New Braunfels would keep data centers at least 2,000 feet from homes, schools, parks, churches, day care centers, nursing homes and trails under a draft zoning ordinance the city’s Planning Commission takes up in a public hearing Nov. 4, according to the commission’s agenda packet.
The draft shows what a city with zoning power — the authority to write rules about what can be built where — can put on paper as data centers move toward the edges of the San Antonio–Austin corridor. It would add a definition of “data center” to the city’s zoning code and a new section of standards, then require every project to win a special use permit from the City Council, a separate vote on one specific use of one specific property, before the developer may even apply for a building permit.
Under the draft, data centers would be allowed only in the city’s two heavy-industrial districts, and only on lots of at least 50 acres. The buildings, backup generators, fuel storage and cooling equipment would sit at least 500 feet from every other zoning district and from any public or private street, and 2,000 feet from the property line of anything zoned or used for housing, or occupied by a school, park, place of worship, child care center, hospital, assisted living facility, nursing home, pedestrian path or trail. Buildings could rise no higher than 30 feet, with two functional stories.
The noise limit is the tightest number in the packet. The draft sets a maximum of 35 decibels, as written, at the property line of any home, school, park or similar neighboring use, including while generators run or are tested. At other property lines, operations could not raise noise more than 5 decibels above a baseline measured in a 72-hour continuous recording the applicant must take before applying. Noticeable hums, tones, rumbling or felt vibration at the property line would not be allowed.
The draft also puts the cost question to the applicant. Each application would have to state the project’s average and maximum daily water use, its cooling method and the number of backup generators. It would also require letters from the electric, water and wastewater providers certifying the project’s demand and available capacity, that its use will have “zero impact” on existing customers, and that no costs will be passed on to them. In plain terms, a developer would have to show in writing that the project does not lean on neighbors’ utility bills. Applicants would also need a traffic study and a noise study by a qualified professional.
The rules would not spare existing sites. The draft says buildings already used as data centers “are not grandfathered” and would have to be retrofitted to comply. It also leaves room to bargain: an applicant may request deviations from any standard, but must spell them out in the application and ask the City Council for them directly. Any later change to an approved permit would require a formal amendment.
The proposal arrives next to a county where the question has landed in court. Community Impact Newspaper reported Oct. 21 that two data center projects are being built nearby in Guadalupe County, and that a residents’ group has sued the county’s Commissioners Court over them. The Dispatch has not reviewed the lawsuit. The same report described figures from an Oct. 19 City Council workshop that differ from the packet, including a smaller residential setback, so the draft’s numbers may change before a vote.
The Planning Commission’s role is advisory: it makes a recommendation, and the City Council decides. The draft ordinance’s own text recites a council public hearing on Nov. 9, though the city’s online meeting calendar listed only a Nov. 6 closed session for the council as of Nov. 3. The commission’s recommendation Nov. 4 is the first public vote on rules that would decide where New Braunfels allows data centers, and on whose terms.