P&Z approves zoning change

A data center could be coming to a nearly 400-acre site at the intersection of Old Bastrop Highway and Centerpoint Road. 

At its meeting Tuesday night, the Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing and voted to approve a zoning change from Smart Code to Light Industrial for the parcel, which a developer is interested in using for a data center. Planning chief Shannon Mattingly said the developer has been in talks with the city council and negotiations have been ongoing for a Chapter 380 agreement for the future development.

“A lot of the negotiations are not public at this point,” Mattingly said, but the developer is willing to restrict the uses of the land for the data center alone.

“That’s all that’s proposed for that site at this time,” she said.

Mattingly said the project developers are set to talk with council on June 4, and on June 18 council is expected to vote on the 380 agreement and zoning for the site. 

One San Marcos resident who lives near the property spoke against the zoning change.

“I don’t want a bunch more truck traffic and warehouses like the Clovis Barker area has,” Marian Johnson said. “That’s basically why I’m opposed to it, but I haven’t been informed about what it’s actually going to be.”

San Marcos resident John Meeks spoke in favor of the development. He said he became interested because his family owns acreage across the street from the proposed data center site. 

“Frankly, I wasn’t very excited about the light industrial use at all,” he said. “I didn’t want to see another Clovis Barker happen out there.”

However, when he found out more about the proposed project, Meeks changed his mind. 

“I believe what is under consideration this evening is the largest and most interesting economic development opportunity when judged from the diversification of our tax base perspective, and the enhancement of our reputation for accepting clean tech, that our city has ever considered,” Meeks told the commission.

Meeks said he did research on data centers and what they do and found that it is a lucrative industry. For example, he said, Amazon Web Services provided the majority of Amazon’s net income in 2017.

“This is a fast-growing industry,” he said.

Meeks also said he used professional connections through his position at McCoy’s to find out about the effects that data centers have on communities. 

After spending 10 hours talking to people in other cities where data centers had located, he said, “I am absolutely convinced of one thing: that the construction and operation of a data center on this blackland property located away from our river will be an enormous benefit to our city and our citizens.”

‘I was comforted by the
responses’

P&Z Chair Jim Garber asked Meeks for information about data centers, because he said he did not know much about what a data center is.

“I would like to hear from you, what did you learn when you spoke to other people who have data center?” Garber asked Meeks.

Meeks explained that data centers are large buildings in the middle of big pieces of property that are very secure sites.

“They’re just racks and racks and racks of computers,” he said.

Meeks used the live streaming of the P&Z meeting as an example of what data centers do. The video would travel through seven or eight different data centers on its way to viewers’ computer screens.

Security at data centers can be incredibly strict; Meeks said he had heard of one instance where a person going into a data center got weighed upon passing through a third level of security and then weighed again going out to make sure the person had not taken anything.

Meeks said data centers can be $1 billion to $7 billion projects. He said if this data center is a $2.5 billion project, “That is equivalent to six Amazon Fulfillment Centers as far as tax base is concerned.”

However, rather than focus on the financials, Meeks said he wanted to look at lifestyle factors. He then explained that he looked up 12 data centers and called some independent lumber dealers near those data centers and asked people a series of questions.

“The floodgates opened,” he said. “I had a great time talking to these folks. … I was pleased by the responses that I heard. I was comforted by the responses that I heard.”

Meeks said people he talked to about data centers said they are not very busy places, they do not generate much traffic, and they often contribute to the community through initiatives like supporting STEM programs in local schools. One person even said the first data center that opened in their city attracted two more. 

Commissioner Maxfield Baker said he was concerned about approving the zoning change before the city and the developer have a firm agreement.

“Until council has that agreement signed and ready, I’m not comfortable letting that sit as light industrial,” he said.

Assistant City Manager Steve Parker said the zoning change came up before the agreement was finalized because the land needs to be closed on soon, and before that, “They want to have some direction of whether this would be able to be approved by P&Z.”

Parker also said the city is looking at putting deed restrictions on the land as part of the agreement with the developer.

Commissioner Mark Gleason said he would not support the zoning change if council had not pinned down the specific use for the land. 

“If this were a different council, I would have concerns,” Garber said. “But I know this council has the exact same concerns we do about usage.”

The zoning change was approved, with Baker as the lone no vote.