Fort Worth punts zoning from $10B data center amid ‘lingering questions’
The developers behind a proposed $10 billion data center and business park in southeast Fort Worth have hit a speed bump in getting nearly 500 acres rezoned for the project, as leaders from nearby cities ask for more information.
Black Mountain, the Fort Worth-based energy consortium developing a data center, was scheduled to go before the Fort Worth City Council on Jan. 13 to ask for approval to rezone 42 acres.
At the meeting, District 8 council member Chris Nettles said that the request would be tabled until Feb. 10.
The delay came after leaders in Forest Hill and Everman, who spoke to the Star-Telegram about the development that’s near their cities, said that they reached out to Nettles and asked him to reconsider.
“I only learned that one of these cases was coming before you tonight from a reporter,” Everman city manager Craig Spencer wrote in an email to Nettles that was shared with the Star-Telegram.
The cities want to support the data center, Spencer wrote to Nettles, but not without more discussions with Black Mountain and the city of Fort Worth.
“I think at the end of the day, the city of Everman will likely support this project,” Spencer wrote. “However, there are just several lingering questions that we would like to seek the answers to and share with the community so that support is not in vain.”
On Jan. 14, Black Mountain CEO and founder Rhett Bennett, and Bob Riley, a consultant working on behalf of Black Mountain, asked the Fort Worth Zoning Commission to recommend rezoning another 38 acres for the project. That land is located on Anglin Circle.
In a presentation to the commission, Riley said that Black Mountain would conduct studies,and comply with the city of Fort Worth’s codes, to address concerns about traffic and noise.
The request was unanimously approved by the Zoning Commission, with an amendment for Black Mountain to submit a site plan, sending it to the Fort Worth City Council for the final say.
Bennett previously told the Star-Telegram the development would generate about $30 million annually in tax revenue and create “hundreds of high-skill, high-wage full-time jobs in technical facility operations, logistics, and security” with average wages of more than $75,000.
