Granbury adopts ordinance adding standards for data centers and power generation after wide public concern

Granbury — The City Council voted to adopt Ordinance No. 26‑14 to amend Articles 4 and 12 of the city zoning code, adding definitions and supplemental standards for data centers and power generation after a public hearing that drew more than a dozen speakers who urged stricter limits on size, enforcement and environmental impacts.

City staff presented the amendment as a planning measure to create clear expectations ahead of any future project. Cody Nolan, the director of Community Development, described the changes as additions to land‑use definitions and the industrial land‑use table and said the new Supplemental Standard 43 addresses "the sound, the height, the visual buffers, the best practices, battery storage, visual buffers, construction management, as well as traffic plans" and also includes "light pollution protections for night sky protection." Staff recommended approval.

Shay Hopkins, the city's director of economic development, framed the item as proactive policy rather than approval of a particular proposal. "The item before you tonight is not about approving a specific project. It's about planning ahead," Hopkins said, adding the goal is to "require appropriate protections, and better align any potential development with our community's expectations."

Nut graf: Residents and local officials did not focus on a single technical detail; instead speakers repeatedly pressed for clearer enforcement, numerical limits and stronger environmental safeguards — including questions about noise measurement methods, air emissions, water use and visual buffers — and urged the council to delay or tighten the proposed language…