In spite of community pushback, a 210-acre data-center campus promising millions in tax revenue received a green light to move ahead with some compromises at Thursday’s City Council meeting.
Approval of the ordinances for Project Comal — planned by KDC Real Estate Development and Investments — included several concessions from the developer.
Critics of the project called for the council to delay the approval until stronger regulations are in place for not just Project Comal but all data centers planned in the area.
KDC officials praised the council’s decision.
“Getting these ordinances passed...means that we can kind of decide who the tenant could be and how the buildings could be built,” said David Fisk, KDC executive vice president.
Mayor Dwayne Ariola echoed the sentiment.
“This is going to benefit our citizens in the future,” he said.
Project Comal sits along CR 410 and FM 973 next door to Samsung Austin Semiconductor and the Castlewood South residential subdivision. In addition to the 210 acres for the data center, the developer has planned another 10 acres of retail and office space on the 973 frontage.
Most of the property had been annexed into the city in 2025, and the final 48-acre plat was approved for annexation at Thursday’s meeting.
Project Comal is just one of several data centers planned for Taylor, Hutto and Georgetown, driven by the emergence of Samsung and other hightech ventures.
Data centers among other functions handle cloud storage, artificial intelligence and more. Another project, Blueprint Data Centers, is planned for southeast Taylor.
Ben White, CEO of the Taylor Economic Development Corp., told the council the $2.5 billion Project Comal could generate an estimated $145.9 million in net benefits to the city and another $70.7 million to the Taylor Independent School District over a 10-year period.
His report estimated the project would create 175 direct jobs with an average salary of $54,146 and employ about 3,000 construction workers over the build-out period.
Many in the community have been outspoken critics of the project since it was introduced at a November Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.
Halt Taylor Data Centers Coalition is working on a petition to require the city to stop approving zoning for new data centers until more stringent zoning regulations are in place.
Coalition members say stronger controls are needed to protect nearby residents, community members and city resources from environmental harm and health issues associated with data centers nationwide.
In response to the public outcry, Taylor city staff worked with KDC and an engineering team from HDR that has experience with data-center construction to establish enhanced zoning requirements for Project Comal.
The custom zoning plan developed for Project Comal specifies the facility must use a closed-loop water system for cooling, which will have a cap of 5 million gallons of water per building for the initial fill, 30 million gallons across the six buildings.
Additional water usage must be approved by the city manager, with requests for substantial increases needing council approval.
A 300-foot landscaped buffer will be provided between the data center and the residential neighborhood, with screening plants that should provide 80% visual coverage by the second year.
From 8 p.m. to 7 a.m., the noise level will be no more than 70 decibels at the property line, comparable to a loud vacuum cleaner or washing machine.
The 180 backup generators will all be positioned so that the exhaust points away from the residences.
The zoning plan also contains a requirement for air quality.
In addition, the developer will donate $75,000 toward Taylor parks, deed 14 acres to the city for community roads and give Taylor an extra parcel of land for development of a future fire station.
Some community members who spoke during the council meeting were concerned there were no significant consequences for the data center if it violated the ordinance.
City Attorney Mark Schroeder suggested there could also be the possibility for civil litigation, injunctions or other methods of control.
“I hear the request for moratorium, but we’ve got a developer who has not shied away from answering the questions, has not shied away from mitigating those questions on paper here in front of the citizens,” Ariola said.
“
I hear the request for moratorium.”
— Mayor Dwayne Ariola
