{"id":275,"date":"2026-06-06T10:09:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=275"},"modified":"2026-06-06T10:09:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:09:21","slug":"officials-powerless-to-stop-8-new-data-centers-that-could-transform-small-texas-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=275","title":{"rendered":"Officials powerless to stop 8 new data centers that could transform small Texas county"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.<\/em><\/p>\n

HOOD COUNTY \u2014 <\/b>Brian Crawfordpoints to the top of a hill northwest of his family\u2019s home garden, just past their gently sloping yard dotted with live oaks beginning to flower.<\/p>

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\u201cAll of this would be buildings,\u201d said his wife, Laura Crawford.<\/p>\n

\u201cA slab of concrete,\u201d Brian added.<\/p>\n

Their property is a 118-acre paradise along the Paluxy River Valley where the couple care for a menagerie of animals including their two enormous donkeys, Little Joe and Hoss, chickens and a herd of African antelope that they inherited when they bought the property nine years ago.<\/p>\n

Instead of green, about 600 yards away from their garden, they could soon be looking at 2,100 acres of warehouse-like structures filled with computing servers that process the digital world, flattening their scenic view into something industrial. The site plan calls for a campus that spans almost six times the size of University of Texas at Austin\u2019s main campus. Its Florida-based developer refers to it as the Comanche Circle project, but the eventual company that will run the data center has not been publicly revealed.<\/p>\n

This is just the beginning of the data center revolution in Hood County, a rural community of 62,000 people about an hour southwest of Fort Worth. Developers have proposed eight data centers spanning over 7,600 acres, or 12 square miles. While it\u2019s unclear how much power all of the facilities would require, the Comanche Circle data center, plus two other smaller projects from the same developer, could use up to 3 gigawatts of electricity at full capacity, according to its developer \u2014 enough to power about 3 million homes. Some of the power could be generated by a new on-site gas plant, and some will likely come from the state\u2019s power grid, according to the project\u2019s concept plan.<\/p>\n

Comanche Circle will need an initial one-time for its seven-year buildout, and then 150,000 gallons per day \u2014 equivalent to the average use of 500 U.S. households, according to the minutes of the n an email to The Texas Tribune, the developer said that the number submitted to the district board was incorrect and his three data centers combined would use \u201cless than 50,000 gallons per day of groundwater\u201d at full build out.<\/p>\n

Hood County locals are relentless in their fight against the data centers, packing county meetings and town halls and voicing their fierce opposition to the facilities threatening to transform their charming, small-town community.<\/p>\n

But, county officials say their hands are tied in their ability to stop or slow development. Two efforts by Hood County commissioners to pass a moratorium on data centers failed, as a state lawmaker warned they were acting outside of their authority. And the county has been sued twice by developers \u2014\u00a0after the local officials rejected one data center\u2019s concept plan, citing a lack of information about critical considerations like where they\u2019d get their water from, and then tabled a vote on another.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was elected by the people to represent their opinion,\u201d Kevin Andrews, a Hood County commissioner who has lived in the county for two decades, said in an interview. \u201cBut I also have to follow the law \u2026 and not get the county sued.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data center developers are more frequently choosing rural, unincorporated areas like Hood County because it\u2019s an easier path to build, experts say. In Texas, counties typically don\u2019t have the power to block development \u2014 unlike city officials who wield zoning authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas has always viewed counties as rural toddlers that can\u2019t be trusted with full powers,\u201d said Robert Paterson, a professor at UT-Austin who specializes in land use and environmental planning.<\/p>\n

Nearly half of the planned data centers in Texas are set to be built in unincorporated areas, free of city regulations,\u00a0according to an analysis by the Tribune. This marks a shift as most existing data centers are clustered in cities and only 12% are currently in unincorporated areas.<\/p>\n

At least one county, which appears to be the first in Texas, recently placed a one-year pause on data center construction, moving ahead despite the legal risks. The action has already prompted a lawsuit against Hill County and its three commissioners by a data center developer seeking $100 million in damages.<\/p>\n

Today, Hood County has the sixth most planned data centers among Texas counties; per square mile, it ranks third. It\u2019s been a magnet for developers because of the cheap land, available power, fiber lines and, importantly, its lack of local business restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love liberty and love a lack of regulation,\u201d said Greg Harrell, chair of the Hood County GOP, at a town hall earlier this year. \u201cData centers are taking advantage of it\u2026 They saw an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The surge of development here mirrors a data center gold rush across Texas over the past year that is outpacing the speed of regulation. A Tribune analysis found the state has 335 existing data centers, with more than 248 in the works. Only Texas and Virginia, which has been the top state for data centers for the past few years, had more than 100 active projects under way as of March, according to Aterio, a company that tracks industrial development.<\/p>\n

Massive data centers are also flooding the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state\u2019s main grid operator, with requests for power. As of May, ERCOT reported that large projects requesting to connect to the grid totaled 439 gigawatts of power capacity \u2014 five times larger than the all-time peak demand on the state\u2019s grid. <\/b>Of those projects,about 89% are data centers, though energy experts say it\u2019s unlikely that all of them will be built.<\/p>\n

The explosion of development is driven by the newest wave of data centers, known as \u201chyperscalers,\u201d designed to support artificial intelligence computing facilities with thousands of servers, which are much bigger than current data centers that were largely built for cloud storage. Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Open AI are behind planned projects in West Texas and Central Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas is a great state to do business. All of that really has come together to help make Texas, again, one of the national leaders in digital infrastructure,\u201d said Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy with the Data Center Coalition.<\/p>\n

Data center developers say their projects will bring billions of dollars of new property on the tax rolls, work training opportunities, job creation and private investment in communities. One company told Hood County commissioners it could potentially increase the county\u2019s tax base anywhere from $5 billion to $20 billion.<\/p>\n

However, some commissioners and residents remain skeptical, saying the benefits are uneven, and data centers create few permanent jobs after their labor-intensive construction is finished. For example, one Hood County data center proposal shows a peak construction workforce of 2,000 dropping to a permanent workforce of 220, according to the project\u2019s concept plan.<\/p>\n

Hood County Commissioner Dave Eagle said there are \u201ctoo many unanswered questions\u201d about data centers, and they\u2019re being asked to greenlight plans with incomplete information about their impact on the community.\n<\/b>\nThe Tribune reviewed hundreds of pages of concept plans, lawsuits and reviewed hours of testimony from commissioners court meetings to piece together information about the projects. All but one of the seven data center proposals submitted to Hood County omitted estimates for power use; only four noted a potential power source. Just five of the concept plans included projections for water consumption and six listed options for where they would get their water. The eighth project was annexed into the City of Granbury, which had not received any development plans, according to a spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Despite the backlash from residents, some Hood County commissioners are increasingly convinced there\u2019s little they can do to stop data centers as more proposals roll in.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Data centers] snuck up on us,\u201d Eagle said at a town hall meeting in February. \u201cWe don\u2019t understand it and we need more information.\u201dactivism against the proposed data centers, with Laura working around the clock with Protect The Paluxy Valley.<\/p>\n

A Mysterious Project<\/b><\/h2>\n

In July 2025, Hood County officials first got wind ofa secretive economic development pitch called \u201cProject Patriot,\u201d as \u201ca proposed large capital investment\u201d that came with the creation of 60 \u201chigh-wage permanent\u201d jobs.<\/p>\n

County Judge Ron Massingill asked the commissioners to take a nonbinding vote signaling the officials wanted the business and would be willing to waive its property taxes.<\/p>\n

But at the meeting, commissioners were given virtually no information about the business. It was never referred to as a data center.An economic development official for the city of Granbury, which later annexed the project into its city limits, told commissioners that she was under a nondisclosure agreement and could not answer their questions about the company.<\/p>\n

Massingill, who did not respond to interview requests, argued to commissioners that the county had little oversight authority over business anyway, and negotiating a local tax exemption might be the only leverage they would ever have. The county, he said, could ask for \u201cbeautification of the building site\u201d and minimize impact to neighbors.<\/p>\n

The court voted 3-1 in favor of the letter of support, with Commissioner Nannette Samuelson dissenting. At the meeting , \u201cwe are setting ourselves up for big industry, losing that small town feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weeks later, Eagle, a lawyer by trade who\u2019s been a commissioner for eight years, was invited to meet privately with a handful of data center representatives from a different project. Marketing representatives and engineers came to \u201crazzle and dazzle\u201d him, he said, pitching something big and transformative that would bring significant tax revenue to the county. Then, they made the same ask: a property tax waiver.<\/p>\n

Eagle grew suspicious. The private meetings, the coded language, the missing details.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were trying to take advantage of country bumpkins,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n

He told the industry representatives he wouldn\u2019t support their tax waiver. For Eagle, who loves the comfort and stability of the county, its French Empire-style courthouse and nearby lake, this was ringing alarm bells. What worried him was the unknown scale of data centers.<\/p>\n

Other commissioners were contacted privately, too.<\/p>\n

In October, Commissioner Jack Wilson , but it was pulled before the court could take a vote. Wilson didn\u2019t respond to interview requests.<\/p>\n

The proposals kept coming. Three data center plans were submitted that December, and then four more between February and April of this year. They came with playful code names like \u201cFort Spunky\u201d and \u201cProject Panther,\u201d masking the names of the tech companies that would operate them.<\/p>\n

Developers said prosperity would follow. Ryan Hughes, a managing partner and founder of Sailfish Investors, the company developing the Comanche Circle data center, and two others, said in an email to the Tribune their project will bring \u201csubstantial private investment, significant tax base growth, and long-term economic benefits to the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the community would not be so easily convinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cGut Punched\u201d<\/b><\/h2>\n

That October, a white sign went up on a barbed wired fence near the Crawford\u2019s home. It was a notice from an energy company seeking a state air permit to build a power plant. The Crawfords worried this was connected to rumors they\u2019d heard about a data center nearby.<\/p>\n

Their fears were soon confirmed. The Comanche Circle project was attempting to locate next to their property.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just a rumor,\u201d said Laura Crawford. \u201cWe felt gut punched. \u2026 How can this even be?\u201d<\/p>\n

A photo of the sign went up on Facebook. Ranchers, retirees, and longtime residents built an information network almost overnight. Neighbors knocked on doors and warned people about industrial buildings and massive electricity and water demands nobody could quantify.<\/p>\n

They flooded Facebook groups with comments and huge banners that read: \u201cDon\u2019t data center my Hood County\u201d at their property fencelines.<\/p>\n

The online group quickly evolved into a nonprofit called Protect the Paluxy Valley. The Crawfords began hosting meetings in their backyard. Laura Crawford, who is a retired accountant, said she works around the clock most days researching data center proposals and organizing local opposition. She asks residents to call their commissioners.<\/p>\n

In January, the group flooded the county commissioners\u2019 chambers at a meeting to consider the concept plan for the Comanche Circle project.<\/p>\n

Residents feared the project would strain the electrical grid and drain their local aquifer. In an email to the Tribune in June, Hughes said the concerns about water use are overblown, noting two nearby golf courses are using more water per acre than his three data center proposals combined.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like 112 Walmarts on a piece of property,\u201d . He said there was not enough information from the developer for commissioners to make an \u201cintelligent decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Impatience filled the chambers. Many residents had already been dealing with persistent noise from nearby cryptocurrency mining operations, another industrial project the county had approved.They urged commissioners to not repeat the same mistake and to deny the project\u2019s plan until they have more details on the data center\u2019s impact on traffic, roads, public safety, the watershed, and noise.<\/p>

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At that same meeting, county commissioners reviewed a recommendation by the development commission, a citizen advisory group,<\/b> and their accompanying power plants. At the time, two other data center proposals had been submitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather deal with a lawsuit, than destruction of our land,\u201d said Matt Long, a member of the development commission, during the public hearing.Long lives with his wife and nine children in Pecan Plantation, a community that could neighbor one of the county\u2019s proposed data centers.\u201cYou were elected to make hard decisions,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

But when the vote came, the Commissioners Court tabled the temporary moratorium discussion and voted to grant Comanche Circle a conditional approval, requiring more detailed plans later.<\/p>\n

This time, Eagle was the lone dissenting vote.<\/p>\n

A State Lawmaker\u2019s Threat<\/b><\/h2>\n

By February, Eagle was desperate and feeling the immense pressure from his constituents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who voted me in. They demand that me, as their elected official, do what I can to slow this down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He proposed a six-month moratoriumon new industrial development, including data center projects. He and Samuelson believed the county needed time to better understand the scope of what was coming.<\/p>\n

The day of the vote, it was standing room only \u2014 residents lined the walls and some who couldn\u2019t fit were listening from outside the doors. The meeting dragged on for eight hours.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Andrews and Massingill, the county judge, repeated that Texas counties had little authority to restrict development, warning that a moratorium could trigger lawsuits the county could not afford to fight.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>I\u2019m going to encourage you to be brave and stand firm for the people of this county,\u201d one resident told the commissioners.<\/p>\n

Eagle argued that Hood County had unique legal authority to act.He pointed to a 1999 state law granting Hood County\u2019 special powers to protect the watershed feeding Lake Granbury and the Brazos River in unincorporated areas. It\u2019s why the commissioners reviewed concept plans to begin with. If industrial projects threaten the watershed, he argued, the county could use this tool to intervene.<\/p>\n

Before the commissioners cast their votes, the county attorney revealed a threat from a lawmaker more than 250 miles away. <\/p>\n

Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican, sent a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that same day asking him to \u201cinvestigate\u201d any counties seeking to implement moratoriums and \u201cexplore any necessary legal actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eagle said the timing of Bettencourt\u2019s letter wasn\u2019t a coincidence. Samuelson urged her colleagues to stand strong: \u201cThere are times when you need courage; stand on principle even if you stand alone.\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n

Bettencourt, chair of the Senate Committee on Local Government, later defended the letter in an interview, arguing Texas could not allow counties to block growth with \u201ca crazy patchwork quilt\u201d of regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point is simply that counties don\u2019t have the constitutional authority to issue building moratoriums,\u201d he said in a social media post about Hood County.<\/p>\n

Inside the Commissioners Court, Bettencourt\u2019s message landed hard; momentum vanished instantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you how disappointed I am,\u201d Eagle said beforethe vote. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to wonder what kind of backroom stuff is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioners killed the moratorium 3-2, with Eagle and Samuelson voting for it.<\/p>\n

Data Centers Sue<\/b><\/h2>\n

In February,the citizen group packed a town hall of about 50 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a fence around us on what we get to do. We are working with a severe handicap,\u201d Eagle told the group, referring to the Legislature.<\/p>\n

The next weekend members of the group, including the Crawfords, boarded a busbefore sunrise and rode three hours to Austin carrying signs that read, \u201cSupport real intelligence not AI\u201d and \u201cLow regulations bring big data centers.\u201d They rallied outside the Capitol, demanding a statewide moratorium, then drove back thatsame day \u2014 arriving home at after sunsetso they could attend Commissioner\u2019s Court the next day when the data center moratorium would be back on the agenda.<\/p>\n

The second moratorium vote failed exactly like the first.<\/p>\n

But in that meeting, commissioners passed a resolution asking Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special legislative session to address the concerns about the industry\u2019s massive electricity and water demands.They also directed staff to ask Paxton to clarify whether Hood County has the legal authority to temporarily halt development under its watershed protection law.<\/p>\n

Abbott did not respond to questions about a special session, butspokespersonAndrew Mahaleris said, \u201cMeeting the water and energy needs of Texans remains the Governor\u2019s top priority, and these facilities are required to bring their own water and to disconnect if Texans don\u2019t have what they need. Governor Abbott will continue to work with the Legislature to protect Texans and ensure their voices are heard.\u201d Paxton did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The commissioners started testing their limits.<\/p>\n

In March,commissioners voted unanimously to amend their development regulations, adding stricter requirements for large industrial projects, including data centers.<\/p>\n

They expanded the requirements needed in concept plans, including detailed disclosures on water sourcing, energy use and infrastructure, environmental and drainage impacts. They also shrunk the footprint of a new development: buildings, parking lots and other structures could only cover 10% of a property, down from 50%.<\/p>\n

Long, who helped craft the rules in his role on the development commission, admitted that the strategy was to make the rules strict enough \u201cso none of them come, no more come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The changes had immediate consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cFort Spunky,\u201d an 862-acre campus that has requested to pull 100 megawatts from the grid and requires up to 20,000 gallons of water per day, had previously had its concept plan approved by the commissioners.But the plan was brought back to the floor after a local water utility board denied the developer\u2019s request for water. Commissioners argued that without a guaranteed water source the project needed to be reconsidered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fears \u2026 are all detached from reality,\u201d said Kevin Pratt, an executive with the developer Pacifico Energy, at the meeting. \u201cThe court, through political pressure, keeps moving those goal posts over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioners revoked the previously approved concept plan, 3-2.<\/p>\n

While the decision was met with cheers from the crowd, Massingill warned, \u201cwe\u2019re all in for litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

About three weeks later, the lawsuit was filed.<\/p>\n

The company claimed the county lacked legal power to deny the project based on concerns about water.<\/p>\n

Thelaw firm Husch Blackwell, representing Pacifico,stated in the lawsuit that the commissioners\u2019 decision was \u201cunlawful and premature.\u201d The company asked the court to block the county\u2019s actions, and is seeking monetary relief of no less than $250,000.<\/p>\n

More developers came after Hood.<\/p>\n

Commissioners twice delayed voting on two other projects,dubbed \u201cProject Red and Project Yellow,\u201d that together would cover 677 acres neighboring two existing power plants.<\/p>\n

The commissioners demanded more transparency from developers about their operations and required them to comply with the county\u2019s new development regulations before they would vote.<\/p>\n

They were hit with another lawsuit, accusing the county of illegally delaying the data centers.<\/p>\n

On April 6, Hughes, whose Comanche Circle data center had already received conditional approval, joined the chorus of legal threats to send a letter arguingthat they should have never been forced to submit a proposal for review to begin. Texas counties only possess powers explicitly granted by the Legislature, he wrote, and Hood County did not even have powers to require a concept plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitical opposition to data centers does not create new county powers,\u201d said Hughes in an email to the Tribune. The lawsuits remain pending.<\/p>\n

Purgatory<\/b><\/h2>\n

Last month, more than 160 people filled a ballroom in Hood County overlooking the Brazos River for another town hall,hosted by Mark Lowery, a Republican running for county judge \u2014 the official who leads the commissioners court. He is running unopposed and describes himself as \u201ca solid no\u201d for data centers, unlike Massingill, who chose not to seek reelection.<\/p>\n

The ballroom\u2019s seats quickly filled. Residents aren\u2019t giving up. They still want to fight. After speaker introductions, the brainstorming began to \u201cright this ship,\u201d as one person said, and to keep exploring ways to stop data centers.<\/p>\n

For now, counties like Hood remain stuck in purgatory, watching rapid development overwhelm their communities while waiting for state policy to catch up. Many believe change won\u2019t come until at least 2027, when lawmakers reconvene in Austin.Some state officials have expressed interest in expanding counties\u2019 regulatory authority over data centers. In the interim, lawmakers have been charged with studying the development of data centers and examining the total water usage of data centers in the state.<\/p>\n

The development commission has recommended reviving the Hood County data center moratorium proposal, but those efforts have so far been unsuccessful in being added to the commissioners\u2019 agenda.<\/p>\n

But on May 12, nearby Hill County approved a one-year pause on the construction of new data centers in unincorporated areas, citing public safety and public health concerns, a vote that commissioners took despite the same risks Hood County officials are facing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe data center folks have found a sweet spot in the state that has limited regulations,\u201d said Hill County Commissioner Jim Holcomb. \u201cI think it\u2019s imperative \u2026 that we tap the brakes and we get our arms around what we\u2019re faced with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christine Leftwich, the Hood County clerk, said her county\u2019s failure to do the same has \u201cbeen the biggest disappointment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHood County should have been the tip of the spear,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Alex Ford, Apurva Mahajan, Emily Foxhall and Taylor Goldenstein contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n

Disclosure: Facebook, Google, Microsoft and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here.<\/em><\/p>

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This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.\n

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At least 248 data centers are planned to be built in Texas \u2014 nearly half in unincorporated areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[480],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-data-centers"],"yoast_head":"\nOfficials powerless to stop 8 new data centers that could transform small Texas county - Relocation Across America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=275\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Officials powerless to stop 8 new data centers that could transform small Texas county - 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