Denton City Council held the second and final public hearing regarding a proposed data center moratorium and officials presented the first reading of the ordinance during its regular meeting Oct. 27.
Residents shared their opinions on permitting for data centers and the ordinance, which officially introduces its exact wording, was outlined with the reasoning behind a moratorium by city officials.
No action was taken at this meeting.
“I really do thank you all for spending time [here] on a Tuesday night," Mayor Pro Tem Nick Stevens said. "You didn't have to do this, but you wanted to. And it speaks a lot about our great residents."
The big picture
The Denton ordinance presented three primary justifications for implementing the moratorium, per state law.
Those three justifications are:
Public water and sewer facilities are already operating at or near capacity in Denton
The electric grid capacity and transmission limits require new policies for handling high-demand power requests that would come from data centers
Existing land development codes need to be updated with clearer standards for data centers
While the council adopted amendments to the Denton Development Code at the Oct. 13 meeting, the moratorium gives staff more time to draft the exact parameters needed to enforce those amendments before accepting any new data center applications, according to city documents.
Zooming in
If adopted by a supermajority vote, which is 75% of the council, the ordinance will place a temporary 90-day hold on accepting new development applications for commercial data centers, according to prior reporting.
It does not alter the legal status or progress of previously filed applications, so the two previously approved hyperscale projects, Qumulus AI and Core Scientific, will not be affected by the moratorium.
Stevens broached extending the moratorium to 180 days, the maximum length for moratoriums of this type, so the city could monitor potential litigation against other Texas cities that enact data center bans. City Council will need to have a separate vote to extend a moratorium from 90 to 180 days, according to previous reporting.
Council Member George Ferrie agreed, noting that a six-month moratorium would run through May 31, 2027, the final day of the Texas legislative session.
“It gives us an opportunity to see what laws are going to come through at the state level and what that’s going to do to municipalities' rights, what we are allowed to do and what we're not allowed to do,” Ferrie said. “We want to be mindful that we don't jump into something too soon. That then creates litigation and costs the taxpayer a lot of money.”
The backstory
Denton City Council members unanimously voted to start the legal process for a moratorium on the development of data centers in city limits at the Aug. 18 regular meeting.
This public hearing was the second of two public hearings the city is required by the state to hold as part of the moratorium process, according to previous reporting. The first was held Sept. 22.
The council adopted development code amendments for data centers Oct. 13 while it considers the moratorium, according to previous reporting.
What’s next?
Denton City Council’s vote on implementing a moratorium could take place as early as Dec. 1.
If adopted, the data center moratorium would be effective in Denton, Denton Municipal Electric's service territory and the city’s water and sewer service territory.
