The Pilot Point City Council had a proactive discussion about data centers at the July 9 council meeting.
The agenda item was recommended by Mayor Chad Major for the city to discuss possible policy direction on how to handle it in the future, and it gave residents a chance to speak.
“There are no active data centers being under consideration in Pilot Point,” Major said before the conversation started. “… Number 2, we have no say whatsoever in the ETJ on whether a data center can come in or not.”
City Manager Britt Lusk gave a presentation and shared some of the pros and cons of the data centers for the city.
The centers would create a new taxable value and could generate revenue to support streets, public safety, utilities and other services.
“Texas is attracted to data centers right now because Texas has lots of available land,” Lusk said. “It's got fiber infrastructure everywhere. It's business-friendly regulation and access to energy infrastructure.”
Data centers can use a lot of energy to run the machines and water to cool them.
“Bottom line, data centers can provide local value, but they need to be properly located, pay their own way and not shift costs to residents,” Lusk said.
He added that, as of now, Texas does not require data centers to have a closed-loop cooling system, which helps to reduce water usage.
“Texas has what's known as a CCN, a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity, and if you are within a city's CCN or a Mustang Water CCN, that means that you have an obligation to provide water,” Lusk said. “So, without any kind of state agency regulation at this point, if they come into our CCN, which Pilot Point has its own CCN that extends beyond its city limits. We would have an obligation to provide water and wastewater to these developments.”
Lusk explained that data centers and other projects can be regulated within city limits through restrictive zoning but by law the city has to allow them.
“In the ETJ, we don't have control,” Lusk said. “We have a future land use, but no zoning. ... If they are in the ETJ, there's not a lot we can do, and especially if they get out of the ETJ, because the … Texas legislative session passed a bill, Senate Bill 2038, that allows developers to say, ‘You know what, we don't want to follow these rules. We're getting out of the ETJ.’” City Attorney Brenda McDonald and Lusk shared a similar stance to look at each proposed data center on a case-by-case basis instead of a blanket no to have more of a say on zoning and rules.
“I'm a hard no, whether it's a cloud data center or [an] AI data center,” council member Mike Wilson said. “I'm a hard no on incentives. I'm a hard no on improving any of it because … our citizens are more important, our water source is more important, our electric grid is more important, than a few dollars we might get out of this.”
The council recommended that staff look into creating zoning and policies to help prevent data centers within the city limits.
“I'm going to borrow this statement,” Major said. “We put residents before revenue. And I think by trying to find some ways of at least mitigating what is possible, we do that.”
During public comment, several residents shared their appreciation of the council’s proactiveness on data centers but urged for more research.
“There are a lot of things out there that you may not know about,” resident Joyce Duesman said. 'So, investigate, explore, find out in this search. Do not go into this with a ‘no.’ Look at it.”
Another resident, who lives in the Mobberly Farms subdivision, raised concerns about water and requested that the city staff look into working with the Mustang Special Utility District.
The council discussed possibly creating a Legislative Subcommittee and a Community Legislative Committee ahead of the 90th legislative session, based on the city of Georgetown’s model for monitoring legislative action.
“This discussion matters, state legislation has increasingly affected local authority,” Lusk said.
The Council Legislative Subcommittee would be made up of the mayor and two council members and would include advising staff on legislative priorities, reviewing information, connecting with the legislative delegation and district staff, and eventually bringing it back to the rest of the council.
The Community Legislative Committee would be an advisory committee whose members would be appointed by the council, and its duties would include meeting with staff, providing feedback on local issues and helping keep the rest of the community informed.
The council liked the ideas and wanted to move forward.
Major added that there is an opportunity to work with the surrounding cities.
“We have some of the most active, engaged citizens and ETJers … that I've ever seen, and we need to activate them and get them engaged because we can move the needle even in our size,” Major said.
Earlier in the meeting, during another portion of public comment, Duesman asked for more safety measures on FM 455 heading east toward the Dallas Parkway, given the high number of car accidents and fatalities in recent months.
“I'm just asking for y'all to push on the state, push on the county and get a plan in place,” Duesman said.
Also at the meeting, a representative from Waste Connections, the city’s current garbage disposal company, addressed issues with customer service and missed trash bins, saying the company is handling them.
