Five Dallas City Council members have requested to start the process of potentially adding regulations for data centers.
Oak Cliff’s District 1 Council member Chad West and District 3 Council member Zarin Gracey were joined by District 6 Council member Laura Cadena, District 13 Council member Gay Donnell Willis, and District 14 Council member Paul Ridley in a signed memorandum Tuesday, Aug. 11, to bring the data center discussion to the horseshoe within the next 30 days and to authorize another public hearing for a future agenda.
The Tuesday memo requested the public hearing to address how data centers are defined in the city code. Data centers are currently allowed by right in many non-residential areas with little oversight, West said in a social media post.
If authorized, the separate public hearing could bring future amendments to Chapters 51 and 51A of the Dallas Development Code through two considerations: “(1) amending provisions relating to communications exchange facilities; or (2) creating a new “data center” land use with appropriate regulations.”
At the state level, Gov. Greg Abbott has called on the legislature to repeal the state sales tax break for data centers, along with the Aug. 3 announcement of an audit for data centers planning to connect to the power grid.
