Planning commission recommends PD amendment to allow Long Creek data center, forwards measure to council

The Mesquite Planning and Zoning Commission on Feb. 23 recommended approval of a planned development amendment that would allow a single-building data center on the city’s East Tract along Long Creek Road and forwarded the application to City Council for consideration on March 16.

Carolyn Horner, a planner with the Mesquite Planning Department, told commissioners the proposal would amend Planned Development Ordinance No. 4962 to replace Industrial Building 2 with a single data center and to modify development standards including reduced parking and a taller screening wall. "Staff assessment ... approval of the modified development standards and concept plan ... is warranted as it is consistent with the Mesquite comprehensive plan," Horner said.

The amendment asks the commission to approve a concept plan for a roughly 28-acre site and several specific changes: a 20-foot precast masonry screening wall to enclose mechanical equipment yards; a proposed minimum 25-foot landscape buffer along Long Creek Road and E. Cyrene Road with canopy trees and evergreen shrubs; and a reduced parking standard the staff described as a variance of about 245 spaces from the default industrial requirement. Staff also suggested a parking ratio for a data center of one space per 13,500 square feet as an approximate figure tied to the concept plan.

Mandy Squibb of SLS Consultants, the applicant, told the commission the development would be a single-level data center and described site and technical details to address likely concerns. "48 megawatts of capacity within the facility," Squibb said, adding the design would use liquid-cooled data halls with a closed-loop mechanical system rather than evaporative cooling. On water she told commissioners that the team’s engineering estimate is "we are looking less than 150,000 gallons annually." Squibb also said the facility would take power from the distribution system rather than requiring an on-site private transmission substation.

Squibb noted the screening wall would serve as both visual and acoustic buffering for mechanical equipment. She also said the operator expects a relatively small on-site staff and limited daily truck traffic: staff estimated "15 to 20 people max per shift" and said the site will not have heavy inbound/outbound tractor-trailer distribution traffic typical of warehouses.

Nearby property owners questioned driveway and road impacts. Troy Smith, who identified himself as living at 285 Long Creek Road north of the site, asked whether a road would be reconstructed after construction. Planning staff said the existing PD’s requirements tie road reconstruction to the presence of heavy-load truck traffic: if a future end user generates heavy-load traffic the developer would be required to reconstruct the affected segment; if the data center does not produce heavy-load traffic, that trigger would not apply. "If the end user is going to have heavy load traffic ... then it would require the reconstruction," staff said.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about building size, truck access across a segment in Sunnyvale jurisdiction, generator type and noise, and whether tenants would have access to the facility. Squibb said tenants may lease full data halls and that the operator intends to own and operate the facility long-term. Squibb said generators would be diesel and would be located behind the screening wall and that the project team will perform acoustical studies to demonstrate compliance with the city’s property-line noise limits.

On a motion that included staff recommendations, the commission voted to recommend approval of the PD amendment and concept plan and to forward the application to City Council. The application will appear before City Council on March 16 for the council’s consideration.

What happens next: City Council will review the commission’s recommendation and may adopt, amend, or deny the ordinance change. Staff told the commission the applicant is completing transmission and power studies that will affect the project’s schedule; the applicant said it expects a project start to depend on power-study results and potential operation by 2028.