Correction: City Council will deliberate on the data center policy framework in the coming weeks. City Rep. Chris Canales placed a separate data center-related item on the May 26 meeting agenda.
No tax breaks or incentives for future data centers. That’s the basic recommendation from city staffers who in the coming weeks will present proposed policies to guide how the city should manage new data centers within its jurisdiction.
A nearly 40-page policy memo obtained by El Paso Matters proposes the city establish binding “community benefit agreements” rather than offer incentive deals. Other rules would require a minimum distance between data centers and residential neighborhoods or ecological sites, and also require data centers to obtain a new kind of permit that would require a public process and more oversight…