Austin City Council to discuss data center regulations
City of Austin discusses data center regulations
Austin currently doesn't have a regulatory framework for data centers, and City Council plans to update the city code to address this.
AUSTIN, Texas - Austin currently doesn't have a regulatory framework for data centers, and City Council plans to update the city code to address this.
Data centers can range from the size of a room to a large scale one. There are no large ones in Austin right now, but there are small ones at universities, banks, and hospitals.
Council seek to update city code to address data centers
What they're saying:
Current regulations don't allow the city to track the effects of high-impact data centers.
"We've got to start from ground zero basically and create sort of basic ground rules for how to start regulating these data centers," Council Member Marc Duchen (District 10) said.
Traditionally, data centers are categorized as communication services in the land development code.
City staff recommend updating the land development code with a data center classification. They also recommend requiring data centers to comply with environmental standards. They say there shouldn't be incentives for data centers to come to Austin, and if one does come, there shouldn't be exemptions for resource efficiency standards.
"The biggest thing is to show how these large data centers are not compatible with residential communities in terms of the noise they produce, even the vibrations that they send through people's bodies, the light, as well as the use of natural resources," Council Member Mike Siegel (District 7) said.
Texas lawmakers consider regulations for data centers
Texas communities continue pushing back against data center growth in their backyards, while state lawmakers debate how to properly regulate the expanding industry.
RELATED COVERAGE: Majority of Texans oppose data centers in their community, according to new poll
"Where I think we'd be spending a lot of our energy on is figuring out, do we need to have these other data centers here? And if not, what are the appropriate safeguards we put into place to make sure that we're protecting our environment, the community, energy, water, and other concerns that people have if we allow them at all," Duchen said.
"I would 100% be opposed to a large data center coming here," he added.
Council members also say it's a balancing act.
"I support a ban on large data centers that are not compatible with city life. I don't want to hinder a bank from having servers in their back office. I don't want to impede what the University of Texas is doing to educate its students, so these are the smaller scale ones that we weren't really talking about," Siegel said.
By the numbers:
According to a city memo, Austin Energy says there are ten data centers ranging in electric load from one megawatt (MW) to 20 MW. One megawatt serves roughly 250 homes.
State law defines large load use at more than 75 MW, and none are that big in Austin.
Austin Water estimates data centers used about 0.3 percent of total citywide use in 2025. No data centers meet their large volume definition, which is more than 85 million gallons per year.
What's next:
Mayor Kirk Watson and several other council members recommend freezing approvals of data center applications until a complete policy is adopted.
Council will discuss data center regulation at a work session on Tuesday, and they will vote on it at the Council meeting on Thursday.
The Source: Information in this report comes from Austin Energy, Austin Water and interviews with City Council members Mike Siegel and Marc Duchen