Local leaders are aiming to limit the spread of data centers with new standards for the development of smaller facilities in Austin, and a complete ban on larger and more resource-intensive projects.

The details: City officials are gearing up for a review of data center development policy that could conclude by next spring. The process is the result of a recent council request intended to balance Austin's economic strategy with community values and well-being, given limited city oversight of data centers today.

New rules could restrict data centers to certain types of property, require a public permitting process for any individual projects to advance, or block them completely. Various site development standards would also be included, and city staff recommended setting performance standards to address data centers' noise, heat, light and water usage, and related civic enforcement.

Picnik temporarily closed on July 27 while the restaurant’s team prepared to launch a new concept, founder Naomi Seifter announced on social media. Now, Picnik is reopening with a new limited menu for a week-long soft opening. 

Picnik is now open for lunch and dinner service from 11 a.m.-8 p.m., according to an Instagram post. 

On the menu: After closing at the end of July, Seifter spent the following weeks building a restaurant that uses “nourishing, health-promoting food,” she shared online. The new Picnik will do so by offering one farm-to-table meal per day, cooked with the highest-quality ingredients that the restaurant can obtain. 

• 4801 Burnet Road, Austin

A data center in Cedar Creek, a new building for the Austin Community College Hays Campus and renovations at Liberal Arts and Science Academy are among the five most expensive projects filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation in the Austin metro this week.

1. EDCAUS ($700 million): A data center campus is being developed in Bastrop County.

2. Austin Community College - Hays Campus ($101 million): A three-story Health Sciences instructional building with classrooms, administrative offices, a testing center, vocational training, instructional spaces, and laboratories will be constructed at the Austin Community College Hays Campus.

3. LASA High School ($21.3 million): Renovations will take place at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin.

4. Bartlett's South ($4 million): A new location of Bartlett’s steakhouse is coming to Austin.

5. Smart Stop ($1.5 million): A new one-story convenience store and two future tenant spaces are coming to Pflugerville.

The Texas Department of Insurance must take action to promote competition and “prohibit excessive or unfairly discriminatory rate setting" in the state's homeowners insurance market, Gov. Greg Abbott said Aug. 24.

The background: Texans are paying the fourth-highest home insurance premiums in the nation, Community Impact previously reported. State data shows that the average Texas home insurance premium nearly doubled from $1,791 in 2016 to $3,506 in 2025.

The details: Abbott asked the TDI to prohibit insurers from using the age of a home and homeowners' personal data when setting rates; create a task force targeting insurance fraud; study the impact of inflated insurance claims; and require insurers to consider a homeowner's participation in a roof fortification program when writing policies.

Another perspective: "Under Greg Abbott, Texas has been one of the most expensive states in the country to own and maintain a home," Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic candidate for Texas governor, said in a statement. "If Abbott really wanted to lower costs, he would have done it in the last 12 years."