A proposed data center in Brownsville is drawing strong opinions from residents and city leaders before any vote takes place.

An unidentified company asked the city for a special use permit to convert the former Southwest Key facility on Padre Island Highway near the Port of Brownsville into a data center. The city of Brownsville announced on social media Wednesday that the applicant withdrew the application from the upcoming planning and zoning agenda.

"As a result, the item has been canceled and will not be presented, discussed, or considered by the commission," the city said in a social media post.

Brownsville resident Hugo Izaguirre, whose family has lived in the area for generations, is against the proposal.

"I absolutely hate the idea of a data center being here," Izaguirre said.

He says the project raises serious concerns about the surrounding neighborhood.

"They're rife with pollution, the rising cost of water, the cost of electricity — all of those things are things that will be pushed back up to us," Izaguirre said.

When Channel 5 News first requested interviews with city officials after the permit request was announced, those requests went unanswered for more than a week.

Brownsville City Commissioner at-large Nurith Galonsky says the city wants to create a policy for data centers before any project moves forward.

"The city has decided that we want to create and adopt a policy on data centers as more and more data centers are looking to be created throughout the county, and Brownsville is gonna be looked at just like every other city in the country," Galonsky said.

Galonsky says the policy could include requirements on how much water and electricity a data center would need and whether facilities should be self-sufficient. She also wants the policy to address how close data centers should be to neighborhoods.

"I don't think it'll be a one time and you're done deal," Galonsky said. "This could be a few months, and even then I personally — and I'm sure my peers will also probably review this policy on a regular basis so that as we experience and we learn more about what it is to have a data center in our community we can adopt it." 

Izaguirre hopes more residents get involved in the conversation.

"I believe in the people of Brownsville, I feel like we have a chance to step up. The residents in Harlingen had their voices heard. We deserve to do the same thing," Izaguirre said.

The city is still hosting a public workshop on data centers Tuesday, Aug. 4, at 4 p.m. during the city commission meeting at Brownsville City Hall.