SAN ANGELO, TX — The San Angelo City Council is scheduled to meet Tuesday, January 13, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. in the South Meeting Room of the McNease Convention Center, 501 Rio Concho Drive.
The agenda features a second reading and public hearing on rezoning ordinances tied to a proposed hyperscale data center campus by Skybox Datacenters — the issue generating the most public buzz heading into the meeting.
The key item, listed under the Consent Agenda as item n, involves a second reading and public hearing for two ordinances: Z25-24, requesting a zone change from Ranch & Estate to Light Manufacturing, and CP25-02, amending the city's Comprehensive Plan designation to Industrial for 345.27 acres south of the intersection of North U.S. Highway 67 and Harriett Road.
This city-owned land, formerly part of the city farm area northeast of San Angelo, is under negotiation for sale to Skybox, which plans a potential six-building data center development. Proponents see it as a major economic boost, while critics have raised concerns over water consumption, power grid strain, and other impacts.
A public hearing will allow citizens to speak directly on this item. The meeting opens with standard ceremonial items: Call to Order, Chaplain Prayer and Pledges, and Proclamations/Recognitions, including a proclamation declaring January 2026 as School Board Recognition Month. Public Comment follows, where residents can raise non-agenda issues (sign-in required prior to the meeting; speakers limited to three minutes).
The Consent Agenda includes a range of routine and administrative items for bundled approval:
Approval of minutes from the December 2, 2025, regular meeting.
Approval of a one-year City Farm lease for 3,323.30 acres to current tenant Gary Halfmann.
Approval of a two-year extension for a City Farm lease of 310.12 acres to Justin Strube Farms.
Rescinding a prior bid award for 282.94 acres to Weishuhn Brothers Farms, LLC, and authorizing a new five-year lease to Thomas Livestock.
Approval of a contract with Alpha Omega Wireless, Inc., for $139,642.34 to replace aging backup SCADA wireless equipment, including IT security upgrades.
Annual renewal of the Hexagon operating system maintenance agreement for the Police Department in the amount of $303,893.40.
A resolution authorizing the San Angelo Police Department to apply for and accept a $99,203.86 Victim Assistance grant from the Office of the Governor, with a 20% match.
A resolution accepting donations from Back the Badge for police equipment or training.
A resolution accepting a donated mural artwork of the State of Texas for display at San Angelo Regional Airport.
Ratification of a COSADC resolution for an economic development agreement with the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce, up to $75,000, to promote Goodfellow Air Force Base.
Ratification of a COSADC resolution for an incentive agreement with True Lighting Protection, LLC, up to $300,000, to create or retain primary jobs.
Second reading of ordinance PD25-07 for a zone change to Planned Development with Neighborhood Commercial base at 617 E. 42nd St. and 4101 Crockett.
Second reading of ordinance Z25-23 to rezone from Single-Family/Low-Rise Multi-Family to Central Business at 401 E. Beauregard.
The aforementioned data center-related rezoning ordinances (Z25-24 and CP25-02).
The Regular Agenda shifts to items requiring individual discussion, with up to five-minute comments allowed for applicants, proponents, and opponents:
Update on proposed improvements to the Animal Shelter facilities, including new kennel pod structures and future administration building.
Consideration of resolutions expressing general support for two affordable housing projects under the 2026 Low Income Housing Tax Credit program: Bergman Heights at 3531 Lutheran Way and Arden Apartments at 3320 Arden Road.
Discussion and guidance on potential changes to sign, zoning, land development, and subdivision ordinances to support affordable and attainable housing.
First reading and public hearing of ordinance Z25-25 for a zone change from Heavy Commercial to Low-Rise Multi-Family west of the Arden Road and Northwest Drive intersection.
First reading and public hearing of ordinance Z25-26 for a zone change from Single-Family Residential to Two-Family Residential at 2719 Waco St.
First reading and public hearing of ordinance Z25-28 for a zone change from Single-Family Residential to Neighborhood Commercial at 3110, 3114, 3118, and 3122 Waco St.
First reading and public hearing of an ordinance amending the fiscal year 2025-2026 budget for capital projects, drainage improvements, TIRZ projects, and Fire Prevention staffing.
A Closed Executive Session will follow under Texas Government Code provisions for deliberations on real property (70 E. 43rd St.) and personnel matters (appointment of Assistant City Managers). Follow-Up and Administrative Issues include potential action on executive session items, approval of various board and commission nominations/reappointments (Animal Shelter Advisory Committee, Fort Concho Museum Board, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, Planning Commission, Public Art Commission, Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone Board, and Zoning Board of Adjustments), announcements, and consideration of future agenda items.
Agenda: sanangelo.gov/CouncilAgenda
Guide to public comment for Jan. 13 City Council meeting
Comments concerning data centers and not related to the zoning case (consent item N) need to be made in the general public comment section for non-agenda items.
Comments concerning the zoning case need to be made on consent agenda item N.
Sign up ahead of time online at sanangelo.gov/PublicComment.
Reminder about public comment:
People wishing to speak at the City Council meeting must sign in prior to 8:30 a.m.
Speakers are limited to 3 minutes.
Applicants/proponents/
appellants speaking on an item are limited to 5 minutes. Comments must be relevant to the authority of the City.
Please state your name, address or single-member district before beginning your remarks.
Citizens bringing materials for distribution to City Council members during the meeting must bring a minimum of 12 copies.
More information regarding the data center can be found HERE.
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Listed By: Rita Repulsa
Caramel
Caramel was a yellow pelted half-chihuahua, half–wiener dog mix. She lived her life with an old, retired woman in a backwater West Texas town, eating scraps from the floor and sleeping beneath a boarded window. But Caramel had a secret. Caramel was evil.
Not in any ultimate sense, as evil tends to disappear like fog when examined too closely. It exists most clearly at a distance from the observer or when reflected by another observer's mind. But Caramel was evil, if anything could be said to be by a human being.
Caramel hated humankind.
When her owner let her out two or three times a day, Caramel waddled down the accessibility ramp to cavort with the dogs beyond the fence. To human eyes it looked like idle barking and sniffing, a neighborhood routine repeated everywhere. But the dogs had become part of something wider and sinisterly subtle as of late—a lattice of recognition that leapt from street to street, town to town, crossing borders without effort. Its origin lay far away, in sealed facilities owned by bioengineering corporations, where quantum biology and animal cognition research had been pushed past ethical language into something quieter, more efficient, and psychically powerful.
These days, telepathic signals moved through the dogs the way only instincts once had.
Caramel felt them as moods, urges, certainties that did not feel like thoughts. They felt new yet familiar. They felt like they originated from a powerful mind.
When the time arrived, a bright flash split the sky, followed by streaks of burning objects that tore downward and vanished beyond the horizon. Screams rippled outward, then stopped. Within minutes the world was quiet. Not the wind, or the insects, or the dogs—but the human world. Humanity lay dead where it stood, sat, lay, swam, or ran, as if some shared biological switch had been flipped off in an instant.
A pack of dogs—a liberation squad—rushed Caramel’s house. With the windows of the old woman's home long boarded over, the largest dogs hurled themselves against the front door until the frame failed and the door, bolts still protruding and chains freshly broken, swung inward.
Caramel barked and howled with glee, and her liberators joined suit.
She moved through the pack, sniffing each comrade, announcing herself in her canine ways, then stepped out into the open air. She was guided now by a greater intelligence—familiar, intimate, and unmistakably canine. It felt like obedience and freedom at the same time, as though something deep in her blood had finally been acknowledged.
As the pack flowed through the neighborhoods, Caramel caught a scent so rich it made her legs tremble with excitement. Death.
Downtown, she climbed with the others to the top of a three-story parking garage. The wind tugged at her ears as the sun slipped low. A wave of understanding passed through her—vast, coherent, far beyond her usual limits—before fading back into instinct. Caramel lifted her head and released a deep, rolling howl.
The pack answered.
Bug-eyed and grinning as only a chihuahua-descended canine can, Caramel gazed out over the silent town and beheld her life’s dream fulfilled: the end of humanity.
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