FORT WORTH, Texas — On Wednesday night, the CEO of Black Mountain, Rhett Bennett, held a private meeting with Fort Worth neighbors to discuss his plans for a data center. Spectrum News 1 was there, but filming was not allowed.
Because this was not a public meeting, developers also asked residents to put away signs that read “No Black Mountain.”
Recently, Black Mountain has requested about 80 acres of land in Southeast Fort Worth near Forest Hill. It’s split into two zoning items.
The data center is a $10 billion project set to cover more than 400 acres of land.
Developers say the project comprises four buildings of more than 1 million square feet. They said that the buildings will be 70 feet tall to preserve more land space.
The Fort Worth City Council has delayed a decision on rezoning the land for the data center so they can try to learn more about it.
It’s been a hot topic at council meetings, drawing concern about what it would mean for the city’s resources.
“Once land is rezoned and redeveloped at that scale, it permanently locks in industry in an area,” said one Fort Worth resident. “Data centers don’t operate like normal businesses; they run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Southeast Fort Worth is already carrying a heavy industrial burden; adding one of the largest data center developments in Texas here would only deepen that burden.”
According to property records, Black Mountain has also acquired more than 430 acres of land in San Antonio near State Highway 16 and Lone Star Pass, which could be turned into a data center as well. Spectrum News reached out to Black Mountain on Tuesday for comment but did not hear back.
These data centers would join more than 400 other sites in Texas. Nearly half of them, 181 to be exact, are located in North Texas.