BY BROOKE SJOBERG
The local impact
What to expect
Data center comparisons Round Rock officials said data centers have been shown to bring a variety of benefits:
Round Rock officials said in December that the data center model provides large amounts of prop- erty tax revenue to benefit operations of the city, school district and other taxing entities within a relatively small footprint. The proposed site for Skybox would be equivalent to about 100 homes of property tax revenue, city staff said. Data centers also require low cost of city services, staff said, such as police and fire. “On a per-acre basis, it’s tough to find 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. Mayor Craig Morgan also said the city’s level of valuable commercial property means city tax rev- enue is largely supported by such development. This keeps taxes lower for homeowners, he said. “93% of our properties are residential; 7% is com- mercial,” Morgan said. “Almost 48% of [property] tax revenue comes from those big companies.”
As for the future of Skybox, Round Rock City Council will take up the rezoning request again Feb. 22. Should the request be denied, property owner Zydeco Development confirmed that plans are in place to build a 385,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center on the site, which is zoned for light industrial use. “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.”
10 homes
1 data center is equal to:
500 homes in property tax revenue
100 homes worth of land
15 homes worth of city services
SOURCE: CITY OF ROUND ROCK/COMMUNITY IMPACT
Regarding resident concerns, staff said existing data centers have not been shown to produce water contaminants and that Skybox will be required to pay for any electric improvements and the full load of power needed, per state law.
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