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Fort Worth Data Center Commission to Present 19 Recommendations as Moratorium Hearing Looms
A special commission will unveil 19 proposed rules for data center development at a Tuesday work session, hours before the City Council holds its first public hearing on a possible moratorium. Residents near a century-old south Fort Worth garden say the stakes are personal.
FORT WORTH â Fort Worth's special data center commission will present its first report Tuesday, offering 19 recommendations for how the city should regulate a fast-growing industry that has increasingly drawn scrutiny from residents and city leaders.
The Fort Worth Data Center and Infrastructure Commission is scheduled to deliver its findings during a special-called work session at City Hall at 4 p.m. A City Council meeting follows at 6 p.m., featuring the first public hearing in the legal process to enact a data center moratorium.
The recommendations arrive after months of debate over where large computing facilities should be built and how they should be governed. Fort Worth currently hosts four data centers, the oldest dating to 2000, according to a June presentation by city staff. Another is under construction, and four more are in the pipeline.
The city's effort to get ahead of that growth has been halting. In June, city staff proposed new data center rules. In July, the Zoning Commission rejected those recommendations; the city said commissioners wanted stricter rules but could not agree on amendments. In August, the City Council began pursuing a possible moratorium and created the special commission to take a closer look.
For some residents, the debate is about what Fort Worth preserves as it grows. In south Fort Worth, Black Mountain has proposed building a data center near Weston Gardens, a century-old garden property.
"History is really important to us," said Jackson Weston, president of Weston Gardens. "Preservation of what's been here for centuries is important to us."
Weston said his family was notified about the proposal last year and immediately had questions about what a development of that scale could mean for the property and surrounding area.
"So we immediately had a lot of questions," Weston said. "What's the sound going to be like? How loud is it going to be?"
He hopes city leaders will enact a moratorium and take a more cautious approach before additional data centers move forward. For him, the issue is personal.
"I grew up in the house behind us," Weston said, walking the garden property. "Played out here as a kid. It was my backyard. Still kind of is."
The commission's 19 recommendations will now go before a City Council that has already signaled appetite for a pause. Tuesday's work session and public hearing will give residents their first formal chance to weigh in on the direction the city takes.