Following a unanimous recommendation from the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, the Irving City Council voted last night to move forward with a new data center campus.
The campus, planned for a roughly 37-acre patch of land on the east side of the city, would house three buildings each two stories high. Multiple customers would lease the space, rather than a single provider.
Tommy Mann is an attorney representing CoreSite, which will own the data center campus. He told the council developers are going into the phased project with “eyes wide open,” expecting scrutiny.
“We knew we needed to listen carefully to the feedback we received from you all, from the [Planning and Zoning Commission] and staff, and be responsive to it and incorporate it,” Mann said. “I think we've done that.”
Mann noted that because this is a multi-tenant project, its success “won't be dependent on one tenant, and its pace of development will not be driven by the overwhelming demand of one large tenant.”
Some residents expressed concern about potential impacts to the environment, like high electricity and water demands.
City staff recommended denying the conditional use permit that would allow the construction of the data center, stating that the decision was centered on "potential offsite effects and concerns."
According to the conditional use permit ordinance, CoreSite committed to an "air-cooled chiller system that utilizes recycled water" based on city requirements.
Staff wrote, "Though the applicant has worked to address concerns about effects on the city’s water system by committing to a low water cooling system and provided additional landscaping adjacent to the existing residential uses, staff cannot support this request."
Resident Liz Mendoza said the location matters, too.
“Data centers wreak havoc in communities, and these tech bros tend to want to set them up in working class communities,” Mendoza said. “Data centers devour our finite resources such as water, energy and land.”
Researchers are watching the impacts data centers have on local communities as companies incorporate more artificial intelligence into everyday products. While data centers have long housed tech infrastructure and distributed huge quantities of data, the AI boom has heightened demands for processing power and the physical framework behind it.
A 2024 Department of Energy report showed that data centers consumed about 4.4% of all American electricity in 2023. That figure could triple by 2028.
But AI and the infrastructure behind it are also driving economic growth across various sectors.
Before the council voted unanimously to move forward with the campus, Mayor Rick Stopfer said he would support it as a “major component” of the city’s tax base.
“Data, unfortunately — right, wrong, or indifferent — based upon our use of these things, is something that we're all going to need in the future,” he said. “With the amount of corporations that we have coming to this area and the growth that you're seeing…that's what you're starting to see, the reason for the driving of the data.”
The site the new data center would sit on has been vacant since 2020. It was previously an Exela Technologies facility. Existing structures will be demolished to make way for new development.
The CoreSite project won’t be Irving’s only data center. QTS and Equinix have already completed local projects.
About a year ago, Edged U.S. opened a data center in Irving that’s now slated to expand. Per a council decision in late January, the already-existing campus on Wildwood Dr. will add another building.
Microsoft and PowerHouse also plan to finish projects of their own over the next few years.
Got a tip? Email Andy Lusk at alusk@kera.org.
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