13 Oct Edinburg Will Require Special Permit for Data Centers Under Revised Development Code

Edinburg is putting a new gate in front of data centers. Under a rewrite of the city’s unified development code, anyone hoping to build one will need a special use permit, according to The Monitor. City commissioners approved the change unanimously Oct. 6 as part of more than 60 amendments.

Farther south, Brownsville is also moving to rein in data centers, but through a temporary pause. Its city commission voted 7-0 on Oct. 7 to approve the first reading of a 90-day moratorium, with a final vote set for Nov. 4.

Edinburg’s rules work through zoning. Data centers are now barred from 11 zoning districts and can go only in light industrial or general industrial districts. The code defines a data center as a facility, or a secured room, dedicated to holding large server networks that handle digital storage and processing.

The overhaul reaches well past data centers. It lets homes sit on smaller lots: the minimum lot size falls by 500 square feet, to 3,500, and the minimum width by four feet, to 36. Duplex lots are cut roughly in half, to 4,000 square feet and 40 feet wide, down from 8,000 and 80. Telecommunication tower rules were loosened too, though towers now have to stay 500 feet from homes.

One idea was left out. Staff had proposed that new single-family homes come with the wiring to plug in an EV later on, but the city’s planning board advised against the outlet requirement, and it didn’t make the approved list.

Mayor Omar Ochoa said the amendments came out of roughly a year of work by city planning staff and a steering committee for the code. They reviewed every provision, aiming to “standardize” and “modernize” it by checking Edinburg’s rules against what comparable cities do. A public hearing was held before the commission meeting, and Ochoa said residents who spoke mostly raised townhomes and minimum lot dimensions.