Planning commission approves rezoning in Santa Teresa to allow data‑center support campus

The Dona Ana County Planning and Zoning Commission voted to approve Z25016 on Oct. 9, changing portions of T‑2 and C‑2 zoning to I‑2 industrial for parcels in the Santa Teresa Industrial Park to allow data‑center support services including substations, maintenance facilities and microgrid infrastructure.

The change covers two identified pockets — about 60 acres of former C‑2 and roughly 189 acres of T‑2 within a broader roughly 1,400‑acre industrial area — and was presented by county staff as a conformance action to bring those pockets into the surrounding I‑2 zoning and to permit infrastructure for a major proposed data‑center development.

County staff said the rezoning is consistent with recent updates to the Unified Development Code (Amendment No. 5), the county zoning map and multiple goals in the county comprehensive plan related to locating industry where infrastructure exists and supporting economic opportunity. Staff recommended approval after reviewing notification, preliminary environmental and cultural surveys provided by the applicant, and utility coordination noting utility providers and BorderPlex Digital Assets are in contact about power and wastewater capacity.

The applicant, property owner Christopher Lyons of Santa Teresa Land LLC, and representatives for BorderPlex Digital Assets described a multi‑phase campus that would include data‑center sites plus supporting electrical generation, battery storage, substations and administrative buildings. Lyons urged commissioners to view the parcel as part of a long‑planned industrial…