Irving schedules July 23 town hall on Connector service and data-center rules

The city of Irving announced a July 23 town hall to update residents on the Irving Connector loop at Las Colinas and to review the city’s approach to data‑center development.

Nick Lawton, host of City Source, said the town hall will be hosted by council members John Block and David Pfaff and take place in Council Chambers. City planning director Jocelyn Murphy described how the city reviews data‑center proposals: many recent data‑center projects are considered through conditional use permits, which trigger public hearings before the planning and zoning commission and the city council and require public notices and site-plan submissions.

Murphy said data centers are buildings that house rows of servers that store and transmit data and that attention to those projects has grown with increased use of artificial intelligence. She outlined the planning department’s public-review priorities: ensuring adequate electrical transmission and, when possible, existing substations; siting that keeps large data centers out of residential neighborhoods; and preferring industrial areas or setbacks from major roadways so the buildings are not predominant. "They need a lot of power as everybody has heard of," Murphy said on air, describing the department’s emphasis on transmission availability.

Murphy added that the conditional use process includes two public hearings and published notices so neighbors have an opportunity to review proposed sites and site plans. The city encouraged residents interested in transit or data‑center standards to attend the July 23 meeting.

The program directed viewers to irvingtx.gov/playirving for additional recreation information and to irvingtx.gov/transit for map and schedule details on the Irving Connector service.