San Marcos council votes to prohibit data centers in all zoning districts

The San Marcos City Council passed a final vote approving a multitude of amendments to the city’s Land Development Code and Design Manual at a June 16 meeting, one of which places an absolute restriction on data centers.

The background

City staff approved an update to the Land Use Matrix adding data centers to the system as an individual line item and restricting the development type to High Industrial-zoned areas April 21, according to previous Community Impact reporting.

The development type previously fell under the Light Industrial land use distinction and was permitted in Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial-zoned areas. The April 21 amendment made the development of data centers conditional on City Council approval.

What happened

A motion to prohibit data centers in all city zoning distinctions was made by Place 6 council member Amanda Rodriguez on April 21 but failed to pass, with three votes in favor and four dissenting.

Place 5 council member Lorenzo Gonzalez, who voted against Rodriguez’s April amendment, made a motion to reconsider the proposed update to fully prohibit data center development at the June 16 meeting.

When originally voting on the amendment in April, Gonzalez was focused on the potential tax revenue and economic benefits a data center could bring and how those could support residents and families struggling with housing costs, food insecurity and the rising cost of living, he said in a statement to Community Impact.

Through conversations with community members, it became clear that residents were more concerned with the impact of data centers on their neighborhoods, quality of life, and long-term health and safety, Gonzalez said in his statement.

“Ultimately, I concluded that the promised benefits remained speculative while many of the concerns raised by residents remained unresolved,” Gonzalez said in his statement. “My hope is that, with this question now largely settled, we can redirect our energy toward addressing those everyday challenges.”

The amendment passed with four votes in favor and three dissenting. In addition to Gonzalez and Rodriguez, Place 3 council member Alyssa Garza and Place 4 council member Shane Scott voted in favor of the amendment.

“The city of San Marcos is not going to wait for the state or federal government to do their jobs and protect our communities, our resources and our opportunities,” Rodriguez said in a statement to Community Impact. “We took decisive action that reflects the wishes of our constituents and the values of our tight-knit community.”

The other side

Mayor Jane Hughson, Place 1 council member Matthew Mendoza and Place 2 council member Josh Paselk voted against the amendment.

“As long as [data centers] are required to come before us, I'd like to leave the opportunity out there,” Hughson said during the meeting. “I'm holding out hope that as time goes on, the technology will be better and things will shake out. As long as it's still up to us, I think we should at least allow the possibility.”

On Feb. 17, the council denied a Preferred Scenario Map amendment and zoning change request for approximately 200 acres of land west of Francis Harris Lane for the proposed Highlander SM One LLC data center.

The denial came after significant community pushback and concerns surrounding the facility’s environmental and regional impact, including potential high water usage, increased strain on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas grid and environmental impacts on the surrounding land and residents, according to previous Community Impact reporting.