City hosting final community meeting on data center policy framework

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The City of El Paso wrapped up its series of community meetings Wednesday as it gets public input for a Data Center Policy Framework.

El Paso City Council has a directive to get input from the community to create its policy framework for any potential new data centers brought to the city.

The city already signed contracts with Meta to bring a massive $10 billion facility to the Northeast, but it's working to create guidelines for more.

City Representative Josh Acevedo said that council needs actual data from the community so the can make a framework, rather than just the community telling them no.

"There might be more that are coming to us, and so we need to make sure that if that's going to happen, we have to have some sort of framework," said Acevedo. "But at the same time, even if we have a framework, I am not going to support any other data centers coming to El Paso."

Acevedo supported his constituents at the meeting, most of them against new data centers.

"They scare me," said Fred Evans, a Northeast El Paso resident.

Some residents at the meeting wished the meetings were framed differently, hoping for more of a conversation rather than just giving input.

"They're not talking to us right now. They're just reading post it notes," said a resident who wished to identify as Astrid. "They're not giving us information that they're listening to our concerns."