Fort Worth City Hall.
Amanda McCoy
amccoy@star-telegram.com
As the city of Fort Worth prepares to weigh a potential moratorium on new data center developments, city council member Jeanette Martinez is calling for the creation of a data center task force.
Martinez announced the request in a July 28 news release, saying that she has “officially requested for the creation of an independent, community-focused Data Center Task Force to keep the public’s interest at the forefront of the discussion surrounding these facilities.”
The creation of the task force would run in tandem with the process of instituting a potential moratorium, Martinez explained to a person who commented on a social media post about the request.
The task force, Martinez said, would be led by “dedicated community members and subject-matter experts.”
A city spokesperson declined to comment until the council’s Aug. 4 meetings.
Martinez did not return a request for comment Wednesday.
Fort Worth City Attorney Leann Guzman said that the city “does not have an answer to that question yet” on the next steps for the task force’s creation, or whether it will be on the agenda for the council’s meeting in August.
At its meeting on Aug. 11, the city council is expected to weigh whether to begin the legal process of instituting a city-level moratorium on new data center developments.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Emily Holshouser is a local news reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.