Council's anti-data center majority

I was curious to see City Council's conversation about data centers yesterday. I was wondering if anybody would express hesitance about the blanket ban on large data centers that five members publicly called for on Monday.

That didn't happen. In fact, Krista Laine became the sixth to call for a ban, making a pro-prohibition majority.

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Austin's existing data centers

It was interesting to learn from Austin Energy that there are already 10 data centers in city limits that range from 1 to 20 megawatts, well below the 75 MW threshold that staff has proposed for defining a large "hyperscale" facility.

Stacy Schmitt of Opportunity Austin, an offshoot of the Chamber of Commerce, said the organization welcomed regulation but urged Council to "keep in mind companies and businesses" that rely on existing data centers in the city.

In addition to wanting to ban hyperscale facilities, which he described as "not compatible with our quality of life," Council Member Mike Siegel said he wanted the city to also carefully consider and regulate smaller data centers and to be wary of companies evading a prohibition on large centers by grouping multiple small centers together.

Definitions count

As staff explained, Council cannot prohibit a use without first defining it in the code. That's why Council needs to adopt a code amendment creating a classification for large data centers.

Currently data centers are allowed in a number of existing zones for office, commercial and industrial uses (LO, CS, GR, LI etc).

Lest we forget the decade of failed efforts to overhaul the city's code, Chief Zoning Officer Joi Harden noted that Austin's land development code was written "long before the rise of cloud computing, large scale data processing and AI."

Indeed, personal computers were still a niche thing when the current LDC was adopted in 1984.

Council Member Marc Duchen, while supporting his colleagues' intent, pointed out there wasn't an easy way to define a "large" data center.

"The real challenge is going to be figuring out where to draw our lines," he said.

Watson has called for a "freeze" on applications for large data centers (of which there are likely zero) until the city develops new regs but has not yet explicitly joined the pro-ban bandwagon but nor is he speaking out against a blanket prohibition.

"We have what it appears to be a pretty united Council about wanting to do this the right way while being protective of our citizens' quality of life and water and energy and all of those aspects," he said at the conclusion of Tuesday's conversation.

Open meetings law strikes again

Following the data center discussion, Watson flagged a potential impending violation of state open meetings laws. More than five Council members were planning to attend a press conference in support of prohibiting hyperscale facilities.

The prevailing interpretation of state law in force at City Hall is that a majority of Council cannot assemble – physically or virtually – to discuss legislative business without posting a public notice of the meeting 72 hours in advance.

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes was surprised those rules would extend to a press conference, especially one that she and the four members of her sub-quorum had invited the media and public to attend.

"I remember many years in which we've had press conferences and we've invited the media to be there and the full Council was able to attend should they choose to and I don't know how many times we reached more than five Council members actually attending," she said to City Attorney Deborah Thomas.

"We would hope that you didn't," said Thomas.

The legislature itself is of course not subject to this level of regulation.

In the end, the Council members deferred to Thomas's advice. Only the original five showed up to the press conference.

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