How regional governments determine which aspects of data centers are the most important to locally regulate is a major question for lawmakers to consider heading into the legislative session beginning in January, said Tarrant County commissioner Matt Krause.
“We understand the state’s going to have to speak to the data center issue,” Krause said. “But leave a lot of regulation — of what it looks like, how it functions in each and every one of our localities — to the local government.”
He pointed to the fracking ban Denton officials enacted in 2014 that quickly led to a clash between the city and state officials. The state sued, alleging the prohibition was “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable,” according to a report from The Texas Tribune.
This was one of the areas of data center regulation Krause spoke to Thursday in the first of the three panels at the Fort Worth Report 2026 Growth Summit. On that panel, Krause was joined by Fort Worth City Council member Elizabeth Beck and Public Citizen Texas director Adrian Shelley.
Fort Worth City Council member Elizabeth Beck speaks during the Fort Worth Report Looking Forward: 2026 Growth Summit event on Oct. 22. (Elvis Martinez-Cartagena | Fort Worth Report)
Beck, who’s served on the Fort Worth City Council since 2021, emphasized the importance of local control. She explained that Fort Worth is a home-rule city, meaning city leaders can adopt any regulation the state hasn’t explicitly prohibited local governments from adopting.
Beck said she believes business incentives for data centers in Fort Worth need to be taken off the table.
“(Data centers) are not hurting for funds,” Beck said. “I’m not a huge fan of incentives anyway. As the city of Fort Worth, we have to be very careful with those.”
Areas of data centers that the state is solely authorized to regulate include water supply and planning, air quality, energy and state sales taxes.
“I’d like to make sure that the state handles all of the things that they explicitly have to regulate and watch,” Beck said.
Local leaders have also disagreed on whether the city should pass regulations now, amid the data center development boom, or wait for the legislature to develop statewide laws.
Tarrant County commissioner Matt Krause speaks during the Fort Worth Report Looking Forward: 2026 Growth Summit event on Oct. 22. (Elvis Martinez-Cartagena | Fort Worth Report)
Shelley, who’s worked with Public Citizen since 2017, said local officials should engage with residents to learn more about what they want to see out of the data center industry in the future and to “send the signal” to lawmakers.
Dozens of Texas counties have passed resolutions urging legislators to act in a timely manner as data centers proliferate across the state, Shelley said. Some county officials have tested the limits of their authority by proposing moratoriums and outright bans.
“Cities should be working up to the limits of their authority because, as I am seeing it, that’s what their constituents want,” Shelley said.
Krause disagreed. A veteran lawmaker of 10 years, Krause said local governments should take a “wait and see” approach while sending calls to lawmakers in Austin to act on data center regulation.
He cited the amount of time and resources it requires for local leaders to create regulations tailored for specific developments — such as data centers — as reasons to wait for legislative action first.
“You don’t want to put a lot of time … into constructing this entire framework on how to deal with data centers only for the state government to come in and say, ‘You can’t do that,’ Krause said.
A call from Tarrant County that has already been made to the legislature: doing away with data center tax abatements. However, Krause cautioned that incentives for other industries should not be entirely eliminated.
Beck disagreed with Krause’s recommendation.
“I trust the state government like I trust gas station sushi,” she said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
She said she was happy to see Gov. Greg Abbott’s audit of data centers and halt of environmental permitting for the hubs, but added unknowns still remain for data centers following the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
“I don’t want to put Fort Worth in the hands of people who we don’t know what they’re going to do,” Beck said.
Panelists also discussed the proposed Circle T data center in Westlake, bordering Keller, which has drawn criticism from residents and leaders of both cities.
Krause said local officials in a region should stay in touch with one another on data center questions.
When multiple cities are involved in a data center development, Krause said, he’d support an approach similar to the Regional Transportation Council — a body made up of North Texas officials who plan for long-term public transit.
“The more you communicate and have those open conversations with each other, the less you’re gonna have situations like we saw on Westlake and Keller,” Krause said.
Beck said the Westlake data center speaks to the need for amended laws on communicating with the public. Under Fort Worth code, residents living within 300 feet of a development seeking a zoning change must be notified by mail. But those laws do not apply to residents in nearby, or even bordering, cities.
“That’s something that needs to change in state law to make sure that we’re notifying all impacted residents, regardless of what municipality they live in,” Beck said.
Shelley agreed with both of the perspectives offered by Krause and Beck, adding that local officials should never be involved in signing nondisclosure agreements.
Data center developers should accurately inform surrounding communities on issues such as whether a center has its own power sources, Shelley urged.
“Transparency is of the utmost importance,” he said.
Nicole Lopez is the environment reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org.
The Report’s environment coverage is supported by the Marilyn Brachman Hoffman Foundation.
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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