The facility—managed by CloudBurst—is planned on a 96-acre site at 2955 Francis Harris Lane. Although the site has a New Braunfels mailing address, it lies outside the city limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, of both New Braunfels and San Marcos, having previously been released from San Marcos’ ETJ.
Marcus Pacheco, Hays County’s development services director, confirmed that the proposed data center site straddles both Hays and Guadalupe County jurisdictions.
The context
Officials with CloudBurst Data Center announced plans in February for a new data center in the San Marcos and New Braunfels area. Another data center is being proposed on the same road—which also appeared before San Marcos City Council. However, the two are separate.
In its announcement, CloudBurst said it was focused on its first facility “at a greenfield site close to San Marcos and equidistant from both Austin and San Antonio,” but did not disclose the exact location. When Community Impact reached out by email on Feb. 20, CloudBurst co-founder and Executive Chairperson Cynthia Thompson said the company was not ready to share the site details at that time.
At the May 20 meeting, Thompson defined a data center as a building or physical facility that houses and stores cloud data. According to the Data Center Coalition, a data center is a physical location used to house critical applications and data. These facilities contain essential digital infrastructure, including servers, and enable the management, processing and storage of data.
The data center is expected to be powered by an on-site, behind-the-meter natural gas-fired power plant. CloudBurst signed a contract with Energy Transfer to provide up to 450,000 MMBtu, or million British thermal units, per day of firm natural gas supply through a pipeline running through the site, according to a news release from Energy Transfer in February.
The long-term agreement with Energy Transfer will enable phased development of the facility and power plant up to a total capacity of 1.2 gigawatts, according to CloudBurst.
Another point of view
Many residents cited concerns about transparency, the facility’s natural gas demands and emissions, and environmental impacts, with residents specifically saying that the site lies in a region already facing long-term water scarcity. Cities across Central Texas are working to address a projected water shortage over the next 20 to 30 years, with state legislators seeking potential solutions, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
In San Marcos, new projections from the Texas Water Development Board’s draft regional water plan show that the city’s water demand could exceed its supply by 2050, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
Meanwhile, drought conditions continue to affect surrounding areas. In Comal County, 108,472 people are currently impacted by extreme drought, while 131,533 are affected in Guadalupe County, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
Offering input
Thompson said data centers are increasingly viewed as critical infrastructure worldwide, comparing them to water and electricity.
“Without data centers, you can’t have commerce,” she said. “The businesses that operate every day use a data center whether they realize it or not. We’re fulfilling a need in any community we go into.”
She added that while CloudBurst initially aimed to make the facility net zero, that goal became harder to achieve. Although Texas supports data center development, the company was told it could not draw electricity from the state power grid, prompting the decision to pursue an on-site natural gas plant instead, Thompson said.
Thompson acknowledged that while some residents may not want a data center nearby, “it has to go somewhere,” and emphasized that CloudBurst is committed to being a good neighbor. She also noted that Texas State University has reached out to explore potential collaboration with the company.
What county officials are saying
The data center is currently under review in Hays County for a flood hazard permit—the only active application in that county. Meanwhile, in Guadalupe County, proposals for the first data center and its accompanying natural gas plant are underway.
Pacheco clarified that Hays County, like all Texas counties, does not have legal authority over land-use regulations, zoning or related restrictions for the site, unlike cities.
Hays County Commissioner Walt Smith said the reason this type of development was allowed to exit San Marcos’ ETJ was because of Senate Bill 2038, passed during the 88th legislative session. The bill allows properties within a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, to leave the city’s authority through a petition or election, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
Once a property exits a city’s ETJ, Smith said, counties are left with limited regulatory tools. Unlike municipalities, counties are not granted the same powers to manage or restrict new development—leaving areas like this one under far fewer regulations.
Notable quote
Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra emphasized that the data center issue is ultimately a state-level matter, and that even if county officials oppose the development, they have no legal power to stop it.
“This building ... that they want to do in Hays County is going to get approved, it’s going to get built, and there’s nothing we’re going to do about it—because there’s nothing we can do about it,” Becerra said.
Next steps
If permitting stays on track, construction on the data center campus is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2025, with the first phase completed by the third quarter of 2026, according to CloudBurst’s website.
