{"id":290905,"date":"2026-05-13T07:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/290905\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T07:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:55:08","slug":"north-texas-communities-push-back-on-the-data-center-boom-as-texas-leads-the-nation-in-construction-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/290905\/","title":{"rendered":"North Texas communities push back on the data center boom as Texas leads the nation in construction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Brian Crawford doesn&#8217;t need to say much to make his point. Standing on his ranch along the Somervell-Hood County line, he cuts the engine and listens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Nothing except birds, right?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">That quiet could soon be history. A 2,600-acre data center development called Comanche Circle is proposed just past his fence line \u2014 and Crawford says what&#8217;s at stake in the area goes beyond noise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It would totally change it, and irreversibly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">His concern is part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/red-oak-residents-pack-council-021248210.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:a growing chorus across North Texas;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;a growing chorus across North Texas&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a growing chorus across North Texas<\/a>, where communities are increasingly asking how much data center growth is too much.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Texas already leads the nation in data centers under construction \u2014 142 and counting. But that boom is now running into resistance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In Fort Worth, a vote on a $10 billion data center development was pulled from the City Council agenda just hours before it was scheduled and pushed to next month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In Ellis County, the Red Oak City Council cleared the way Monday for an 800-acre data center site, despite protests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In Hill County, leaders went the other direction entirely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to the Texas Tribune, Hill County appears to be the first county in Texas to issue a moratorium on new data centers in unincorporated areas, citing public safety and public health concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Joanne Carcamo, who cofounded a group called Protect the Paluxy Valley, calls it a historic moment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I mean, I&#8217;m ecstatic. It&#8217;s history.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But she says the moratorium is just a start. Carcamo worries that projects like Comanche Circle could strain water resources that feed the Paluxy River and Dinosaur Valley State Park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We really are hoping that more people get involved to try to save this gem. I mean, this is irreplaceable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Monday, Somervell County voted to send a resolution and letter to state leaders in Austin, asking for a pause on new data center applications.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The company behind Comanche Circle, Sailfish Investors, tells WFAA the project would bring $60 billion in private investment to Hood County and give the local school district the tax base to finally build a new junior high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian Crawford doesn&#8217;t need to say much to make his point. Standing on his ranch along the Somervell-Hood&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[106349,106348,5421,86137,2329,430,42438,27,29,28,36798],"class_list":["post-290905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-brian-crawford","tag-comanche-circle","tag-data-center","tag-hill-county","tag-hood-county","tag-north-texas","tag-somervell-county","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-the-texas-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}