Officials want a noise study for data centers
HUTTO — A fond farewell to an outgoing councilman, supporting cooperation with a new industrial development and ordering a noise study of data centers topped this past week’s City Council meeting.
During the May 7 session, Councilman Peter Gordon was lauded for his seven years on the dais after hitting term limits, which meant he could not run in the May 2 election. Corinne Zepeda is moving into the Place 4 seat and will take the oath of office May 12 after the voting results are canvassed.
City Manager James Earp presented Gordon with a certificate of appreciation, a bouquet, a plaque and a photo book of his years serving the city.
Gordon’s tenure included being the mayor pro-tem and participation on many boards and commissions overseeing city growth.
“From infrastructure to long-term planning, Council Member Gordon has had a seat at the table for all of it,” Earp said.
Gordon took office in May 2019 and helped helm Hutto through a pandemic and a full city financial restructuring in which more than 40 people lost their jobs.
He was also part of the city’s rebuilding after the upheaval, presiding during a time that saw a new City Hall and library built, construction of the Hutto Megasite, exponential city growth and the beginning of a concerted infrastructure improvement program.
The exiting representative told listeners one of his proudest achievements included helping negotiate the new agreement with The Hutto Co-op District that reinvigorated the development near City Hall and voting to bring the SkyBox Datacenters complex to Hutto.
When it’s fully activated, Skybox will help reduce the tax burden on residents more than any other project in the city, he said.
“I learned very quickly it was impossible for me to please everyone all the time. I realized that I was doing fine as long as I didn’t make everybody mad at me all at once,” Gordon said.
Opus Development gets council nod
City leaders during the meeting Thursday also directed municipal staffers to continue building a relationship with the developers of a 69-acre, light-industrial project known as the Opus Development.
Amanda Swor, a director with Austin-based Drenner Group representing the Opus Development Group, said they are asking city staff to continue working with them on development applications including service extension requests, development agreements, permits and others.
Two buildings will measure 800,000 square feet. In addition, the site includes two adjacent parcels, 50.58 acres which have already been annexed into the city and 18.74 acres for which the developer intends to request annexation.
The property lies between CR 108 and Ed Schmidt Boulevard.
The developer plans to build a public street connecting the two roads, which is an extension the city had already identified as a desired road in its thoroughfare master plan.
Total project investment is estimated at $125 million. Swor said the developer is in negotiations with potential tenants, though their identities remain confidential for now.
Data center sound study ordered
The council members also directed staff to develop a proposal for a sound study that would include measurements of existing and operating data centers.
The study will include lowfrequency tonal noise as well as measured loudness.
The request comes after some residents protested a proposed data center at an April 7 Planning and Zoning Commission hearing. Many of the complaints centered on health issues connected with noise from data centers.
On April 17, the city announced Zydeco Development had formally withdrawn its application to build a data center on a 41-acre parcel on Ed Schmidt Boulevard.
Mayor Mike Snyder said he wanted the city to gather data and create regulations for special-use permits that would govern where and how data centers could be built within city limits.
The protocol would include maximum levels of noise that would be permitted as well as water usage and other factors.
Snyder said another reason to have the study is to avoid the backlash neighboring cities such as Taylor are seeing over data centers.
“In Taylor, the public is petitioning to write their own SUP guidelines, which I am firmly against. So, I’d rather have input from the staff, our input, input with the consultant and we come up with the SUP process,” Snyder said.
“
I was doing fine as long as I didn’t make everybody mad at me all at once.”
— Councilman Peter Gordon
