Developer Black Mountain is asking the Fort Worth City Council to approve rezoning of an additional 119 acres for inclusion in a development that includes a data center. The area is near Weston Gardens, bottom left, a family-owned botanical garden and event venue.
Amanda McCoy
amccoy@star-telegram.com
Black Mountain, the Fort Worth-based energy consortium planning a $10 billion data center in southeast Fort Worth, will return to City Hall on Aug. 25 to request approval of a site plan for the project — but new details have emerged about its potential scope.
Throughout 2026, Black Mountain’s data center has become a sticking point for residents and officials who are concerned about the growth of data centers in Fort Worth. More than 400 acres have been rezoned for the project, with a potential for over 500 acres.
In April, the zoning commission approved a 187-acre site plan at the corner of Lon Stephenson Road and Forest Hill Drive with four buildings, a maximum building height of 70 feet, and a maximum 150-foot setback from single family homes. A proposed substation on the site would deliver power to the data center only.
The amended site plan to be weighed by the city council on Tuesday includes the potential locations for generators with “noise reduction enclosures,” according to the site plan document.
The developer of the site is listed as Houston-based BCEI.
Black Mountain reviewed the initial site plan with residents at a meeting in March. The Fort Worth City Council was expected to review the site plan in May, but the item was removed from the agenda hours before the meeting.
Two additional rezoning cases for the data center have been continued to the City Council’s December meeting as residents have expressed concerns about the potential impacts of the data center.
Documents obtained by the Star-Telegram shed light on — and pose new questions — about the potential scale of the southeast Fort Worth data center development.
The Star-Telegram has previously reported that EdgeConneX, a Virginia-based data center developer, bought over 170 acres of land just south of Black Mountain’s planned data center site.
In May, according to documents obtained through a public records request, the city of Fort Worth met with the consulting firm Kimley-Horn to discuss “Project Ember,” a proposed data center project at 4401 Enon Road, spanning six buildings.
In May, consulting firm Kimley-Horn met with the city of Fort Worth to discuss “Project Ember,” a proposed six-building data center located just south of the site where Black Mountain has proposed its data center. Kimley-Horn
The meeting in May was a “pre-development conference” — a chance for developers to show city staff their plans for a development before they submit formal applications. They are not considered formal submittals of site plans, and they are not binding.
The Project Ember site plan closely aligns with the location of a 153-acre plat that was conditionally approved by the Fort Worth City Planning Commission in mid-August. They are both north of Enon Road, between Forest Hill Drive and Anglin Drive, just south of the location of Black Mountain’s proposed site plan. Black Mountain’s currently proposed site plan and Project Ember’s early site plan are separated by a neighborhood along Royal Crest Drive.
The Project Ember site plan is also similar to a general concept plan briefly shown by Bob Riley, a consultant for Halff Associates who has worked on behalf of Black Mountain, during the May 2025 zoning commission meeting. At that meeting, commissioners — and later the city council — approved the rezoning of 171 acres of land for the data center.
A representative from Kimley-Horn explained during the City Planning Commission meeting that the project was still undergoing studies before final approval.
Fort Worth City Council member Chris Nettles told the Star-Telegram on Aug. 21 that he was not aware of Project Ember, and he had not been given specifics about future phases for Black Mountain’s data center project.
Black Mountain’s data center is largely in Nettles’ council district.
“I haven’t been made aware of anything like that,” Nettles said.
The city of Fort Worth, a city spokesperson told the Star-Telegram, understands the data center to be a “multi-phase project,” but referred specifics to the developer.
Black Mountain did not respond to a request for comment or questions about the potential role of Project Ember in its plans. The company is not directly named in the Project Ember documents.
EdgeConneX did not respond to a request for comment or emailed questions. The developer’s website does not include the location in its list of data centers across the country.
Kimley-Horn did not respond to a request for comment.
Fort Worth is in the early stages of a potential moratorium on new data center developments, and a new committee has been established to discuss data centers.
Former staff writer Harrison Mantas contributed to this report.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Emily Holshouser is a local news reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.