{"id":350923,"date":"2026-06-26T03:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T03:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/350923\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T03:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T03:11:07","slug":"north-richland-hills-mayor-opposes-data-centers-near-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/350923\/","title":{"rendered":"North Richland Hills mayor opposes data centers near homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Richland Hills Mayor Jack McCarty<\/a> said he has serious concerns about data centers locating near homes and apartments, citing the potential for more noise and rising electricity costs \u2014 concerns that a developer calls unfounded.<\/p>\n

At issue is a proposed 21-acre data center at 5201 Rufe Snow Drive, which was once an outlet mall that was converted in to a call center.<\/p>\n

McCarty, who posted about his concerns on Facebook<\/a> after attending a Tuesday night meeting organized by Dallas-based Provident<\/a> to share information about the proposed data center, said more information is needed concerning the potential impacts from noise and concerns over electricity use.<\/p>\n

McCarty said he wanted to hear from both sides before commenting publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cData centers near any residential areas in NRH is not what I want for our community,\u201d McCarty wrote on Facebook June 24. \u201cI think everybody is having a hard enough time affording things,\u201d he said, referring to concerns about rising electricity costs.<\/p>\n

Residents who showed up at the June 23 meeting also spoke against the project, and a change.org petition<\/a> has garnered over 2,000 signatures opposing a data center in the area.<\/p>\n

No decision has been made concerning the data center, as a public hearing must be held by the Planning and Zoning Commission before the request heads to the city council.<\/p>\n

Noise concerns<\/p>\n

Jack Backes, executive director of Provident, said the company wanted to meet with residents to hear their concerns and to share information about the data center plans.<\/p>\n

The proposed data center is in a commercial area of North Richland Hills, near a Walmart and Home Depot, but the city council must grant approval before the project can move forward.<\/p>\n

Backes said plans call for tearing down the existing building where the call center is located and building a data center that would conform to North Richland Hills\u2019 requirements.<\/p>\n

Backes said the data center would use \u201cclosed loop\u201d technology for cooling which means \u201czero water use.\u201d He added that similar facilities are located throughout the Metroplex, such as Allen and Plano.<\/p>\n

When asked about concerns over noise levels, Backes said there would be more noise from truck traffic than the data center.<\/p>\n

McCarty said he is concerned about noise generated from data centers that bothers children and animals. Backes said the design of the data center would \u201cmitigate low frequency noise and overall noise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Backes said Provident will provide more information in the coming months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand people are very concerned about this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last summer, North Richland Hills adopted zoning regulations for data centers as the city\u2019s ordinance did not address them specifically. McCarty said since the new zoning regulations took effect, the council hasn\u2019t approved any data centers.<\/p>\n

McCarty said he appreciated the presentation from Provident, but he represents the residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy position is that I believe that our residents don\u2019t want this,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Elizabeth Campbell<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n

With my guide dog Freddie, I keep tabs on growth, economic development and other issues in Northeast Tarrant cities and other communities near Fort Worth. I\u2019ve been a reporter at the Star-Telegram for 34 years.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Richland Hills Mayor Jack McCarty said he has serious concerns about data centers locating near homes and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-350923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350923","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=350923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}