Who Has the Power to Handle Data Farms?

So on May 12th, Hill County did something no Texas County had done before.

Its commissioner's court voted to pause data center construction for one year.

But 23 days later, they rescinded it unanimously.

Now, what happened between? I'm sure you're wondering.

Well, a developer called RCM Hill filed a federal lawsuit in Austin.

Texas counties aren't allowed to zone in the way that cities can.

Cities have zoning power, counties do not.

They can't block a development in that way, and according to the Attorney General's office, they can't even pass a building moratorium the way that they did.

And so when the biggest land rush in state history comes looking, it skips cities altogether and heads straight to the unincorporated county line.

Almost half of all planned data centers in Texas are now headed for unincorporated county land, up from 12% today.

And so that's a structural shift in where the largest projects in our areas are going and where developers are choosing to pursue.

They know a county has no veto, so they shop for the county that suits them.

Now, in Hood County, southwest of Fort Worth, eight planned data centers, sixth most of any county in the state, and third most per square mile.

One project called Fort Spunky covers 862 acres, runs 100 megawatts off the grid, and needs up to 20,000 gallons of water per day.

The local water board told them no, and the developer said the same thing that the previous candidate did, which was that they have no legal authority to deny water.

The large projects asking to connect to the grid add up to 439 gigawatts.

That's five times the all-time peak demand of the entire Texas grid, and 89% of it is data centers.

The iBoom needs power and land, and Texas has both.

The pitch is always about jobs and tax space.

One hood county Concept plan shows 2,000 construction jobs at the peak, which drops to 220 permanent once the cranes leave, and developers floated $5 to $20 billion in new tax base.

But you know how I feel about those projections.

Like any economic projections we get from our elected officials, they're always a little too rosy.

That number will quickly become 220, and people will forget all about it.

It might even become less than 220, and it won't get reported.

These companies aren't breaking the rules.