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.
Timeline
- filed
Motion introduced as the motion file
- ordered
Council passed the motion as agenda item 18
- Today
How this decision moved
One dated line per check, oldest first. A line that says nothing changed means somebody looked and it had not.
- 2026-08-19
Whether staff has returned with the zoning ordinance is unconfirmed. The city's agendas page publishes no item text and carries nothing dated August.
- 2026-08-22
Checked and unchanged. The city's own record still marks the motion passed on July 21st as M2026-070. It still directs staff to initiate a code amendment defining data centers as a distinct principal land use. It also still directs staff to prepare the statutory process for a temporary development moratorium.
- 2026-08-26
Checked and unchanged. The direction to staff to write a zoning amendment still stands and no draft has been posted.
- 2026-08-29
Checked and unchanged. The council's direction to staff still stands and the code amendment it asked for is still being written rather than adopted. Data centers are still not a distinct land use in the city's code.
- 2026-09-02
The motion stands as passed. The zoning amendment it directed staff to write has not come back to the council.
- 2026-09-05
Corpus Christi's direction to write the zoning prohibition still stands and no amendment has come back to the council.
- 2026-09-08
Corpus Christi's instruction to staff still stands. The zoning amendment prohibiting data centers in every district has not come back to the council, and neither has the moratorium process.
- 2026-09-09
Corpus Christi's direction to write a data center zoning amendment is still with staff and nothing has come back to the council.
- 2026-09-12
Corpus Christi's direction to write a data center zoning amendment is still with staff. Nothing has come back to the council and no moratorium process has been noticed.
- 2026-09-13
The direction to write a data center zoning amendment is still with staff, and nothing has come back to the council.
- 2026-09-16
Corpus Christi's direction to write a prohibition into its zoning is still direction rather than an ordinance. Staff has brought nothing back.
- 2026-09-19
The direction to staff stands. The zoning amendment it asked for has not yet come back to the council for a vote.
- 2026-09-23
The direction to staff still stands, and the zoning amendment it asked for still has not come back to the council.
- 2026-09-26
The council's direction to staff still stands. The zoning amendment and the moratorium proposal it asked for have not come back to the council.
- 2026-09-29
Corpus Christi staff still holds the council's direction to draft the zoning ban and the moratorium proposal, and neither has come back to the council.
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 · webapi.legistar.com
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 · webapi.legistar.com
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 · kristv.com
Questions about this decision
Answered from the record itself. Every answer is assembled from stored fields, so an answer the record has no basis for is left out rather than guessed.
What is this decision?
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.
Who decides it?
Corpus Christi City Council decides. The record names the deciding body for every entry it carries.
Can the public 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 in Texas does it apply?
It covers Nueces County in the Corpus Christi, TX area.
Has it been decided?
It has been decided. The dates on the item page carry when.
What happens next?
No future date is on the record. The last dated step on it was ordered on July 21st.
When did it start?
The earliest date on its record is July 15th, 2026.
What kind of decision is it?
It is filed under data centers.
What sources back it?
Three sources back it. Two of them are primary.
Is it on the ERCOT grid?
Yes. It sits inside the ERCOT interconnection.
When was it last checked?
Every fact on it was last verified against its source on September 29th, 2026.
Cite this
Texas AI Docket, Corpus Christi City Council directed staff to write a zoning amendment prohibiting data centers in every zoning district and to prepare a moratorium process. Tracked since July 15th, 2026. Last verified September 29th, 2026. https://texasaidocket.com/item/tx-2026-0050/. Reuse permitted under CC BY 4.0 with attribution. The same entry is in the docket JSON as item tx-2026-0050.
Beat
Filed under Data centers, with every other decision on that beat.