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Planning commission raises concerns about nearby data-center proposals and limits of ETJ control
Summary
Commissioners discussed potential local impacts of large data centers near Waco and Laguna Park — including water and power demands, noise and property-value concerns — and agreed to consult the city attorney about ordinance options and extraterritorial-jurisdiction limits.
The Gholson Planning & Zoning Commission spent its longest discussion of the night on large data-center projects proposed near Waco and Laguna Park, and whether the city can use zoning or subdivision rules to limit local impacts.
Chair (speaker 3), who described himself as a real-estate appraiser, summarized reporting about a proposed Infra Key Capital campus and warned commissioners that data centers "take quite a bit of water to cool those mainframes" and require "a lot of electricity" to operate. He referenced resident complaints from a Hill County meeting and said developers negotiating with multiple landowners could surround or divide existing neighborhoods. "Those of us who are not paid millions are left with a community divided and destroyed," he read from a local account of residents' objections.
