San Angelo City Council Adopts Data Center Land Use Regulations

SAN ANGELO, TX — The San Angelo City Council unanimously voted 6-0 Tuesday to adopt land use regulations for data centers, addressing noise levels, fencing, building sizes and residential buffers. 

The regulations were first heard and advanced at a May 5 public hearing before receiving final approval during the council’s regular meeting. 

Specific provisions include a maximum sound level of 55 dBa at all times, including detailed limits on low-frequency noise. Data centers must maintain a 300-foot separation from any residential land use or zoning district, including planned developments. Opaque fencing is required where a data center site is adjacent to certain residential zoning districts. 

The regulations also require rainwater and stormwater capture systems to reduce the use of potable water for landscape irrigation. 

With the land-use rules now in place, the council will hold second hearings on June 2 on separate water discharge and water-use regulations for data centers. Those proposals include a closed-loop water cooling system designed to minimize consumption. Wastewater would be discharged on-site to a septic system with no flow into the city’s sanitary sewer. All discharges would undergo monitoring for pollutants, industrial pretreatment where required, and no hazardous chemical discharges would be allowed. 

Presentations to the council included water-use comparisons showing that a proposed data center example would use about 11.33 million gallons per year — less than 1 percent of the city’s total annual metered water consumption and far below usage by existing large customers such as Goodfellow AFB and the Upper Colorado River Water Authority.