The Athens City Council in East Texas voted 3-2 on Monday, August 24, to approve an ordinance that defines data centers but permits them in none of the city’s zoning districts. The result effectively prohibits new qualifying data centers inside the city limits.
The ordinance defines a data center as a building or group of buildings larger than 500 square feet used primarily to house computer servers, data-storage systems, networking equipment, and related infrastructure. Smaller facilities, such as school or office server rooms, fall outside the definition.
The vote was the council’s first formal action on data centers since developer Data Factory proposed a project in April, according to KLTV’s report on the meeting. The margin was one vote, but the state action did not happen during the same week.
Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the statewide pause on new data center grid approvals on August 3, three weeks before the Athens vote. The Texas Tribune reported that regulators were instructed not to approve new connections until a comprehensive audit was completed.
What the ordinance actually does
The ordinance applies through the city’s zoning rules and leaves no zoning district available for a qualifying data center. The 500-square-foot threshold prevents ordinary server rooms and similar small facilities from being classified as data centers.
Athens resident Greta Shelton, who spoke at the meeting, told KLTV she was relieved by the vote but expected the debate to continue. She said she planned to watch for future proposals both inside Athens and just outside its city limits.
Outside those limits, the jurisdiction changes. Texas cities generally have zoning authority, while counties have far less power to control where developments are built on unincorporated land.
Tension: Athens has used its zoning authority to block new data centers while the state conducts a separate review of grid-connection requests.
Noise: This is not a single statewide ban or a sudden rejection of the technology industry. It is a set of decisions being made by different public bodies with different powers.
Direct Message: The Athens vote shows how much data center policy currently depends on local boundaries and narrow council majorities.
Why local councils are filling the vacuum
The Athens vote comes during an unprecedented surge in proposed electricity demand. The Texas Tribune reported that ERCOT received 519 requests to connect large electricity users during the previous two years, compared with 24 during the year before that, and that data centers accounted for 90% of the estimated demand.
The same analysis identified at least 248 planned data centers in Texas, with about half aimed at unincorporated areas. Cities can use zoning to reject projects, but counties generally have limited power to control their location or construction.
The statewide audit addresses whether proposed data centers can connect to the power grid. It is not a comprehensive siting policy deciding where facilities should be built, which communities should host them, or how local land-use concerns should be handled.
That distinction leaves local councils responsible for many of the immediate decisions. Athens chose the most restrictive option available through its zoning code, but other communities have selected temporary moratoriums or detailed permitting rules.
The same pattern in Ohio and Georgia
The name Athens is doing double duty in this story. Athens, Ohio, and nearby Athens Township have also paused data center approvals while officials study potential effects on infrastructure and land use.
Athens City Council and the Athens Township Board of Trustees approved one-year moratoriums after Saadia Holding LLC inquired about permitting for a potential data center on nearly 300 acres across US-33 from Athens High School. The Post reported that the property crosses the Athens and Dover township boundary and sits outside the city limits, meaning the city moratorium does not cover the proposed location but the Athens Township moratorium does.
Ohio is also considering action through the ballot process. The Ohio Ballot Board unanimously authorized a petition drive for a proposed statewide constitutional amendment that would prohibit new data centers using more than 25 megawatts of electricity. The board’s decision allows supporters to collect signatures, but it does not enact the proposed ban.
Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, chose a regulatory approach instead. Commissioners voted unanimously in April to lift a temporary ban and allow data centers in heavy industrial zones under tighter rules, according to WUGA’s coverage of the vote. The ordinance requires closed-loop cooling and places new proposals under greater scrutiny.
What residents are actually deciding
The Athens, Texas, ordinance is a land-use decision. It prevents a qualifying data center from receiving approval under the city’s current zoning rules, but the available reporting does not disclose the proposed Data Factory facility’s size, power demand, water requirements, or infrastructure costs.
Those details vary widely among projects. Texas regulators are reviewing how proposed facilities would affect the grid and how infrastructure costs should be allocated, while local governments are considering land use, noise, water, traffic, and compatibility with surrounding communities.
The preliminary Ohio inquiry provides one example of project-specific figures. The Post reported that Oscar Carson, superintendent of the Athens County Water and Sewer District, estimated an initial water requirement of 100,000 gallons, followed by 20,000 to 30,000 gallons per month.
Carson also said the county could provide that water without creating a problem for residents because the property was near a water tower. A sewer line would need to be extended along River Road, but he said he did not expect that work to present a major problem.
What happens next in Athens
The ordinance is now in force inside Athens city limits, and no city zoning district allows a data center covered by its definition. The Data Factory proposal therefore has no route forward at its proposed scale under the current zoning rules inside the city.
A proposal outside the city limits would fall under a different jurisdiction. That distinction matters in Texas because counties generally lack the zoning authority cities can use to prohibit a project outright.
The 3-2 margin also leaves the policy open to future political change. A later council could revisit the ordinance, retain the prohibition, or replace it with a more detailed permitting framework.
Athens does not represent a statewide verdict on data centers. It shows how authority is divided among city zoning rules, limited county powers, and state control over grid connections. For now, three council votes determine what can be built inside Athens, while the state audit determines which projects can advance toward a grid connection.