LUBBOCK, Texas — Roughly 500 people attended a special Lubbock City Council meeting on large-scale data centers, with an overwhelming majority of speakers urging city leaders to prohibit the facilities or pause their development instead of attempting to regulate them.

The July 7 meeting at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center lasted nearly four hours. Attendance estimates varied slightly among reports, while approximately 60 to 70 people addressed the council. Almost every speaker opposed allowing hyperscale data centers inside the city.

Residents raised concerns about water consumption, electricity demand, utility rates, noise, pollution and whether the facilities would produce enough permanent jobs to justify their effects. Several speakers said even strict operating standards would not adequately protect the community.

“People don’t want the money, and we don’t want the jobs. And we don’t want the revenue,” Joshua Shankles, president of Lubbock Compact, said during the meeting. “We want our quality of life.”

The gathering was informational, and council members did not vote on a data-center project, moratorium or new regulations. Mayor Mark McBrayer emphasized that no large-scale data-center proposal was pending before the council.

City officials organized the meeting because data centers are already being developed in Abilene, Abernathy, Childress and Dickens County. McBrayer said the industry would likely seek sites in Lubbock eventually and that the city needed policies in place before receiving a formal application.

A previously proposed data center in northeast Lubbock was withdrawn after failing to receive support from the Planning and Zoning Commission. A smaller facility near 19th Street and Avenue Q began operating during 2026.

City presents possible restrictions

For the discussion, City Manager Jarrett Atkinson proposed defining a large-scale data center as a facility requiring at least 100 megawatts of electricity, using at least 100,000 gallons of water per day, or meeting either threshold while primarily processing information for off-site users.

Before the meeting, approximately 1,550 people completed a city survey. Water use ranked as the leading concern, followed by electricity use and its possible effect on utility bills, then environmental consequences, according to KTTZ’s account of the presentations.

Atkinson told attendees that Lubbock’s water system can currently provide about 71.35 million gallons per day. Average demand is approximately 36.5 million gallons, while peak demand is about 50.2 million gallons. The city used 13.3 billion gallons during 2025, according to the city manager’s presentation.

Using a hypothetical facility consuming 110,000 gallons daily, city staff estimated that the data center would rank between Lubbock’s 13th- and 14th-largest water users. Residents challenged whether that hypothetical reflected the needs of an actual hyperscale facility, noting that consumption can vary substantially according to its size, computing load and cooling system.

Assistant City Manager Eric Rejino presented draft development standards that would limit large-scale data centers to light-industrial and general-industrial districts. Each project would also require a specific-use permit and public hearings before both the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council.

The proposed rules would require closed-loop, air-dry or comparable cooling systems designed to minimize continuous withdrawals from the municipal water supply. Developers could also face a water-reservation fee based on anticipated demand.

Additional requirements could include:

• A power-usage study prepared by a licensed engineer
• Setbacks of up to 500 feet in some locations
• Perimeter fencing, berms and landscaping
• A maximum noise level of 57 decibels at property lines
• State and federal air-quality compliance documents
• Shielded outdoor lighting
• A decommissioning plan and letter of credit for facilities with on-site power generation

City officials stressed that these were recommendations rather than adopted regulations.

Residents remain skeptical

Many speakers said the proposed safeguards did not answer fundamental questions about long-term water availability, electric-grid reliability and public costs. Some also questioned whether the limited number of permanent technical jobs associated with a completed data center would outweigh the resource demands.

Councilwoman Christy Martinez-Garcia raised concerns that facilities would likely gravitate toward northern and eastern Lubbock because of industrial zoning and access to major transmission infrastructure. Those areas already contain a large share of the city’s industrial development, making the issue part of a broader debate over where environmental and infrastructure burdens are placed.

Only a few speakers offered significant support. Patient advocate Kevin Allen argued that artificial-intelligence infrastructure could help attract medical research, pharmaceutical and health-technology companies. He also said locating facilities inside the city would provide greater oversight than allowing them to develop in unincorporated Lubbock County.

That distinction is important because cities possess zoning and utility-contract authority that Texas counties generally lack. Lubbock can regulate land use, municipal water, wastewater, noise, lighting and development agreements within its jurisdiction. State agencies, however, oversee most electricity and air-quality matters.

McBrayer warned that an outright city ban would not necessarily prevent a facility from being built nearby. A developer could locate in the county, drill water wells and remain largely outside municipal zoning authority while still affecting the broader region.

Opponents responded that they would fight projects regardless of whether developers sought locations inside or outside Lubbock.

Moratorium petition continues

The group Citizens of Lubbock Against Data Centers is collecting signatures for an 18-month development moratorium. As of KCBD’s July 20 update, organizers faced a July 28 deadline to submit enough verified signatures.

If the petition qualifies, the City Council could adopt the moratorium or send it to Lubbock voters. McBrayer opposes the pause, arguing that the city is already studying regulations and that a moratorium could push development beyond city control.

For now, Lubbock has neither approved a large-scale data center nor adopted the draft standards. The public meeting nevertheless sent city leaders a clear message: most residents who spoke believe regulating the industry is insufficient and want the city to stop—or at least delay—large-scale projects before one reaches the council for approval.