Lewisville council requires special‑use permits for data centers after public hearing

Lewisville City Council unanimously adopted an ordinance Tuesday evening that adds a definition for “data center” to the city’s Unified Development Code and requires a special‑use permit for any new data center or redevelopment of an existing warehouse into a data center.

The change — approved 6‑0 after more than an hour of staff briefings and public comment — removes the by‑right entitlement that treated data centers as ordinary distribution warehouses and gives council and the public a formal hearing and a chance to impose site‑specific conditions on utilities, buffers, noise, cooling technology and monitoring.

Planning manager Vashel Fernandez, AICP, told the council staff’s goal was to preserve flexibility to evaluate future proposals. “This allows public input when it comes on to any data center that’s coming in,” Fernandez said, describing a checklist of studies staff can request during the SUP review, including utility‑impact studies, power‑availability letters and noise studies.

Why it mattered: Several residents urged the council to move deliberately, citing water and energy strains and asking for transparency and enforceable limits. Kelsey Drap, who said she bought a home in Lewisville in 2019, warned of environmental and fiscal risks and asked the council to “vote in favor of this proposition” to ensure public scrutiny of large facilities.

Industry representatives urged caution about retroactive penalties. Jonathan Vincent, representing an existing data‑center operator, asked council to clarify whether existing facilities would become non‑conforming and urged grandfathering for sites with current permits or certificates of occupancy. Victoria Morris, speaking for Wells Fargo, said the company’s site had been designed with resiliency and efficiency measures and said its cooling system uses little or no water for operations.

What the ordinance does and does not do: The ordinance creates a new land‑use classification and requires an SUP for data centers in specified zoning districts. It does not set a single numeric cap on water or power use in the text; instead, staff said applicants will be required to provide utility impact analyses and other studies as part of the SUP application and council will be able to attach conditions when granting or denying permits.

Council discussion focused on three practical impacts — water, energy and noise — and on how to monitor changes to an existing facility’s intensity. Council Member Green asked whether changes inside an existing building that increase water or energy use could trigger an SUP; staff replied that the SUP requirement would apply to expansions or to site changes and that the council could later adopt application checklists requiring periodic utility reporting or thresholds that would trigger review.

Several speakers urged the council to go further. Local resident and community advocate Mike Weston noted that staff records showed one local facility using “more than 40 million gallons of water per year” and asked council to add hard, enforceable performance standards and cumulative impact requirements before multiple facilities locate in the same service area.

Council action and next steps: After closing the public hearing, council voted to adopt the ordinance adding “data center” to the code and requiring SUPs for the use. Mayor TJ Gilmore said the change is intended to ensure public input and allow council to add conditions on a case‑by‑case basis. Staff said the new SUP checklist will include utility impact studies and power‑availability letters and that legal counsel will assist staff in crafting thresholds for later consideration. The ordinance passed unanimously; staff will publish the proposed amendments, take public comments and schedule implementation steps for the updated UDC.

What remains uncertain: Staff and council acknowledged several legal and implementation questions remain, including whether to grandfather in existing facilities as conforming uses, whether to adopt numeric thresholds in the ordinance itself or apply them as SUP conditions, and how frequently council should require utility reporting. Staff flagged that further legal review will be needed before adding enforcement triggers tied to intensity metrics.