CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The motion directs staff to examine land use, zoning, setbacks, infrastructure needs, and potential development agreements before bringing recommendations back to council.
During public comment, residents asked the city to consider how large-scale facilities could impact water, power, infrastructure, and surrounding neighborhoods.
City Council At-Large Carolyn Vaughn said the council needs more information before moving forward.
"I'm not against data centers because I don't know enough about it. We need to get all the information before we go jumping the gun."
A resident who spoke during public comment said the focus should be on managing impacts.
"It's not about AI data centers. It's about the impacts that it has on our infrastructure, who's going to pay for them, how we manage them. I feel like healthy boundaries make good relationships."
City leaders say the goal is not to stop data center development, but to better understand how these facilities could impact the community before establishing local rules.
Mayor Paulette Guajardo said the city also wants to avoid conflicting with any state-level action.
"The right thing to do is to hold off and continue working proactively on what our policy would look like, but we obviously don't want to overstep if the state is going to create policy, which they are, or laws, then we are going to abide by those."
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.
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