{"id":477030,"date":"2026-10-26T10:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T10:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/477030\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T10:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T10:30:07","slug":"the-receipts-air-quality-and-representation-fears-rise-with-taylors-data-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/477030\/","title":{"rendered":"The Receipts: Air quality and representation fears rise with Taylor’s data center"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The Taylor City Council has approved a development agreement that could pave the way for a 664-acre data center campus<\/a> just outside city limits, raising questions for neighbors who say they may feel the impact but have no voice in the process.<\/p>\n

CBS Austin has been investigating the proposed Taylor Technology Campus after residents reached out with concerns about noise, air quality and representation. Families living near the site say the project could alter the quiet, rural setting they have known for generations.<\/p>\n

“We wanted the fresh air, openness. We wanted a quiet life,” said Connie Zycha, who lives directly across from the proposed campus. Zycha said her family has lived on their land for more than 140 years. “I won\u2019t be able to sit in my front yard and watch the sunset. I won\u2019t be able to watch the storms roll in or hear the train go by,” she said.<\/p>\n

Neighbors near the site may attend council meetings and voice their opinions, but because the area is outside the city, they cannot vote in city elections. <\/p>\n

“We don’t have a vote. We can’t impact what they do,” Zycha said. She added, “We don\u2019t have a voice. We can\u2019t yell at them and say, hey, we\u2019re gonna vote you out. Because we can\u2019t.”<\/p>\n

Taylor officials said the agreement would allow the city to annex the land and apply specific regulations for the project. Daniel Seguin, executive director of community services for the City of Taylor, said the goal has been to deliver protections for people living nearby, even though they are outside city limits. <\/p>\n

“What our Taylor council has said is that their goal is to protect surrounding neighbors and the way that they were gonna do that is to negotiate for protections and ensure that this development is in city limits where regulations will apply,” Seguin said.<\/p>\n

Seguin said the council worked to ensure the agreement included environmental protections and requirements for monitoring and enforcement. He explained that water for the data center would not be pulled from wells, addressing a concern raised by some nearby residents. <\/p>\n

“They will not be drilling wells. They’re not gonna be accessing the aquifer beneath Taylor or impacting anyone’s well water,” he said.<\/p>\n

Air quality is also a major concern. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said it has received Big Watt Digital\u2019s application for an air permit for the campus\u2019 natural gas electric generators but has not yet begun a technical review. Seguin said each natural gas generator will have its own air quality monitoring of the exhaust and the city is required to submit monthly reports to TCEQ. <\/p>\n

“Natural gas is unique in that it’s one of the cleanest burning fossil fuels that is available, that exists,” Seguin said.<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement, Big Watt Digital and PowerHouse Data Centers said the campus is being designed with dedicated on-site power generation and reclaimed-water cooling. They also pointed to noise limits, testing and property-line setbacks, and said they take neighbors\u2019 concerns seriously.<\/p>\n

Carrie D\u2019Anna, a community organizer with Halt Taylor Centers, said many questions still need answers. <\/p>\n

“People can\u2019t make informed decisions without having information,” D\u2019Anna said. She added, “It\u2019s not so much as control as responsibility. Because it impacts me, it impacts my family, it impacts the communities around me.”<\/p>\n

The agreement also sets rules for water use and wastewater and limits noise at the property line to 65 decibels or the predevelopment baseline, whichever is higher. Seguin said the city will monitor compliance at the property line and that landscaping buffers are planned to lessen visible and audible impacts. <\/p>\n

“They’re gonna be constructing berms along the property on the south side where the residents are. They’re also going to covering those berms with multiple layers of planting,” he said.<\/p>\n

Some residents remain frustrated that, despite the regulations, major decisions are being made without their ability to participate in city elections. <\/p>\n

Zycha said, “We have it less than a thousand feet from our home…The county commissioners are our voice. Not one has come to my property and asked me what I thought. Or sent a letter. What do you expect? We haven\u2019t heard from them.”<\/p>\n

Terry Pierce, a retired priest who lives nearby, said, “The problem here is that we need to regulate data centers and any other development in the city to build what is best for the neighbors, what is the best for children in this city.” He continued, “If the air quality is such that kids can\u2019t play outside. That is not a trade-off that is what we need here. It\u2019s not a fair trade.”<\/p>\n

D\u2019Anna echoed concerns about the pace and transparency of the project. <\/p>\n

“Right now we have the intention that we are going to put, you know, regulations on it, but the ordinances and the agreements that we have made precede the amendments that they\u2019re creating on behalf of us,” she said.<\/p>\n

According to the city, the council posted the draft agreement online for public review ahead of the vote. Seguin said they work to reflect community input. <\/p>\n

“When community members have come and expressed concerns at a council meeting, then it came to the presentation, council members would directly parrot the community’s questions back to the developers and back to city staff,” he said.<\/p>\n

The council approved the development agreement on Oct. 8. Annexation remains a future step. Seguin said new zoning rules that specifically cover data centers are in development, but they would not apply retroactively to this project.<\/p>\n

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will review air permit applications and monitor compliance for the on-site generators. Williamson County stated it cannot zone or prohibit data centers and has no authority over Taylor’s annexation of the area.<\/p>\n

The city’s development agreement outlines protections for nearby residents and sets stricter requirements than what would exist if the project stayed in unincorporated county land. Still, families like the Zycha\u2019s said their questions remain. <\/p>\n

“We moved away from the city limits to have a better quality of life for our family. Our neighbors live out here for the quality of their life. We chose to be here,” Zycha said.<\/p>\n

Read Taylor Technology Campus’s full statement:<\/p>\n

Big Watt + PowerHouse is committed to developing the Taylor Technology Campus responsibly. The campus is being designed with dedicated, onsite power generation to serve its operations directly, reducing its anticipated reliance on the Texas grid.Our Development Agreement with the City of Taylor establishes clear and enforceable guardrails for surrounding neighbors. These include a minimum 300-foot setback along the north, east and west property lines, with setbacks along the southern property line extended to a minimum of 700 feet for data centers, power-generation facilities and battery storage, and 500 feet for accessory structures. Further guardrails include enhanced landscape screening, baseline acoustic testing and established noise limitations at property lines adjacent to residential uses. The agreement also provides for closed-loop cooling using reclaimed water, while air quality remains subject to oversight by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Additional standards addressing lighting are also incorporated into the development process.We understand that being a responsible developer also means being a good neighbor, and we take nearby residents\u2019 concerns about noise, air quality and private wells seriously as the project progresses. Residents are encouraged to share questions or concerns using the contact form on the Taylor Technology Campus website.””The HARC study maps out several different development paths for the state, ranging from unmitigated traditional generation to highly optimized, clean infrastructure scenarios.Our facility was engineered from the ground up to align with statewide standards established by Governor Abbott. By operating our own power ‘behind-the-meter,’ we place zero operational demand on the public electrical grid, fulfilling the state’s goal to protect the grid and prevent rising utility costs for Texas families. And because we operate entirely off-grid, we never force local utilities to activate older, high-emission ‘peaker’ plants during times of high demand.Our facility will integrate advanced Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology, which will neutralize up to 90% or more of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. Operating a highly reliable, on-site natural gas system also means we completely avoid the large arrays of diesel backup generators traditionally used by grid-tied facilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The Taylor City Council has approved a development agreement that could pave the way for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-477030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477030","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=477030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}