The 7-2 vote capped months of debate surrounding the fate of the 121-acre project, a keystone of the 1,756-acre Rock Creek Ranch development straddling a portion of the Chisholm Trail Parkway just west of Crowley.
Residents of Panther Heights, a subdivision on the property’s northern edge, fought the proposal vehemently, claiming the data center would endanger the environment and aesthetic of the surrounding area. The developer, Arizona-based real estate company Walton Global, countered that the center would pose no threats to its neighbors, environmental or otherwise; it would, instead, be a great economic boon for the city, and most Fort Worth leaders ultimately agreed.
“Some of the concerns that were raised tonight, as well as throughout this entire process, you have addressed,” said District 6 council member Jared Williams, addressing the developer’s team. “The benefits are really great for this project.”
Walton representatives first pitched the project to the Fort Worth zoning commissioners in May. The company already had city authorization to build commercial buildings on the parcel it applied to rezone, but its venturehinged on securing two special permissions: adding data centers — typically found in industrial areas — as an acceptable land use, and increasing the allowed building height on the site from 45 to 105 feet.
Peer firms have built up massive data center campuses in other once-rural corners of Fort Worth, hoping to capitalize on the city’s ample open space and the country’s ever-growing appetite for digital information. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, runs a $1 billion data storage center in the Alliance Corridor, on Texas 170. Dallas-based Prime Data Centersplans to start construction on a three-building data complex near Benbrook in September.
“This site is highly sought after for a major data center investment,” said Walton-affiliated consultant Travis Clegg of Rock Creek Ranch, pointing to the property’s proximity to the freeway, Tarleton State University and nearby homes. “That data center could process data for AI services, cell phone connectivity, cloud storage, and streaming services.”
City planning staff didn’t find the plan appropriate, despite its financial potential.
“Data centers are not allowed by right in any commercial zones. Additionally, the proposed zoning does not match the spirit and intent of the approved Rock Creek Ranch Concept Plan, which calls for this site to be developed as mixed use,” staffers wrote in their case report. “Data Centers are typically not active, contributing buildings, and are more of a boxy warehouse type of building, with little employment generated and minimal attractive qualities.”
Some Panther Heights residents found this lack of vibrancy appealing.
“The data center is the best choice for this parcel of land,” said David Beckman, a long-time Panther Heights resident and once firm opponent of the project. He and his neighbors, he explained, feared massive influxes of noise, people, and traffic; a data center, he reasoned, invited far less of each than a shopping center or bundle of apartments.
His wife Linda, the president of the Panther Heights homeowners association, agreed.
“I spent time at the data centers on Alliance at [ Texas] 170 and Park Vista Boulevard,” she said, standing below a seated row of her neighbors, some bearing “No to ZC-24-031” signs sketched in marker. “In the time I’ve spent by these buildings and their substations, there was nothing that made me feel that this would bring irreparable harm to any of my neighbors.”
Williams summoned a roster of city officials and Walton consultants to the dais to help allay the core concerns of critics.
“It won’t have any impact on the region’s [electrical] demand,” said Jorge Gonzalez-Rodiles, an engineering consultant hired by the developer. “If you stand by any one of these data centers during normal operation, you really won’t hear anything. They’re just like any other building.”
A Fort Worth budget analyst forecast that the city would rake in $5 million in annual tax revenue from the center upon its completion; the Crowley school district could levy $9.4 million off the property, making it one of the area’s most publicly lucrative.
Staunch skeptics were unmoved.
One resident, capturing the angst of many of his neighbors, described the proposed height of the complex as “intrusive.”
Others felt the data center ate up land better suited for more useful and dynamic spaces — like grocery stores, retail shops, and parks.
“You have a good strategic plan, and you follow it when temptation comes along,” said Paul King, a Panther Heights resident, echoing the concerns first flagged by city planners. “You may be building blight.”
Council members Chris Nettles and Gyna Bivens, also wary of the project’s potential height, voted to strike down the request. The rest of the council rallied behind Williams, who defended its virtues.
The data center would pump millions into the area’s public school system without significantly straining its resources, he argued. It would also supply well-paying jobs (around 150) to a burgeoning part of the city.
Walton had also pledged to make plenty of concessions, Williams continued: laying down trails and green space separating the subdivision from the site; beautifying the site itself to make it more pleasing for onlookers; and preventing construction vehicles from cutting through residential streets.
And approving the zoning change, he reassured them, wouldn’t cut a blank check.
“You all have to come back, not only to the zoning commission but to city council and before the neighborhood — to make sure the promises you committed to, you uphold.”
©2024 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
