guardrails\u00a0\u2014 very strong guardrails that make it almost impossible for any of these centers to want to come into\u00a0Lockhart.”<\/p>\n The decision comes after widespread community uproar over the\u00a0growth of data centers<\/a> in the region.<\/p>\n At least five data centers are planned or under construction in Caldwell County, though all are outside Lockhart. City officials have not yet approved any within the city limits. The county, with an\u00a0estimated population of 55,150<\/a>, is experiencing many of the same growth pressures as Austin’s other suburbs. Lockhart has about 18,100 residents.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are the county seat for Caldwell County, so it\u2019s up to us to lead by example,\u201d Lockhart resident Jes\u00fas Pantel told council Thursday.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Data center worries<\/p>\n Lockhart joins several local governments<\/a>\u00a0studying the potential impacts of data centers and seeking to slow the industry’s growth. As demand for artificial intelligence grows, Texas has become the country\u2019s\u00a0fastest-growing data center market<\/a>, drawing developers with available power capacity, incentives and open land.<\/p>\n Texas stands to gain billions in investment from data center development, along with thousands of temporary construction jobs. But local and state officials have raised concerns about the potential strains they could place on infrastructure in a state that’s already facing water shortages<\/a> and whose power grid has struggled to keep up with growth.<\/p>\n A data center under construction on FM 2720 near Lockhart sits across from farmland on June 30. Five data centers are planned or under construction in Caldwell County.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n There are at least 76 projects operating or in the works<\/a> between Temple and San Antonio, according to ongoing data maintained by the Austin American-Statesman, with about 5,600 megawatts currently under construction in the Austin and San Antonio metro areas.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state\u2019s main grid operator, said data centers will cause Texas energy demand to surge 71% by 2031.<\/p>\n Gov. Greg Abbott has called for\u00a0a pause on data center development<\/a> in rural neighborhoods. Several legislative committees are holding hearings on the issue this summer ahead of the January session, with support from lawmakers in both parties.<\/p>\n \u201cThe governor\u2019s recommendations have kind of done a 180 in the last few months,\u201d Lockhart Mayor\u00a0Lew White said Thursday night.<\/p>\n Austin City Council will discuss water restrictions for data centers<\/a> at its meeting next week, including an evaluation of how data centers use non-disclosure agreements to protecy their corporate customers.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Taylor, about 30 miles northeast of Austin, is reevaluating its zoning code after deciding to\u00a0take no action on a resident-led petition<\/a> to ban the developments.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hays County\u00a0approved a roughly six-month pause<\/a> on approvals for the developments after its county seat, San Marcos, decided to outright ban data centers<\/a> from its zoning code. Henderson, Hill, Hood, Somervell and Van Zandt counties have all weighed data center moratoriums and made calls for either a special session or for the issue to become a top legislative priority when lawmakers convene in January.<\/p>\n The attempt to ban or pause data center development is tricky for local governments, many of whom lack zoning authorities or have been threatened with lawsuits, including San Marcos.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An anti-data-center sign is posted at the farm of Derek Emadi near Lockhart on June 4. City leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,5421,5454],"class_list":["post-377061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-data-center","tag-saen_share"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377061","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=377061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n