Community briefing

The data center fight in San Marcos, Texas

As of October 1, 2026, San Marcos, Texas has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Jun 16, 2026).

Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.

Status today

Enactedno end date — permanentstatus

Jun 16, 2026action taken

Locallevel

Not a pause — a zoning ban. Passed 4-3 after failing once by a single vote; data centers are now ineligible in every zoning district. First Texas city to do it, and a live test of the 2023 'Death Star' preemption law

SourceNews
read 2026-08-04

An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.

The project on the table

CloudBurst San Marcos — Under construction

Operator: CloudBurst Data Centers · Size: 1,200 MW · Acres: 96

Gigawatt-scale gas-powered AI campus straddling Hays and Guadalupe Counties; site sits outside both cities' ETJ to avoid local review. Over 50 residents opposed at San Marcos council meetings over water scarcity, emissions and transparency.

Next: Under construction — pull the approved conditions and permits and hold the builder to them; an expansion or a new building reopens the record.

Latest in the record

2026-06-16 — San Marcos City Council voted 4-3 to redefine its zoning code and prohibit data centers in all zoning districts citywide, becoming the first Texas city to ban the industry outright, a policy response shaped by the CloudBurst controversy. · source
2026-04-21 — Guadalupe County Commissioners Court reversed its February decision and approved a development agreement and tax abatement package for CloudBurst in a 3-2 vote after a nearly four-hour hearing; more than 35 residents protested at the courthouse. · source
2026-04-09 — The Texas House Environmental Regulation Committee held a hearing on proposed state legislation requiring data center water-use disclosure, discussion informed in part by the CloudBurst case. · source
2026-03-23 — State Rep. Erin Zwiener formed the bipartisan Hays County Data Center Working Group, including county commissioners, San Marcos officials, and regional water advocacy groups, to address data center water use and local regulatory authority. · source
2026-02-26 — Water advocates said they would oppose all five data centers proposed in the Hays/Caldwell County area, including CloudBurst, as the region's water resource fight was described as 'just beginning.' · source
2026-02-24 — Guadalupe County Commissioners Court voted 3-2 against a $500 million, 10-year property tax abatement for the CloudBurst data center campus. · source

Full dated timeline on the project tracker.

Source.

Where the decision gets made

City Council — Ordinances, resolutions, the annual budget and the city tax rate — and, unusually, the city's own water, electric and wastewater rates. San Marcos was the first Texas city to ban data centers.

Meets: 1st and 3rd Tuesday monthly — 3:00 p.m. work/executive session, 6:00 p.m. regular meeting
Where: City Council Chambers, City Hall, 630 E Hopkins, San Marcos, TX 78666

Public comment: Regular meetings include citizen comment. The sign-up process and rules are on the city's Citizen Comments page and the Legistar agenda portal (san-marcos-tx.legistar.com).

councilmembers@sanmarcostx.gov · 512-393-8000 · website

Meeting agendas →

Read from the official page on 2026-08-05. Meeting details change — confirm before you go.

Who votes on it

Name	Role	Email	Phone	Recorded stance
Jane Hughson	Mayor	—	—	not recorded
Matthew Mendoza	Council Member	—	—	not recorded
Josh Paselk	Council Member	—	—	not recorded
Alyssa Garza	Council Member	—	—	not recorded
Shane Scott	Council Member	—	—	not recorded
Lorenzo Gonzalez	Council Member	—	—	not recorded
Amanda Rodriguez	Council Member	—	—	not recorded

From the locality's own roster page; "not recorded" means no public statement is on file, not neutrality.

What to do next

Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in Texas.
Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
Texas briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.

Build a full action pack →

Nearby in Texas

Hays County (13 mi) — Enactedexpires 2026-12-31
Texas (Abbott directive) (29 mi) — Enactedno fixed end — runs until a condition is met
Austin (29 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
San Antonio (46 mi) — Rejectedterm not documented
Milam County (87 mi) — Enactedterm not documented
Austin County (99 mi) — Enactedterm not documented
Corpus Christi (147 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
Hill County (155 mi) — Rescindedterm not documented

All 23 tracked actions in Texas are on the state page.

As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing

Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.

Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.