{"id":410116,"date":"2026-08-18T20:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/410116\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T20:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:24:10","slug":"fort-worth-residents-tell-city-council-no-data-centers-peoples-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/410116\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth residents tell city council: No data centers \u2013 People’s World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Fort\t<\/p>\n

The Fort Worth City Council prepares to vote on starting the process for a data center moratorium and presents its timeline for the moratorium
\nand commission. At center is Mayor Mattie Parker. | Cassandra Swart \/ People’s World<\/p>\n

FORT WORTH, Texas\u2014On the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 11, crowds of Fort Worth residents gathered at City Hall for a city council meeting to let lawmakers know their opinions on data centers.<\/p>\n

Their demands: a moratorium halting all future data center construction in the city for 90 days with an additional 90-day extension as allowed by state law, a civilian body representing affected communities to make decisions on data centers, and requirements that data center applications will have to include proof that the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas have approved their connection to the Texas electrical grid.<\/p>\n

The push for a moratorium comes as Fort Worth-based oil and gas company Black Mountain proposes to build a massive 530-acre, $10 billion data center in southeast Fort Worth which is estimated to use five million gallons of water daily once complete and create major noise issues for local residents.<\/p>\n

The areas impacted by the data center are primarily African-American and Chicano working-class neighborhoods, such as Forest Hill and Everman. The data center is set to be located directly adjacent to Weston Gardens, an historic botanical garden in the area.<\/p>\n

\"\"The proposed location of Black Mountain Data Center in
southwest Fort Worth, situated between the predominantly Black and
brown neighborhoods of Everman and Forest Hill. | City of Fort Worth<\/p>\n

The mayor of Fort Worth, Mattie Parker, has direct ties to the data center industry through her husband, David Parker who is listed as lobbyist<\/a> (according to the Texas Ethics Commission) for the Data Center Coalition, which is based in Virginia. The coalition\u2019s goal is to expand outreach to local politicians in various cities in order to facilitate the building of more data centers.<\/p>\n

Parker is one of six partners at Longbow Partners, an Austin consulting firm that represents the coalition along with several large corporations. The mayor and her husband deny any conflict of interest<\/a>. In June, however, three local experts recommended <\/a>that the mayor abstain from voting on the data center decisions in council meetings. They pointed to a Texas law that requires<\/a> city officials not participate in votes that would directly benefit them economically.<\/p>\n

City Council presented the public\u2019s resolutions, however the measure establishing a Data Center Commission rejected the local resident aspect that was demanded by local activists. They saw it as necessary for democratic decision-making, but officials only gave 5 out of 11 seats on the Commission to residents, with the six-seat majority being filled by \u201cexperts\u201d decided by City Council, who may or may not even live in Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

The Data Center and Infrastructure Commission is to be headed<\/a> by Dr. Michael Slattery, professor and director of Texan Christian University\u2019s Institute for Environmental Studies. Local residents criticized the appointment.<\/p>\n

The decision to time the Commission\u2019s presentation of its findings to the City Council on Nov. 3, midterm Election Day, was also criticized\u2014especially in light of County Judge Tim O\u2019Hare\u2019s plan to cut over half of polling locations in Fort Worth, mainly affecting Black and brown Neighborhoods, to be decided<\/a> in September. On Aug. 4, O\u2019Hare had public attendees removed and arrested<\/a> from his commissioners court for protesting his plan.<\/p>\n

\"\"State Rep. Vikki Goodwin, D-Austin, who is also the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, speaks in favor
of the moratorium. | City of Fort Worth<\/p>\n

State Rep. Vikki Goodwin, D-Austin, Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor of Texas, spoke in favor of the moratorium. \u201cI know you\u2019re wondering why I\u2019m here, talking to the Fort Worth City Council, but I want to start by saying I am supportive of a moratorium. Listening to the presentation, it always strikes me how slow the government works.<\/p>\n

\u201cA moratorium passed by the Fort Worth City Council would send a signal to the state legislature and maybe even to the governor and lieutenant governor. I am one of the representatives who has called on the governor to call a special session so the legislature can set some regulations,\u201d stated Goodwin.<\/p>\n

Local Fort Worth Activist Nathan Chase told the council: \u201cI\u2019d like to state that for the commission I do agree that there is a necessity for it, however I have reservations about the language used in the proposal. Firstly, the language about members being from Fort Worth comes with the added qualifier \u2018when feasible.\u2019 I think being a resident should be a requirement, not a preference.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur city is the tenth largest city in the United States, so I find it difficult to believe that qualified residents cannot be found here,\u201d Chase stated.<\/p>\n

Lydia Faith of the Fort Worth Environmental Coalition of Communities stated: \u201cI am for the 90-day moratorium; however, it is not enough time to research and understand both the short-term and long-term impact of data centers. That is why the extension is important, but I hope y\u2019all understand this is just the first step of many steps you must take to protect our community, our resources, and our environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegarding the Data Center Committee, I am in favor, but only if it is led by impacted community members. Also, why is the Committee being run by Mike [Slattery], who doesn\u2019t even live in Fort Worth?\u201d asked Faith.<\/p>\n

Resident Stephen Sanchez, an audio expert, recorded the sounds of a normal neighborhood without a data center and compared it to a cryptocurrency mine located in City District 6 near TCU. The latter was significantly louder and more disrupting than the former. Sanchez later played the sound of a data center with noise levels comparable to the crypto mine.<\/p>\n

EJ Carrion of the local progressive 817 Podcast<\/a> told council: \u201cThe real kicker is I don\u2019t get why you guys think you can present the community a plan on data centers when we don\u2019t even trust you guys anymore.<\/p>\n

\"\"EJ Carrion of 817 Podcast speaks out against data centers
and Mayor Mattie Parker\u2019s ties to corporate interests. | City of
Fort Worth<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t act like you care about the data center fight. I\u2019m surprised we\u2019ve gotten this far, and nobody has brought up Mattie Parker and how you should be recusing yourself as your husband is a data center lobbyist,\u201d Carrion pointed out.<\/p>\n

Carrion noted that Mayor Parker is also a board member<\/a> of the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership, a private nonprofit whose mission is to attract large corporate interests to Fort Worth. Alongside her on its board of directors are billionaires such as Robert Isom, CEO of American Airlines, and Greg Ulmer, president of Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n

After the public speakers concluded, the city council voted on the resolutions. Mayor Parker did not recuse herself, despite her conflict of interest, and they council voted unanimously for each of their resolutions on data centers.<\/p>\n

Public reaction was a mix of a sense of victory for starting the process on a moratorium, which is set to possibly occur in December per Texas law, but also deep skepticism that the city council would follow through with the proposed plan, especially after the midterms.<\/p>\n

Public comments after the vote were reduced to one minute each from three people after Councilman Chris Nettles put forward an impromptu resolution, because he was tired, which passed. After being criticized by a local activist, Nettles made an inappropriate retort: \u201cI know you don\u2019t have nobody to go home to, but I do.\u201d Residents made their anger at being silenced known in the one minute of time they now had.<\/p>\n

Despite Parker and members of the city council being compromised by large corporate interests, they all voted to start the process to initiating the moratorium thanks to pressure from local residents concerned about the effect on their lives and environment.<\/p>\n

And despite the city council decisions being seen by many as inadequate\u2014especially its establishment of a commission composed mostly of \u201cexperts\u201d rather than locals\u2014Fort Worth residents vowed to continue pressuring the city government to prevent any more data centers from being built.<\/p>\n

We hope you appreciated this article. At\u00a0People\u2019s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading\u00a0People\u2019s World\u00a0and the stories we bring you, please\u00a0support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today<\/a>. Thank you!<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCONTRIBUTOR<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Cassandra<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Fort Worth City Council prepares to vote on starting the process for a data center moratorium and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4267,5304,2327,26396,116,118,117,27,24448],"class_list":["post-410116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-ai","tag-data-centers","tag-environment","tag-environmental-racism","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-texas","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410116","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=410116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}