The Fort Worth City Council on Tuesday will hear a presentation from staff on data center regulations, amid community calls to halt the increasing number of supercomputer warehouses.
The presentation is anticipated to mark the starting point of more robust discussion among city staff and with the public, council member Michael Crain said in March.
Tuesday’s discussion is expected to focus on zoning, land use and standards around the technological hubs. Crain said the presentation will also provide information on resource usage, data centers statewide and how subsidies are considered for data centers.
The presentation comes as data center developers are flocking to Texas amid a rise in demand primarily driven by the expanding use of artificial intelligence.
Crain requested the report days before council members on March 31 delayed voting on whether to enter a 50% tax break agreement with Edged Data Centers for a 186-acre waterless facility project in a booming portion of west Fort Worth that Crain represents.
“There’s a lot of myth and misinformation out there about data centers,” Crain said. “I think we owe it to the residents of Fort Worth and, frankly, Tarrant County and the region to have a full picture.”
The Edged facility is one of at least four major data center campuses under development across the city.
The AI-focused corporation touts its facilities as ultra-efficient and sustainable. Edged has withdrawn its application for the tax break, but its plans to build in west Fort Worth are still on, despite continued residential pushback.
Residents have expressed concern around the massive amounts of land that data centers such as Edged’s claim, as well as the amount of energy and water that the centers have potential to use.
Some large data centers can consume as much as 5 million gallons a day — enough water to supply a town of between 10,000 and 50,000 people, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. The facilities can also require hundreds of megawatts of electricity. A single megawatt can power the average American home for over a month.
Possible noise pollution produced by the warehouses is another common concern for communities whose homes would neighbor the warehouses.
Crain said he hopes Tuesday’s presentation will help inform residents about the types of data centers being proposed for Fort Worth, which he believes are a good fit for the city and will bring economic benefits. He said new technology has allowed the warehouses to be built with a “closed loop system that uses far less water” than the amount many believe is inevitable.
Regarding concerns around noise pollution, Crain said he believes residents are confusing AI data centers with bitcoin mining and cryptocurrency centers, which have a reputation for constant loud hums. The data centers being developed in Fort Worth produce “somewhere in the neighborhood of a whisper,” he said.
Council member Michael Crain looks up at a screen during a presentation at the Fort Worth City Council work session on March 31, 2026. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
Both at public meetings and online, residents and grassroots activists have called for a moratorium on new construction of data centers in their backyards. Earlier this week, the local progressive group 817 Gather launched an online campaign to demand the halt to new projects.
That campaign gathered 14,432 signatures at the time of publishing.
The moratorium is a one-year pause on new data center construction in unincorporated areas because of concerns around public safety and health, according to The Associated Press.
“The time to act, to update our laws to keep up with new and changing industries is now, before irreparable damage is done to Fort Worth, its citizens and open spaces,” Benbrook resident Brenna Sestak said at the March 31 meeting, urging council members to vote against the Edged tax abatement.
An attendee holds a sign in opposition of M&C 26-0243 during a Fort Worth City Council meeting on March 31, 2026. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
This month, Hill County — a rural area about 56 miles south of Fort Worth — became the first county in the state to issue a moratorium on the rapid development of data centers.
Other local governments explored similar halts on data centers, but any that carry them through could face pushback in court, and in Austin.
On Wednesday, a data center developer filed a $100 million lawsuit against Hill County for their moratorium. At the state level, Gov. Greg Abbott has for months been bullish on drawing big tech to the state, calling Texas the “epicenter of AI development.”
In Hood County, commissioners voted down a proposed moratorium after state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R- Houston, called on Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate counties that halt data centers. Bettencourt said counties do not have the authority to impose such halts, according to The Associated Press.
Crain said he believes a “natural moratorium” is already happening on data centers, as each needs approval from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, before building. That approval process can take months, he said.
He noted that Fort Worth already has several operational data centers, with the oldest one being built in 2000. Those have not garnered residential complaints, he said.
Still, the council member said he’d be open to the city’s conversation with residents leading to some “guidelines and guardrails” for how the warehouses are developed. Other council members also appeared open to some additional regulation at the March 31 meeting.
“This is not something that’s going away,” council member Deborah Peoples said at the March 31 meeting. “What we have to do as a body is try to ensure we do it in the safest way and most profitable way for the citizens — and I don’t mean revenue, but what they can get out of it.”
Council members have approved Black Mountain’s rezoning of 450 acres of land for a planned $10 billion data center in southeast Fort Worth. That project hit a wall when the City Council delayed a vote in February to decide on Black Mountain’s request to rezone an additional 80 acres for the project.
A month later, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Black Mountain’s founder and CEO, Rhett Bennett, contributed a combined $46,000 to eight City Council members and Fort Worth’s mayor in 2025. Council members told reporters at the time that the funds did not influence their opinions on the project.
Other data center developments include one in the future Alliance Center North in far north Fort Worth, where Canadian electronics manufacturer Celestica Inc. recently confirmed plans to build a data center plant after receiving the city’s approval to enter a 10-year tax break.
Another developer is looking to build a smaller $100 million data center facility in north Fort Worth just east of Eagle Mountain Lake, according to state filings.
Environment reporter Nicole Lopez contributed to this report.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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