San Antonio, Texas: City Council Votes 9 to 2 to Require Approval for Every New Data Center

The San Antonio City Council voted 9 to 2 on Thursday, October 29, to require council approval for every new data center built in the city, ending the by-right construction that had let operators build in commercial and industrial zones without a public vote. The amendment to the city's Unified Development Code means that each project must now win a specific use authorization before construction can begin.

What the new rules require

The rules limit data centers to the city's heavy industrial and commercial zones, and they bar the facilities entirely from the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone. On each project, the council can attach conditions covering the site plan, setbacks from neighboring properties, landscaping, noise barriers for backup generators, parking and signage, and how vehicles enter and leave the site. The package adds public notice and neighborhood meeting requirements, and it includes a setback from the South Side Spanish colonial missions, which share a World Heritage listing with the Alamo.

A year of pressure from the West Side

The measure was substituted onto the council floor by District 6 Councilman Ric Galvan, whose West Side district holds the city's heaviest concentration of data centers. Galvan first asked the council to take up data center rules in October 2025, and in August the council voted down his call for a 180 day moratorium. Before Thursday's vote, he said the point was to make sure that "residents have the ability to communicate directly with the developers" and to ask for the concessions and community benefits they want.

The proposals that lost

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones pushed a stricter package that added a minimum setback of 1,000 feet, noise limits, public meetings and air quality monitoring, and it failed. Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 60 warned that stringent rules could kill high paying jobs. District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears and District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte cast the two no votes. Whyte said before the vote: "The jobs that they create for our city, the revenue that they create for our city cannot be overlooked." Spears had warned earlier in the debate: "If we put too many restrictions here, they're not even going to look at us."

Why residents pushed for a vote

The decision followed months of public debate and hours of testimony on Thursday from labor unions, community groups, environmental advocates and industry representatives, and a small protest gathered on the city hall steps before the meeting. Neighbors of existing facilities have raised concerns about electricity and water consumption, generator noise and air quality. Counts of the current fleet vary by source. Public Citizen, which praised the passage, put the number already operating at nearly three dozen and said the municipally owned electric utility expects another 59 data centers in the coming years. A survey published in October by the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs found that over 80 percent of Texas voters are concerned about data center impacts on resources and power, and that 99 percent believe developers should cover the cost of any grid expansion their projects require.

Until Thursday, the city's development services director, Amin Tohmaz, had said data centers were allowed in most areas of the city except residential ones. Neighboring New Braunfels is now weighing a similar rule that would require a special use permit for a data center in its heavy industrial district.