SAN MARCOS CITY COUNCIL
The San Marcos City Council had several items on the agenda related to a future data center in San Marcos requested by Armbrust & Brown, PLLC, on behalf of Highlander SM One, LLC, and Donald and Germaine Tuff at Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting. The applicant requested a Preferred Scenario Map change from Conservation Cluster to Commercial/Employment Low, which is a type of Light Industrial zoning, for 199.49 acres of land generally located on the western side of Francis Harris Lane south of where it intersects with Grant Harris Road. The item was only up for discussion at this meeting, so the Preferred Scenario amendment was neither approved or denied. He also requested approval of a provision of services for a proposed annexation of 53.57 acres of that same land, which was approved five to two with San Marcos City Council Members Amanda Rodriguez and Alyssa Garza casting the dissenting votes.
John Mayberry, who represented the applicant, wanted to be clear that he has no affiliation with the data center that has been reported to come to San Marcos by other news sources.
“We have no affiliation with Cloudburst. That is not us,” Mayberry said. “We have nothing to do with them or Energy Transfer at all.”
Mayberry said the data center will use a closedloop water system, in order to decrease water waste.
He also pointed to other attributes of a data center that could be positive.
“Once this system is filled and set, it continues to use the same water,” he said. “I do want to note the low infrastructure and government resources needed for a data center. There is low traffic volume and no active loading docks. This is not an active warehouse. Limited emergency services are needed because the data centers have their own security, and as you would expect, the centers have fire systems to protect the technology.”
Mayberry said the city would receive tax revenue from the center, but they are working on a conservative estimate as to how much at this moment.
“We know from a 94acre site in Bexar County that the valuation there is over $300 million,” he said.
San Marcos Planning and Development Services Director Amanda Hernandez gave a presentation on the Preferred Scenario Map amendment request and said the main purpose of the item was to “gather your comments [and] your questions, so we can include any additional information you’d like to know in those public hearing packets.”
San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson said there would be no vote on the Preferred Scenario Map amendment, but the item would be before them for a vote at a later date.
Rodriguez asked the applicant if they could guarantee that the property is not being used for the Cloudburst data center.
Mayberry said he was certain that it was not.
Rodriguez said that didn’t assuage her fears as now there was a concern that there may be “two data centers going up in one city.”
Hernandez said this is the only data center the city is currently working with.
Garza asked if Cloudburst could be having conversations with others outside of the city and still be planning to bring the data center with or without the city’s knowledge.
Hughson said that the city doesn’t normally deal with what businesses can or cannot come as long as they are going to operate within the necessary parameters of the land as far as the Preferred Scenario Map and zoning.
Hernandez affirmed that Cloudburst could be coming to the city without their knowledge if Cloudburst were speaking to a landowner with the proper zoning.
San Marcos City Manager Stephanie Reyes said “in full disclosure” that this is the only data center with applications turned in with the city, but it isn’t the only party interested in starting a data center in San Marcos.
“There has been interest of other surrounding property owners that have also had interest in data centers,” Reyes said. “I do not want to mislead you to think that there’s been no interest expressed of any other data centers because I know that we have been approached by others that may be interested in doing that. But this is the only formal application that we have at this time.”
Rodriguez said there are state officials talking about problems with the grid, which is concerning due to the large amount of energy used by data centers. So if there could possibly be more than one, she would really not be okay with that, regardless of the fiscal benefits.
“We have a grid that relies 48% on natural gas. A grid that state lawmakers continue to worry that it’s going to fail, inevitably,” Rodriguez said, adding that even the state is discussing the problems with data centers and a fragile grid; She said she rarely agrees with the state but must in this instance. “You have state officials literally raising the flags about these things.”
The Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing for the associated zoning changes – from Character District 2.5 and Future Development to Light Industrial – on Feb. 25 The city council will hold the first public hearing and have the first reading for the annexation on April 1, and the second reading will be on April 15.
