Wichita Falls City Council members rejected rezoning an area for a proposed data center.
According to News Channel 6, the council’s rejection of the project was unanimous, citing that members did not support placing a data center near residential properties at this time. This decision came despite “a revised offer from representatives of the land aimed at addressing community concerns” after the original proposal was tabled by the city council earlier this year.
Surrounded by residential and general commercial areas, the proposed project located between IH-44 and Spur 325 would have contained nine double-story 150,000 sq. foot buildings on nearly 117 acres, which is larger than the original proposal of 98 acres.
Council members backed their decision at Tuesday’s meeting with concerns over the close proximity to residential areas, additional traffic due to construction, and uncertainty of the project’s developer.
Local residents also showed up and spoke against the project during public comment, expressing concerns over water usage, electricity demand, and environmental impacts.
The original rezoning application for the project was presented in January to the Planning and Zoning Commission, whose commissioners voted to recommend approval of the plan to the city council. City council members took up the rezoning application at their February 3 meeting, but tabled it until their March meeting.
Between the February and March meetings, the original application was withdrawn and was replaced with a Planned Unit Development (PUD), allowing for “tailored development standards in lieu of a conventional base zoning district.”
The PUD was intended to “accommodate a data center campus by establishing flexible development standards that recognize such facilities as critical infrastructure requiring specialized site design, security measures, and operational considerations, while maintaining compatibility with surrounding land uses.”
Although this particular project seems to be indefinitely stalled, local news outlets report that there are similar data centers projects elsewhere in North Texas.
