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The developers behind a $10 billion data center coming to southeast Fort Worth held a meeting on March 11 to show residents in nearby Forest Hill the site plan for a portion of the project.<\/p>\n
Emily Holshouser<\/p>\n
The developers behind a $10 billion data center coming to southeast Fort Worth held a meeting on March 11 to show residents in nearby Forest Hill \u2014 which shares a border with some of the land that the city of Fort Worth has rezoned for the project \u2014 a site plan for a portion of the campus that was approved by the Fort Worth City Council in 2025.<\/p>\n
The site plan is for a 187-acre portion of the future campus for a data center that was initially approved by the Fort Worth City Council in 2025, located at the corner Lon Stephenson Road and Forest Hill Drive. The data center is being developed by the Fort Worth-based energy consortium Black Mountain.<\/p>\n
Presenting a site plan is a requirement for the developer to get a final stamp of approval from the Zoning Commission and the City Council.<\/p>\n
Black Mountain has successfully petitioned the city of Fort Worth to rezone more than 430 acres of land for its AI data center, with another roughly 80 acres\u2019 worth of land headed to Zoning Commission and the City Council later this year after council members pumped the brakes.<\/a><\/p>\n The data center will be in the city of Fort Worth, but it is directly next to the boundary with the nearby city of Forest Hill. Leaders there, and in nearby Kennedale, have said they want more transparency<\/a> from Black Mountain on how their cities will benefit from the development.<\/p>\n Wednesday\u2019s meeting was intended to be focused on that site plan, said Black Mountain CEO Rhett Bennett. Bennett was accompanied by Bob Riley, a consultant with Richardson-based Halff, who is working on behalf of Black Mountain. Videos were not allowed at the meeting, but photos were.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our opportunity to present what the site plan looks like, to socialize with the community,\u201d Bennett told the dozens of people sitting in a meeting room at a Best Western hotel. \u201cFeel free to ask me questions.\u201d<\/p>\n Residents did have questions about the site plan, but face-to-face with the developers \u2014 many of them for the first time \u2014 the meeting often became tense and emotional.<\/p>\n As Riley began to speak, residents began to hold up signs saying \u201cNo Black Mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPlease, no signs,\u201d Riley said. \u201cThis is a private meeting. It\u2019s not a city meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the course of the next hour, Bennett and Riley repeatedly tried to steer the conversation towards the site plan they were presenting.<\/p>\n Riley unveiled the details of the plan, which includes four buildings spanning more than one million square feet. The buildings would be 70 feet tall, an increase from the 55 feet that is included in the underlying zoning in the area, to preserve open space on the land. Additionally, the data center buildings would be set 400 feet back from the south right-of-way on Lon Stephenson Road.<\/p>\n As the developers described the plan, residents began asking other questions, often interrupting.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to live in a city where my health is going to be at stake, where I\u2019m going to inhale pollution and get sick,\u201d one resident said to Bennett and Riley.<\/p>\n Some southeast Fort Worth residents, long haunted by fears of environmental racism,<\/a> had tense exchanges with Bennett and Riley. Many said that they were not aware of the data center until very recently.<\/p>\n Angie Rieza and Damien Sargent are Fort Worth residents who live in a mobile home park near the land Black Mountain wants to develop.<\/p>\n They received a notice from Black Mountain about the development \u2014 which the letter describes as a \u201cdigital infrastructure project\u201d \u2014 in July 2025 asking for residents to attend a community meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe this development will positively contribute to the community, and we value your input as we move forward,\u201d the letter, shared with the Star-Telegram, reads.<\/p>\n Riza and Sargent went to the meeting, but since then, they said they have heard little else about the development.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more information we know, the better off we would be to figure out a game plan, if we want to try to stop the project or be for it,\u201d Riza told the Star-Telegram. \u201cBut they\u2019ve kept us out of the loop.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of the people who were at the meeting on March 11 meeting were also at the Fort Worth City Council meeting on March 10, where the pair of zoning requests currently awaiting approval was scheduled for a final vote. The council voted to continue the items<\/a> until the council can receive a briefing on the impact of data centers on local infrastructure.<\/p>\n Though they couldn\u2019t comment on the zoning requests themselves, residents spoke in opposition to the data center as a whole.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat makes this proposal especially troubling is where it\u2019s being placed and who it will affect,\u201d said Arlington resident Jaime Perkins in a public comment at the City Council meeting. \u201cSoutheast 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The site plan will go to the Fort Worth Zoning Commission for approval at its meeting in April, and to City Council the month after that if commissioners approve it.<\/p>\n