Bryan planners recommend annexation of 162.6 acres for potential data center near RELLIS

The Bryan Planning and Zoning Commission on Sept. 4 voted unanimously to recommend annexation of 162.6 acres for an owner-requested development that staff said could accommodate a data center and related uses.

Senior planner Katie Williams told the commission the annexation (case ANN25-02, Dodd Family Holdings LLC) would bring the property—generally located across from the RELLIS campus along West State Highway 21—under city regulatory control and assign roughly 37 acres to an Innovation Corridor Retail Services (ICRS) district and about 124 acres to a Planned Development Mixed-use (PDM) district. Williams said the PDM designation would specifically allow a data-center land use not currently defined in the city's ordinance and would include building-design, screening and mechanical-system soundproofing requirements to mitigate impacts.

"Staff does believe that this proposed zoning arrangement does comply with what's proposed by the future land use plan," Williams said, recommending approval.

Commissioners pressed staff on utilities and floodplain issues. Williams said utility capacity (water, sanitary sewer, electric) and floodplain impacts would be addressed during later site-plan and utility-capacity discussions and are not guaranteed by zoning. "Right now, we're just assigning a zoning," she said, explaining that any substation or large utility upgrades would be negotiated separately.

Mac Martinez, who identified himself as general counsel for the applicant, told the commission the project team plans to raise the building elevation by about 3 feet and to work with Bryan Texas Utilities (BTU) on a substation. Martinez said the developer will install on-site generation and battery storage that he characterized as providing roughly 12 hours of reserve to avoid drawing from the grid during peak periods. "We will be bringing our own self generation as well…we're kind of leading the way in the industry in bringing battery storage so that we will be able to store battery and, let's say, for peak times…we can work off of at least 12 hours of the storage," Martinez said.

Martinez also emphasized workforce development and training partnerships, saying the company plans to train local hires and that there is interest from major industry partners. "We are getting ready to partner with Google, who is very enthusiastic about coming into this data center and working with this community to do job[s]," he told the commission.

With no members of the public speaking on the annexation, Commissioner (Committee member) moved to recommend approval to the Bryan City Council and adopt the written staff report; the motion was seconded by Tyler Fries and passed unanimously.

The commission's recommendation means the annexation and zoning assignments will be forwarded to the Bryan City Council for final action. The commission completed its business and adjourned at 7:04 p.m.