Project dossier · San Marcos (Hays/Guadalupe Counties), Texas

CloudBurst San Marcos Under construction

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.

Key facts

Operator: CloudBurst Data Centers
Size: 1,200 MW
Acres: 96
Location: San Marcos (Hays/Guadalupe Counties), Texas
Stage today: Under construction

Source

What to do next

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

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What has happened so far (17 events)

2025-02-07utility
Energy Transfer and CloudBurst Data Centers announced a natural gas supply agreement via the Oasis Pipeline to provide behind-the-meter power to CloudBurst's planned Central Texas data center campus. · source
2025-02-13coverage
First major television news coverage announced CloudBurst's proposed 1.2 GW data center campus at Francis Harris Lane straddling Hays and Guadalupe Counties near San Marcos. · source
2025-03-18permit
CloudBurst filed a Flood Hazard Development Permit with Hays County, the only county-level permit instrument applicable to the site given it sits outside city ETJ. · source
2025-03-30protest
The Central Texas Data Center Tracker organized its first public protest against the CloudBurst project at the Francis Harris Lane site. · source
2025-04-01coverage
Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra publicly stated the CloudBurst project would be approved regardless of local objections, saying 'there's nothing we can do about it' because the site lies outside county land-use authority. · source
2025-05-20hearing
Hays County Commissioners Court held a public workshop for residents to hear directly from CloudBurst representatives about the proposed facility south of San Marcos. · source
2025-05-21coverage
Community Impact reported that more than 50 residents had opposed the CloudBurst project at San Marcos City Council meetings, citing water scarcity, emissions and transparency concerns, even though the site is outside city jurisdiction. · source
2025-06-04coverage
Media outlets reported CloudBurst had reversed an earlier renewable-energy pledge in favor of on-site natural gas generation, citing unreliable ERCOT grid supply. · source
2025-11-05construction
CloudBurst and Evolve Holdings held a groundbreaking ceremony for the 1.2 GW San Marcos Data Center I campus; the Data Center Action Coalition organized a protest with signs and noisemakers outside the event. · source
2026-01-20environmental
Hays County Commissioners Court authorized an 11-month, $542,360 regional water and wastewater study by HDR Engineers, prompted in part by data center water demand including CloudBurst's. · source
2026-02-18denial
San Marcos City Council voted 5-2 to deny a land-use change that would have cleared the way for a separate data center southwest of downtown, reflecting the same organized opposition driving pushback on CloudBurst. · source
2026-02-24vote
Guadalupe County Commissioners Court voted 3-2 against a $500 million, 10-year property tax abatement for the CloudBurst data center campus. · source
2026-02-26coverage
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
2026-03-23coverage
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
2026-04-09hearing
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
2026-04-21vote
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
2026-06-16moratorium
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

Find the paper trail

Find the paper trail (1 filed · 11 places to look)

Permits already on file (1)

Filings we have a source for — the record, not a place to look for one.

2025-03-18
CloudBurst filed a Flood Hazard Development Permit with Hays County, the only county-level permit instrument applicable to the site given it sits outside city ETJ. · source

State environmental permits

Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.

Texas TCEQ — Air Permits DivisionThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
TCEQ Central RegistrySearchable public filings — search the operator, the shell LLC on the deed, and the address.

County & town filings

The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.

Search San Marcos (Hays/Guadalupe Counties) planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
Search San Marcos (Hays/Guadalupe Counties) property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.

Utility & grid records

The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.

ERCOT (Texas) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
Public Utility Commission of Texas — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.

Federal databases

Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.

EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site.
EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.

These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.

Around here

San Marcos community briefing — Enactedno end date — permanent
Texas briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.

Other tracked projects in Texas

Aligned Data Centers Hale County — Hale County Under construction
Amazon Floydada campus — Floydada (Floyd County) In review
Amazon Fort Stockton campus — Fort Stockton (Pecos County) Under construction
BCG Cedar Creek Campus — Cedar Creek (Bastrop County) Awaiting decision
Black Mountain Energy Fort Worth — Fort Worth Approved

Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “CloudBurst San Marcos”, aigridwatch.com/projects/cloudburst-san-marcos-tx, retrieved 2026-10-11.

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

A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.

Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).