Lubbock officials present draft standards for large-scale data centers as residents demand moratorium

Mayor Mark McGrewer called a specially scheduled Lubbock City Council work session to order and emphasized that the meeting would not include any votes, but would gather public input on large-scale data centers.

City Manager Jared Atkinson and planning staff presented findings and draft standards intended to give the council options if and when a large-scale data center proposal arrives. Atkinson said an internal survey drew about 1,550 responses and that residents’ top concerns matched staff priorities: water use, electricity demand, utility costs, environmental impacts, noise and light. He summarized the city’s water capacity as roughly 71,350,000 gallons per day of point-in-time capacity, an average daily use of about 36.5 million gallons and a 2025 peak day near 50.2 million gallons, noting the city maintains terminal storage and long-range projects such as Lake Sevin and a regional supply project.

Jared Atkinson, city manager, said, “We have a 100-year water plan. Funded means you have those sources available to you. They have not been developed. You don't develop until you need them and you bring them to town.”

Planning staffer Eric Regino laid out draft standards that would treat a ‘‘large-scale’’ data center — for the purposes of this discussion — as a facility that uses roughly 100 megawatts of power per day or about 100,000 gallons of water per day and primarily serves off-site users. Regino recommended a specific-use permit process limited to light-industrial and general-industrial zoning districts that would trigger additional public hearings, require a licensed power-usage study and ask applicants to disclose both initial and full buildout water consumption.

Eric Regino, presenting draft standards, said staff would require "not only what your initial water consumption is going to be, but what your total build out is going to be" and proposed a water-reservation fee charged monthly and credited at buildout to preserve allocations while a project remains hypothetical.

The draft permit package includes a water-reservation fee (an option-style monthly payment credited on buildout), a requirement that large users use closed-loop or air-dry cooling where practical, mandatory power-usage studies identifying generation type, and expanded setbacks and buffering. Staff proposed minimum setbacks of 300 feet from non‑industrial neighbors (increasing to 500 feet where on-site power generation is present), enhanced screening and landscaping standards, and stricter lighting rules tied to existing Unified Development Code thresholds. For noise, staff proposed a 57-decibel limit measured at property lines and required sound studies and mitigation measures; routine generator exercising would be limited to weekdays during business hours.

Regino said the city cannot control state-regulated matters such as air-permit approvals or wholesale grid policy, and noted that electricity policy and transmission fall under the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT, while air quality is handled by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The remainder of the three-hour session (plus an extended public-comment period) was dominated by citizen testimony. More than sixty residents who signed up to speak raised consistent themes: skepticism that the city can enforce promised protections; concern that large users will drain or deplete the regional Ogallala aquifer and nearby surface supplies; worries about low‑frequency noise, light and offsite generator emissions; fears about rising utility and housing costs; and equity objections to siting heavy industry near Districts 1 and 2.

Riley Rodriguez, who said he has observed effects in Abilene where a data center operates, told the council those changes were immediate: "Some of the social workers back home ... are seeing recovering families, young families, low income families shoved into tiny dwellings because their rent has shot up." Several speakers cited other city experiences (Amarillo, Morgan County, Childress) and asked the council to require independently verified water and sound studies and to consider a moratorium until regional impacts are fully studied.

Multiple residents contested staff’s illustrative water figure for a hypothetical large user. The staff presentation used 100,000 gallons per day as a working threshold; several public commenters pointed to other projects and third‑party studies that report much higher daily fills — sometimes 1,000,000 gallons or more per complex depending on cooling type and scale — and asked the city to publish and verify estimates by cooling method (closed-loop versus evaporative/adiabatic cooling).

Speakers also emphasized enforcement: if requirements are purely voluntary or difficult to police, residents said, promises will not protect neighborhoods. Several asked the council to require public reporting, retention of bonds or letters of credit to pay for decommissioning, and clear, binding commitments on who pays for grid upgrades, transmission and future maintenance.

No action was taken. Mayor McGrewer reiterated that the meeting was for public input; the council did not vote and will not adopt standards tonight. Staff said they will follow up on specific district water-use data and consider citizen feedback as they refine any proposed ordinance or specific-use-permit language.

The council adjourned after the public-comment period concluded; next steps identified by staff include further data collection, potential ordinance drafting for council consideration at a later public meeting, and continued coordination with regional partners and state agencies where authority allows.