The council's 5-0 vote clears the way for the sprawling facility, which will sit just steps from Keller's Marshall Ridge neighborhood. Keller officials had filed for a temporary injunction to halt development, arguing residents were never properly notified, but that order expired in late September. Last week, the two cities announced an agreement that Keller says will let it enforce noise limits, require quarterly noise monitoring for the first three years of operation, and impose landscaping and emissions controls. The deal also includes a contribution to Keller Fire-Rescue.

Even so, several speakers from both cities told the council the process had been opaque and the protections insufficient. One speaker derided the city's framing of the project as "responsible growth and responsible local decision-making," calling it instead "a big stinking pile of BS."

Westlake leaders defended the approval as a necessary trade-off. "Yes, residents may bear slightly higher electricity costs, but we're going to keep costs in other ways because of the additional revenue," one official said during the meeting, without offering specifics on how that revenue would offset utility bills.

Josh Rabe, a Marshall Ridge resident, said his neighborhood has no confidence the developer or Westlake will follow through on the settlement terms. "In the end, they're basically saying, 'Okay, we'll build a little bit higher of a berm, and we'll monitor the noise,'" Rabe said. "If they actually monitor and actually do anything, or if anything changes, nobody has any faith in the developer or Westlake to enforce anything."

Rabe, who has performed anti-data-center songs at previous meetings, did so again Thursday. "Everybody in the country, our new governor, is looking to slow down on data centers and Westlake only wants to speed things up," he said. "What little I can do, I will do."

The vote comes as data centers have become a flashpoint in Texas politics. Gov. Greg Abbott, who initially welcomed the industry, has shifted toward requiring resource audits before new permits are issued. Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa, the Democrat who unseated him, has called for an immediate moratorium until the Legislature can act. Keller officials said after the vote that they will work with Hinojosa on statewide regulation discussions.

For now, the approval means construction can proceed on a facility that will loom over a residential neighborhood — and that residents on the Keller side say they never got a real chance to stop.