TEXAS — As more data centers come to Texas, tensions are rising between communities opposed to these projects and elected officials. As the state continues to assess concerns surrounding data centers, a few cities with grassroots movements are collecting signatures for the recall process.
The controversy around data centers has led to communities now trying to recall elected officials. From cities like Granbury to Temple, people have been collecting signatures with the hopes of removing people from office.
The Central Texas-based group Temple Stands Together was formed in response to concerns about data centers coming into the community.
“My main concerns are taking up our land, also what the water that they’re going to consume, as well as the heat that they can output,” said Carly Byrd, a board member of Temple Stands Together.
Meta recently celebrated the grand opening of its Temple data center in July, the company’s newest center in Texas to come online. Temple Mayor Tim Davis was at the recent event and shared his excitement about the project.
“I want to thank Meta for what you’ve done here and what we will continue to do from this facility,” Davis said. “It means the world to me.”
The Meta and Rowan Digital Infrastructure projects make up two of the largest data centers in Temple. The mayor’s support for them has landed him in some hot water with residents who oppose these kinds of projects, so much so that Temple Stands Together is taking steps to have him removed from his position.
“It’s more than the data centers,” Byrd said. “It’s accountability and transparency as well.”
Signatures are being collected to change two amendments to the city’s charter.
“One is to change the recall rules so instead of being 30% of all the voters in Temple, whether they’ve ever voted or not, we’re going to change that to 50% of the people who voted in the last election for that office,” said Joe Royer, the president of Temple Stands Together.
The other charter amendment is to change how term limits are implemented.
Temple isn’t the only Texas city with residents attempting to remove elected officials over data center concerns. Granbury residents have collected signatures for recall petitions to remove their mayor and all but one of their City Council members.
“People were dissatisfied with the level of transparency we were seeing from the city officials, the City Council, city attorney, city manager,” said Jacob Herbold, a Hood County resident.
More than 1,300 signatures needed to be collected for each petition with volunteers mostly going door-to-door to achieve this.
“Over the course of I think two or three months probably, that group of 26 people went out and we got 1,500 signatures per council member and for the mayor, and so it was a massive effort,” said Daniel Piatt, a Granbury resident.
In Temple, ultimately there weren’t enough signatures collected to put the two charter amendments on November’s ballot, but their fight isn’t over.
“We’re still going to keep finishing the signatures, and it will go on the ballot in the spring instead,” Royer said.
If Temple residents vote in favor of changing the city charter’s recall rules in the spring, that could pave the way for the eventual removal of city officials.