ALVIN — A proposed technology mega-project that sparked intense utility and infrastructure concerns among Alvin leadership and residents alike, has officially shifted its search away from the community, KGTX 7 News has learned.
The initial site evaluation inquiry, which was quietly shopped to local officials via the Greater Houston Partnership, evaluated a 100-to-200-acre data center facility just outside Alvin city limits in its Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ).
However, following a wave of unified opposition from municipal leaders over the project’s massive utility footprints, the developer has removed the Alvin location from its list of potential sites.
Duplicating the Town’s Grid Demands
Early site details revealed the massive scale of the proposed data center, prompting immediate pushback from City Hall. According to data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the entire city of Alvin consumes roughly 195 megawatts of electricity daily. The mystery technology developer requested an initial power load of 200 megawatts, with plans to eventually scale the facility up to a massive 1 gigawatt.
The regulatory framework surrounding the local power grid added to the urgency for city leaders. Texas-New Mexico Power (TNMP), the primary electric utility for the municipality, confirmed to KGTX 7 News that while they cannot comment on specific customer proposals, transmission and distribution utilities are bound by a strict legal “obligation to serve.”
By law, utilities must evaluate and respond to all service requests and do not possess the authority to selectively deny service to high-load corporate projects.
Threats to the Shared Aquifer and Local Infrastructure
Beyond electrical grid stability, local leaders discovered severe conflicts between a large-scale data center and Alvin’s long-term economic development goals. The city is currently undertaking a $100 million expansion of its wastewater infrastructure to raise capacity from 5 million to 7 million gallons of wastewater per day.
In an exclusive on-camera interview with KGTX 7 News, Alvin At-Large City Councilman Scott Salter explained that the multi-million dollar expansion calculations only accounted for stair-stepped residential and standard commercial growth—not the heavy industrial discharge of a data infrastructure giant.
Water availability posed an even greater risk to surrounding rural neighbors.
“We all draw on the same aquifer in Brazoria County, so massive consumption of any size will impact neighboring cities,” Councilman Salter said. “If you have a facility that comes in that draws 100,000 gallons or 300,000 gallons a day, that can put strain… residents in a few years may have to dig their well deeper, and the resident would have to foot the bill.”
A Unified Front and Next Steps
Because Alvin does not maintain traditional municipal zoning laws, city leaders initially feared they would lack the direct enforcement mechanism to stop a developer from building in the unzoned ETJ corridor near the upcoming Grand Parkway expansion.
To create a legislative barrier, Alvin Mayor Gabe Adame placed a formal resolution on the upcoming Thursday, June 4 City Council agenda that will officially declare the city’s opposition to data center construction within municipal boundaries.
While Councilman Salter confirmed the developer has officially crossed Alvin off its evaluation list, city leaders still plan to vote on the resolution next week to solidify their legal stance against unregulated industrial data growth.
“We want our community to know that we are only going to focus on outcomes for our residents,” Salter stated. “We are not interested in heavy loaded incentives for corporations or industrial companies… because we want to focus on the outcome of our residents and that quality of life improving.”
Regional Impacts
The Greater Houston Partnership, which facilitated the initial communication, provided a statement to KGTX 7 News clarifying its role in regional economic development.
“The Partnership’s role is to facilitate information-sharing between prospective projects and regional partners during the early stages of the site selection process,” said Brina Morales, Senior Director of Communications for the Partnership. “Communities independently determine whether they would like to pursue or respond to a specific opportunity.”
While the immediate threat to Alvin’s infrastructure has passed, the project may still land within the region. Brazoria County Precinct 3 Commissioner Stacy Adams confirmed to KGTX 7 News that while no active permits or tax abatement applications have been filed for this project at the county level, the Commissioners Court has already established a strict precedent, having turned away two separate data center tax abatement applications elsewhere in Brazoria County earlier this year.
KGTX 7 News will provide live updates from the Alvin City Council chambers when the formal resolution is brought to a vote on Thursday, June 4.
Stephen Bernardoni
