Denton Makes It Harder to Build a Data Center

Denton's City Council voted 4-0 on Tuesday, Oct. 13, to change the city's development code and make it harder to build a data center in the city, the Denton Record-Chronicle reported.

What the new rules require

• Data centers may locate only in areas zoned light industrial, heavy industrial or public facilities.

• Each one needs a specific-use permit, so it is not allowed by right.

• Buildings must be set back 300 feet, and light spilling onto nearby homes is limited.

• A project must meet the city's criteria manuals and have the needed approvals from the Texas Public Utility Commission and ERCOT before it can go on an agenda.

• Water and wastewater studies are required, and so is a closed-loop or free-air cooling system to limit the strain on Denton's water.

Angie Manglaris, the city's assistant planning director, explained the permit before the vote. The use "is not prohibited, but it's also not allowed by right," she said. Staff will weigh whether a project "cause[s] an adverse impact" and whether it is "generally compatible with the surrounding area."

An application already turned away

Mayor Pro Tem Nick Stevens said the city rejected a data center application the week before because it did not meet Denton's intake requirements. He also noted that the new rules let council members and commissioners judge for themselves whether a project fits.

A few residents spoke at the public hearing. One pointed out that Denton's two existing data centers are not yet fully online, so no one knows their real effect. Resident Rachel Weaver said the rules were a start but the city could do better. "Data centers also cause noise and light pollution 24/7," she said.

Council member George Ferrie said the permit requirement "protects us more while we're going through the moratorium phase." The council plans another public hearing Oct. 27 on a possible 90-day moratorium on data center development, the Record-Chronicle reported. Mayor Chris Watts and council member Jill Jester were absent for the vote. The city's agenda item shows the Planning and Zoning Commission had recommended the changes 5-0.

The state is pressing too. Denton County is among the 32 counties where Attorney General Ken Paxton sent letters to data center projects over water-use reporting, and Gov. Greg Abbott's data center permit freeze faces its first deadline Monday.

The right call

Data centers bring investment and tax base, and Texas needs both. But they also use a lot of power and water, and they run day and night. Asking a company to prove its water plan, keep its distance from homes and come before elected officials in public is not hostility to business. It is basic stewardship of what a city's residents share.

Denton's rules do not ban data centers. They make developers show their work, and that is a fair standard for any project this large.

Hero photo: Michael Modecki via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and resized.