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Emily Holshouser<\/p>\n
A meeting room at the Benbrook United Methodist Church was filled with dozens of both Benbrook and Fort Worth residents on March 16 as they discussed a data center development aimed at the far southwest edge of Fort Worth.<\/p>\n
Across town, residents in southeast Fort Worth and the nearby city of Forest Hill have been protesting the development of another $10 billion data center<\/a> that has raised questions about how nearby cities benefit when a data center comes to town, and about the potential health and environmental risks associated with data centers.<\/p>\n Many of those same questions were asked Monday night as the group of Benbrook and Fort Worth residents \u2014 an autonomous group, loosely organized until something more formal is decided \u2014 discussed how to voice their concerns about a proposed $1.1 billion data center.<\/p>\n In June 2025, the Fort Worth City Council approved the rezoning of 186 acres<\/a> owned by PMB Capital Investments in the Veale Ranch development, near the intersection of Interstate 20 and Chapin School Road.<\/p>\n Fort Worth is now considering a tax break for Edged Data Center<\/a>s, a subsidiary of sustainable infrastructure company Endeavor, for a data center to be developed on that land. Council members discussed the proposal at the March 3 work session, and it is expected to be on the agenda at the council\u2019s March 31 meeting.<\/p>\n The data center would be in the city of Fort Worth, in District 3, near Benbrook\u2019s southern edge.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200b\u200bEverybody\u2019s heard some of the news about them building that data center on the east side of Fort Worth over by Everman, and those people\u2019s voices screeched out to the City Council,\u201d Gary Hogan, president of the Chapel Creek neighborhood association, told the crowd. \u201cThey are making a difference. Will they win? I can\u2019t promise you that.\u201d<\/p>\n Hogan said that he helped form a neighborhood group in the early 2000s<\/a> to advocate against unsafe drilling in North Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe already know and have heard for years that our grid is perilous,\u201d Hogan said. \u201cEven when we get freeze or wind warnings or heat waves in the summer, we get news from the governor saying, \u2018don\u2019t worry, we got it under control,\u2019 but they always end up having mass electricity go down.\u201d<\/p>\n The data center will include an Oncor substation, according to the tax agreement proposal, and ERCOT, the state\u2019s power grid, has signed off on the development. The site plan includes a buffer from nearby housing developments.<\/p>\n Jan Brignac, president of the Markum Ranch neighborhood association, began mobilizing her neighbors after hearing about the proposed development in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a dog and pony show,\u201d Brignac said. \u201cWe have done so much stuff to try to keep everybody informed.\u201d<\/p>\n Krista Erbe, a Fort Worth resident who came to the meeting, said she felt empowered seeing her neighbors come together.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s fantastic seeing how many people showed up and are voicing their concerns and hoping we can keep this movement going forward and organize everybody in a way that actually makes a difference,\u201d Erbe told the Star-Telegram. \u201cThis is not something we can stop. This is technology. This is the future, and unless massive laws change, I don\u2019t know that we can stop them, but I do think we can impact how they\u2019re done.\u201d<\/p>\n The group agreed to delegate people to give public comment at the Fort Worth City Council meeting held at 10 a.m. March 31 at the City Council Chamber, 100 Fort Worth Trail.<\/p>\n