League City could soon require City Council approval before any new data center breaks ground.

The council next month will consider an ordinance requiring companies to obtain a special-use permit for data centers, giving elected officials the power to approve or deny construction. Under current rules, a company can build a data center on any commercially zoned land without city sign-off.

"If you were to buy a piece of commercial land, you could put a data center there by right," Mayor Nick Long said Monday, Sept. 28, as first reported by the Galveston County Daily News. "There's nothing we could do about it right now."

Long said there is reason to believe companies are eyeing League City for data center development. The proposed ordinance would let the city set conditions on any approved facility, including location, building size, noise limits, water and electricity use, landscaping and decommissioning plans.

The council would retain veto power even if an applicant met every condition. Tax breaks are off the table, Long said.

The ordinance is scheduled to go before the Planning and Zoning Commission at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, and the City Council at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27. Both meetings will be held in the council chambers at 200 W. Walker St. Residents can attend either session to weigh in.

State permit halt adds context

The local push comes amid a statewide reckoning over data center growth. Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday, Sept. 21, directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to halt all data center permits until the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) completes an audit of proposed projects, ABC 13 reported.

Abbott's guidelines require data centers to cover their own electrical infrastructure costs, avoid drawing water needed by local communities, and report electricity and water usage.

Separately, the Texas Attorney General's Office was investigating hundreds of data center developments as of Thursday, Sept. 24, after they failed to respond to a water-usage survey from the Texas Water Development Board, according to CW39.

Water use and growth statewide

Some data centers use millions of gallons of water daily to cool servers through evaporative systems, according to KPRC 2. A Houston-area survey found 63% of respondents opposed having a data center within one mile of their home.

Texas ranked second only to Virginia in data centers as of early 2026, with 296 operating facilities and 170 more planned, according to a Pew Research Center analysis cited by the Galveston County Daily News. Texas and Virginia also saw the largest increases in commercial energy demand between 2019 and 2025, much of it attributed to data centers by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

One data center already operates in Galveston County: a cryptocurrency mining facility owned by Miami-based Dataprana at 4995 FM 1764 in La Marque, which began operations in 2025. Other Texas cities, including Lewisville and Wylie, have already adopted special-use permit requirements for some data center projects.

No vote date or effective date beyond the Oct. 27 council meeting has been announced.