A planned $10 million data center in southeast Fort Worth is moving forward with additional site plan changes despite ongoing opposition from residents.
Black Mountain Energy’s proposed 187-acre data center, to be built with concrete, glass and metal materials, is planned for 3760, 3816, 3850, 3900, 3930, 3950, 4050, 4700 and 4712 Lon Stephenson Road and 7500 Anglin Drive.
The Fort Worth Zoning Commission approved zoning changes that include signage and a site plan at its April 8 meeting. The City Council is expected to vote on the data center in June.
In March, the council voted to table a request for additional rezoning to add 80 more acres to the project. The company requested the delay so it could complete a report describing how the data center campus would impact the city’s infrastructure, Bob Riley, a consultant with engineering firm Halff, previously said at a March 12 meeting with residents.
With more than 450 acres rezoned from agricultural land to light industrial for the project, it would stretch from just south of Esco Drive to Anglin Circle. The data center would be near homes and local businesses, including Weston Gardens, as it is sandwiched between Forest Hill and Kennedale.
Officials said the data center’s building height will be increased from 55 feet to 70 feet to accommodate two levels of data center hardware. The revision will decrease the footprint of the building by 50% to allow a more campus-like setting.
The building setback on the southern border along Lon Stephenson Road will change from 80 feet to 150 feet. A proposed 980-megawatt electrical substation on the site would provide power to the data center only.
Rhett Bennett, executive chairman and CEO of Black Mountain Energy, said the increased setback makes up for the higher building heights.
“It looks better,” he said.
Site plan improvements would be altered to conform with city forestry, landscape, lighting, noise and signage regulations. City staff noted that the plan still needs the locations of generators and refuse containers and the type of needed security fencing, among the criteria.
The project’s developers are required to obtain permits, including those on air quality, from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state agency that enforces environmental regulations, in order to move forward with the project.
Letitia Wilbourn, an activist in Fort Worth’s Echo Heights neighborhood, told zoning commissioners that the development should have never been approved since it adds to pollution near a city landfill. Additionally, she said, Fort Worth has no policies or rules to regulate data centers.
“This should have never been approved at any level to begin with,” she said. “You have two gigantic polluters, a 13 million-square-foot landfill that produces methane, and then they have over 100 million square feet of a data center, which also creates pollution, and they add to each other.”
The area is highly polluted, has high cancer rates and low life expectancy, she said.
Jackson Weston, whose family operates Weston Gardens, opposed the center since residents have never heard from the data center’s operating partner, despite promises from Black Mountain.
“This has not happened yet,” he said.
Other residents also worried about power, water, pollution, noise, traffic and the loss of agricultural land to the data center.
Commissioners also had questions, including whether the data center would draw power away from the nearby neighborhood.
Bennett said the data center would not have an advantage if power transmission was disrupted because of weather events. The data center would aid in maintaining facets of modern life, including streaming TV shows on online platforms, he said.
Regarding health risks, Bennett said he didn’t believe there would be any.
Data centers would likely limit their water consumption through the use of a closed-loop system that recycles some water, Bennett said.
“They want to coexist peacefully” with neighbors, he said.
Commissioner Fredrick Robinson urged Black Mountain executives to have another meeting with residents.
“They’re not seeing comfort in it,” he said.
Arlington Heights project denied
An office building and four adjacent townhomes proposed at 3608 and 3612 Dexter Ave. was recommended for denial by zoning commissioners.
Developers sought to change the site’s zoning from two-family residential to neighborhood commercial restricted.
Shanna Cisneros, vice president of the Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association, said the proposed development just off Montgomery Street would encroach into the neighborhood.
“We want people living here, not more businesses,” she said.
Teresa McGee, a Texas Survey and Engineering Inc. representative, said the project would help clean up that part of the neighborhood.
Other zoning cases
Zoning commissioners also approved several other cases.
A temporary gravel parking lot is planned for the Fort Worth Stockyards after the zoning commission approved a conditional use permit to allow construction.
The lot will be built at 660 Union Stockyards Blvd. — the site of a proposed hotel.
The temporary parking lot will be in place for three years. The site will have pipe rail fencing, solar lighting, dust protection, trash bins and on-site management, a representative for applicant Stockyards Hotel LLC told commissioners.
The Stockyards parking lot will be considered by the City Council on April 28.
Commissioners also decided on a nearly 53-acre unzoned tract at 11091 Chapin Road. That site was recommended for light industrial zoning by commissioners.
Representatives for Marys Creek Ventures LLC said a warehouse is planned in the future but no additional details have been decided. The area would have access from Interstate 30 and not impact a nearby neighborhood.
Elaine Wagner, a representative of the Tarrant County neighborhood, said homeowners were concerned about the potential development.
Another neighborhood project was also approved. Commissioners supported rezoning a nearly 6-acre agricultural tract in the Trinity Lakes neighborhood for potential development in the 8900 block of River Trails Boulevard.
Commissioner Charles Edmonds said the property had drainage problems in the past.
A representative of Neltex Facilities Management LLC said homes would not be built in a nearby floodplain and would take action to mitigate flooding issues for the area.
Eric E. Garcia is senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
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