San Antonio's council spent a special session deciding how far a data center should have to sit from a family's back fence — and whether any of them belong over the aquifer the city drinks from. Two hundred miles north, a judge stopped another town from even holding the vote. And in the California desert, a groundwater agency told state regulators the basin in question is already pumping nearly three times what it can sustain. Here's what actually moved.
COMMUNITY — San Antonio City Council held a special meeting to review a rewrite of the city's Unified Development Code that would confine large data centers to industrial and commercial zoning districts, require a setback of at least 500 feet from homes and schools, and prohibit them entirely over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone — the formation that supplies the city's drinking water. Councilman Ric Galvan had already requested something stronger, a citywide moratorium on new data center projects, and the council will decide separately next month whether to begin that process; support for a full pause appears uneven among members. The zoning language would need to be finalized by the city's Zoning Commission in September and could reach a City Council vote in October.
⚖️ LEGAL — District Judge Kimberly Fitzpatrick of Tarrant County's 342nd District Court signed a temporary restraining order barring the town of Westlake, Texas, from holding a vote on, approving, adopting, or taking any action to implement Resolution 26-25 concerning the Circle T Data Center — including at the special meeting where that vote was scheduled. The plaintiffs are not Westlake residents: they are the Lakes at Marshall Ridge Homeowners Association Inc. and neighbors Linda Bjorn and Sharon Sanden of adjacent Keller, who allege the town failed to provide legally required public notice in connection with earlier zoning action. The order took effect on the posting of a $5,000 bond and expires 14 days after signing unless extended, with a h
