Corpus Christi City Council directed staff to write a zoning amendment prohibiting data centers in every zoning district and to prepare a moratorium process
The Corpus Christi City Council passed a motion on July 21st, 2026 as agenda item 18, moved by Council Member Gilbert Hernandez and seconded by Council Member Carolyn Vaughn. The motion tells staff to initiate a Unified Development Code amendment defining data centers as a distinct principal land use. Staff are also to amend the zoning and permitted use tables to prohibit them in all districts. It also directs an extraterritorial jurisdiction and infrastructure protection policy. Under it a data center would fully fund its own infrastructure, provide verified water and wastewater planning and address electric and backup power impacts. It would need separate City Council approval before receiving city utility service or economic development incentives. A third part directs the statutory notice, hearing and findings work needed before the council could consider a temporary development moratorium. Nothing is prohibited yet because the motion only starts that process. The same meeting carried a staff briefing on data centers that included an overview of Governor Abbott's recent guidelines.
How to take part
The city publishes agendas, minutes and live video through its Legistar agenda program and streams meetings on the city's YouTube channel. The agendas and minutes page links a Public Comment Procedures page and gives 3-1-1 or 361-826-2489 for help. Staff recommendations on the data center code amendment come back to a future council meeting.
Where
1 county. In Corpus Christi.
Dates
| Date | What | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-15 | filed | Motion introduced as the motion file |
| 2026-07-21 | ordered | Council passed the motion as agenda item 18 |
The evidence
Every fact above rests on one of these. The words are the source's own.
Motion to direct staff regarding data center classification and parameters, as requested by Council Members Kaylynn Paxson, Gil Hernandez, and Carolyn Vaughn: 1. Initiate a Unified Development Code amendment to define data centers as a distinct principal land use and amend the City's zoning and permitted-use tables to prohibit data centers in all zoning districts, rather than allowing them to be approved by default under existing office, data processing, utility, warehouse, industrial, or similar land-use categories. 2. An ETJ, utility, infrastructure, and public facilities protection policy requiring data centers and similar high-intensity digital infrastructure projects to enter into an IDA and to fully fund their own infrastructure needs, prevent cost-shifting to residents and ratepayers, provide verified water and wastewater planning, address electric and backup power impacts, mitigate community impacts, and receive separate City Council approval before receiving City utility service, infrastructure participation, development agreement approval, or economic development incentives. 3. The statutory notice, hearing, findings, and ordinance preparation process necessary for City Council consideration of a temporary development moratorium related to data centers and similar high-intensity digital infrastructure use.Legistar API, City of Corpus Christi, Matter 26218 (File 26-1152) Primary source, official
Briefing on Data Centers, including overview of Governor Abbott's recent guidelines.Legistar API, City of Corpus Christi, matters matching Data Center (Matter 26223, File 26-1157) Primary source, official
The motion does not ban data centers in Corpus Christi. It directs staff to develop possible policy options and bring those recommendations back to city council.KRIS 6 News, Corpus Christi city council moves to develop data center regulations for the city Journalism