In 2026, when someone paves paradise, they don\u2019t put up a parking lot, they put up a data center. That\u2019s what\u2019s happening in one Texas town, where a piece of farmland donated to the county \u2014 with the stipulation that it become a public park \u2014 is slated to become a 135,000 square foot data center, according to a report from 404 Media (1).<\/p>\n
In 1999, the Bland family granted 87 acres of land to a public trust for $10, and in the deed was a condition that it be used for a public park, the report says.<\/p>\n
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But the land \u201cchanged hands several times,\u201d and then, in 2025, the City of Taylor, Texas, sold it to a data center developer for $10 million.<\/p>\n
\u2018These kids need somewhere to play\u2019 <\/p>\n
Pamela Griffin told 404 Media she and her family have lived near that piece of land for generations; her grandmother was the first to buy land there, and later her father did as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack then, Black and brown people weren\u2019t allowed to buy in the city limits of Taylor. So we had to buy on the outskirts,\u201d Griffin, who is Black, told 404 Media.<\/p>\n
According to a report from Austin Free Press, Griffin\u2019s neighborhood is home to \u201cabout 35 minority families,\u201d and it is \u201cone of the first areas in Taylor where Black and Hispanic families were allowed to buy residential lots after the 1968 Fair Housing Act. Most of the lots remain in the original families (2).\u201d<\/p>\n
Griffin said when she was a child, her father bought a vacant lot for her and her 10 siblings to play in, and that lot backed onto the Bland farmland. The farmer once told Griffin\u2019s father that he was thinking of donating the land for a park: \u201cOne day he was talking to my dad [\u2026] and he said, \u2018I see the kids don\u2019t really have nowhere to play.\u2019 He said, \u2018I\u2019m thinking about giving this land for parkland because these kids need somewhere to play,\u2019\u201d Griffin told 404 Media.<\/p>\n
Read More: BlackRock warns buying and holding the S&P 500 isn\u2019t enough for retirement anymore \u2014 here’s why<\/a><\/p>\n Community opposes data center <\/p>\n Texas is already home to more than 300 operating data centers, according to the Texas Tribune, with more than 100 additional projects that are in planning or development stages, plus 142 that are currently under construction (3).<\/p>\n Texas cities \u2014 including San Marcos, Amarillo, College Station, Waco and Harlingen \u2014 have all seen the rise of grassroots movements asking their local officials to stop data center projects, the Texas Tribune reported.<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n Recent opposition to data centers often includes concerns about demands on the energy<\/a> grid and impacts on local water supplies<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Taylor, the city council approved a deal for a data center project called Blueprint with BBP Projects LLC in 2024 (4). Austin Free Press reported that BBP purchased 53 acres of industrially zoned land for $10 million, while the city \u201cretained 15 acres between the site and a residential area as a buffer.\u201d<\/p>\n In June 2025, Carrie D\u2019Anna was one of the community members who organized to alert other residents about the data center. She posted flyers in the neighborhood about an upcoming city council meeting, the Austin Free Press reported.<\/p>\n Griffin told the Austin Free Press she and her neighbors \u201cdid not know about data centers,\u201d until she saw one of D\u2019Anna\u2019s flyers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were shocked that they would want to put that 500 feet behind houses that are low income,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n Griffin spoke at the council meeting in June 2025, and there was a subsequent meeting in July 2025 where more community members showed up to ask the council to deny or postpone the project, but it passed unanimously, the Austin Free Press reported.<\/p>\n The fight continues <\/p>\n Griffin hasn\u2019t stopped fighting the proposed data center on her doorstep.<\/p>\n With her knowledge that the land\u2019s owner had gifted the tract to the city for use as a public park, activists went digging through land records and found the deed from 1999, which pledges the land to \u201cTexas Parks and Recreation Foundation, a Texas non-profit corporation, to be held in trust for future use as parkland by Williamson County, Texas,\u201d according to 404 Media.<\/p>\n Griffin and her family have hired a lawyer, and she\u2019s determined to keep fighting to stop the data center, and see the land used for what its previous owner intended.<\/p>\n According to the 404 Media report, a lawsuit Griffin and four family members filed against the data center company was dismissed, and the judge also denied an injunction to halt construction while the case went through the appeals process. The family has filed an appeal with the Third Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas, the report says.<\/p>\n \u201cMy family didn\u2019t hire the lawyer to sue the company to get money,\u201d Griffin told 404 Media. \u201cWe\u2019re suing for the deed to build a park for this community.\u201d<\/p>\n You May Also Like <\/p>\n Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise\u2019s best stories and exclusive interviews first \u2014 clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.<\/a><\/p>\n Article Sources <\/p>\n We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n 404 Media (1<\/a>); Austin Free Press (2<\/a>); Texas Tribune (3<\/a>); City of Taylor (4<\/a>)<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com<\/a> under the title: 30 years ago, a Texas family donated land for a public park. Now it will be a data center bigger than 2 football fields<\/a><\/p>\n This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2026, when someone paves paradise, they don\u2019t put up a parking lot, they put up a data…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[117627,5421,117629,117628,27,29,28,3602],"class_list":["post-331905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-austin-free-press","tag-data-center","tag-pamela-griffin","tag-public-park","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331905","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=331905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}