What happened?
About 20 speakers addressed City Council and representatives of Skybox Datacenters regarding the rezoning of a 29.69 acres of property near the intersection of A.W. Grimes Boulevard and East Old Settlers Boulevard, sharing concerns about the proposed data center such as noise, water use, health impacts and potential impact on energy prices.
City officials will again take up the matter in January, after giving preliminary approval following a public hearing Dec. 4.
The request from Skybox, approved on its first reading, would see the property rezoned from light industrial to a planned unit development, city staff said.
The property is bordered on two sides by others zoned as light industrial, but backs up to the Chandler Creek neighborhood.
The details
The proposal for the development would divide it into three sections with different uses to establish what is permitted on different parts of the site, such as a data center, substation and open space.
Round Rock Planning and Development Services Director Brad Dushkin said the center would use a closed-loop cooling system, which is filled once and topped off as needed every few years, rather than an evaporative cooling system that uses more water. Based on existing data centers Sabey and Switch, Dushkin said a data center of the size proposed by Skybox would require about 10,000 gallons of water for a closed-loop cooling system initially, rather than hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day via an evaporative cooling system.
He also said the data center would have the same footprint as 100 homes, but generate about 500 homes worth of property tax revenue, and consume a similar amount of water in a year as 15 homes.
What they're saying
Many residents were concerned about the use of water, citing recent drought; impact on energy rates and stability; and other concerns related to health, the use of AI and public notification of the project.
"I know you want to do a good job with property taxes, but it doesn't help us a lot if you save on property taxes, but we get charged ... more on electricity cost because we're going to have a high electricity usage data center in the area," resident Karen Choate said.
Regarding questions from council and community members, William Shannon, vice president of development strategy at Skybox, explained the potential impact of the data center as being "supply and demand," and stated that energy costs have not been insulated from inflation in recent years.
Regarding the substation that would be required for the data center, Shannon said the developer would be responsible for constructing some or all of the needed substation to power it. Skybox has not secured a commitment from Onocor for power delivery, he said, and would not be able to proceed with the data center without one.
As for water capacity, Round Rock Mayor Craig Morgan said staff has established that the water supply can support the data center.
"We’re not going to put something into the system that is going to put strain on itWe’re not going to put something into the system that is going to put strain on itWe’re not going to put something into the system that we think is going to put strain on that system without doing our homework," Morgan said.
One speaker offered a different perspective on local data centers. Richard Parsons, president of the Kensington Neighborhood Association, advised attendees regardless of City Council's vote to consider fostering a relationship with Skybox based on communication. The neighborhood is across the street from Switch, whose representatives Parsons said have been good partners to the community, going as far as sponsoring neighborhood events.
What's next?
Council voted unanimously to approved the measure, absent Place 6 City Council member Hilda Montgomery. The governing body will once again take up the measure in January for a second reading.
