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In This Issue:
 The Data Center Fight Continues: Town Hall Thursday, Feb 12 On February 4, 2026, Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra issued an open letter urging all municipalities and water suppliers in Hays County to immediately implement Stage 4 drought restrictions and halt new large-scale industrial water permits. This plea should sound the alarm about the urgent water challenges for Central Texas. And particularly for San Marcos and Hays County, who have become a major target for new data center developments, with as many as a half-dozen data centers planned or under construction. Individually, a single, large-scale data center can run through millions of gallons of water annually just to keep the servers from melting. Collectively, these data centers and the energy generation they require pose a significant, unforeseen strain on water resources that neither local nor state water planning accounted for. The San Marcos community has some difficult decisions ahead and is coming together for a town hall discussion. Join the discussion tomorrow, Thursday February 12th at 6pm in San Marcos at the VFW (1701 Hunter Rd). Robin Rather, longtime local environmentalist and water champion, has graciously agreed to moderate a community Town Hall featuring experts in environmental law, water resources, power grids, AI, surveillance, and local history. OTHER WAYS TO JOIN THE FIGHT: Add your voice to the public pressure campaign to contact the Crystal Clear Special Utility District and the San Marcos City Council. Created by our friends at the Data Center Action Coalition, this campaign puts the power of the pen to work and provides clear ways to contact local utility leaders and elected officials to push back against water-guzzling data center proposals right away. Your voice helps ensure officials prioritize residents, uphold drought protections, and reject unnecessary, water-intensive industrial projects. One action takes less than five minutes. There is also a petition demanding that leaders uphold existing commitments to regional water and land use plans, and it calls for an indefinite halt on all data center permits, rezoning, and project approvals in the area. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? The Mayberry/CyrusOne data center rezoning request has faced significant public opposition through multiple rounds of review, with two major upcoming City Council meetings now potentially determining its fate. Here are the important upcoming dates to show up and speak out:
The proliferation of data centers in Central Texas represents a direct threat to our water security during a historic drought. Your informed and sustained action is the only effective counter to the lack of policies in place. To stay current with decisive meetings, legal developments, and strategic actions, follow @data.center.action.coalition and @saveoursprings on Instagram. There is no single right action or way to show up. Thank you for joining the fight and inspiring others!  Big win, big loss, and next up! The big loss, as you may have heard, came from an adverse ruling late Friday in the Austin United PAC's lawsuit to force an election on the new Austin convention center and redirect much of the funding to cultural and outdoor investments that benefit both visitors and locals. District Judge Jessica Mangrum denied the request to order the initiative petition certified for a public vote. SOS attorneys represent the AUPAC in the case. Yesterday, AUPAC sought emergency relief from the Texas Supreme Court in the matter. The Court has complete discretion to accept the action on an expedited basis or not. If the Court does not act quickly, the legal questions will become whether the petition will be placed on a city ballot in November. More on this soon. Meanwhile, watch The Magic Hole to learn—or be reminded—why this issue is so important to the future of Austin. On the flip side, last Wednesday's Austin's Historic Landmark Commission (HLC) meeting presented one of the most remarkable and impressive displays of public service in memory. The entire commission, led by long-time Chair and architect Ben Heimseith, refused to be silenced by City of Austin Staff, City consultants or, indirectly, by a City Council that has little interest in hearing from appointed advisory commission members not eager to toe the party line. It's worth watching on the City's meeting video here. Click on the video index Item 8 just below the screen. If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, fast forward the video to the 2:32.55 time-mark to see Bill Bunch, UT Architecture Professor David Heymann, and Barton Hills NA leader Worthy LaFollette speaking and answering questions from the Commissioners. In short, the City Council voted in 2023 to move forward in demolition of the historic Zilker Bridge over Barton Creek. This 2023 City Council vote took place without any HLC input on this historic bridge and entryway to Zilker Park. It also took place with a rigged and hidden-from-the-public analysis saying a tear down and replacement would be much cheaper than taking care of this historic treasure. If you've ever walked, run, paddled, or swam under the bridge, viewed it from the Lady Bird Lake trail, or photographed its beautiful arches reflecting on the surface of Barton Creek, you know this bridge. And you know it's something that should be protected, for centuries, like bridges all over Europe and the US as well. We'll provide more details soon, but if you have time watch the video, and you love this bridge, park, and creek environment that it has occupied for 100 years, mark your calendar and plan to attend the HLC's next meeting on Wednesday March 4 at City Council chambers. Like the 2023 Zilker Park Plan, and the new convention center, many folks assumed the destruction of this bridge was a "done deal," with the money already being counted. It's not. Somehow (you might guess) the 2022 estimate of $10.2 million for the tear down and replacement with a giant, ugly highway bridge option was $10.2 million. Now the cost is $54.5 million and available funds for the project are $14.5 million short. The $54.5 million dollar question: Will our Prop Q chastised Mayor and City Council, now committed to "fiscal accountability" reexamine the bait-and-switch game played here by the City's contractors and go back to saving this treasure, or will they keep going and decide that $54.5 million to destroy this treasure is somehow being fiscally accountable? At Barton Springs: The city just announced that Barton Springs would close early, on February 23, for the annual spring cleaning. Normally the pool is closed for the first two weeks in March, opening for spring break. This year the City needs to perform some repairs at the pool and is scheduling this extra week of closure for the work, opening again on March 14th. Read the full announcement here. (A letter from Bill Bunch, Executive Director of SOS)
Phew! Lots going on. Please try to find one small way to show up, whether you speak at San Marcos City Hall, print a protest shirt, check out the Carver museum programming, journey into Barton Creek with us, or just read these emails and share, we are grateful. You are why any of this is possible.
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