BY BROOKE SJOBERG
The local impact
What to expect
Data center comparisons City o cials said data centers have been shown to bring a variety of bene ts:
O cials in some Williamson County cities have said data centers provide large amounts of tax rev- enue for the city, school district and other taxing entities within a relatively small footprint. The proposed Round Rock Skybox would be equivalent to about 500 homes of property tax revenue, city sta said. Data centers also require low cost of city services, such as police and re. “On a per-acre basis, it’s tough to nd some- thing that provides more value to the city and to the general fund than a data center,” said Bradley Dushkin, Round Rock’s planning and development services director. Earp said high-value properties such as data centers, which utilize expensive servers taxed as business property, can fund local e orts and posi- tively impact tax rates. However, he also said how much revenue the city receives from commercial versus residential properties can uctuate. In Hutto, the value of a single data center building could represent around 20% of the entire
As for the future of Skybox, Round Rock City Council took up the rezoning request Feb. 12, after press time. Should the request be denied, property owner Zydeco Development con rmed plans to build a 385,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center on the site. “I think there’s just a lack of understanding that the site has been zoned for this for a while, but development is coming,” Strader said. “You have the opportunity to shut down a data center project if we don’t get the vote of the City Council, but industrial development is by right.” In the Austin metro, work continues on two Blueprint data centers in Georgetown and Taylor, and Riot Platforms is building one at the former Alcoa facility in Rockdale.
1 data center is equal to:
10 homes
500 homes in property tax revenue
100 homes worth of land
15 homes worth of city services
SOURCE: CITY OF ROUND ROCK COMMUNITY IMPACT
property value, Earp said. Regarding resident concerns, Round Rock sta said data centers haven’t been shown to produce water contaminants and that Skybox would fund electric improvements and the power needed.
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