Fort Worth Council Members Call for Data Center Moratorium

A slate of Fort Worth City Council members are calling for a moratorium on data center developments within the city limits.

Council members Carlos Flores, Mia Hall, Chris Nettles, Elizabeth Beck and Jeanette Martinez signed a letter July 9, marking the latest in a series of Texas local governments pushing back against the data center gold rush across the state.

The letter said the facilities’ construction and operations raise questions about its effect on the environment, strain on the power grid and noise in neighborhoods, according to the Dallas Business Journal. However, the letter did note that data centers are becoming increasingly crucial to the economy, and provide cloud computing and other digital services.

The five city council members call for more debate and clarifications on what, exactly, should be regulated with future data center developments. In Fort Worth there is only one data center currently under production within city limits, but there are four proposed projects waiting for approval, according to the publication. Two more approvals for data centers in Fort Worth’s extraterritorial jurisdiction are also on their desk.

The uproar in Texas about new data center developments, no matter what they’re used for, has reached the ears of the state’s highest offices. Gov. Greg Abbott called for a ban on rural data center developments during a campaign stop, and formally recommended blanket regulations on all Texas data center developments last month.

San Marcos became the first city in the state to formally ban data center developments in city limits in late June. Previous attempts at banning the development of data centers have come at the county level, and all of them have balked under the weight of imminent legal challenge. Cities of San Marcos’ size can use “home rule” powers to enforce their own zoning codes, effectively denying any data center development. Across the state, eyes are on the city, and whether its attempt to block the developments survives the legal storm that’s sure to come.

— Hunter Cooke