Hood County residents lose fight to temporarily pause data-center development
Hood County residents who wanted a pause on data centers and other industrial development suffered another setback on Tuesday when commissioners voted against a temporary moratorium for a second time.
After the 3-2 vote, many in the audience chanted “resign, resign.”
Hood County commissioners Kevin Andrews and Jack Wilson, and County Judge Ron Massingill, voted against a proposal for a six-month moratorium to study the impacts of data centers and other large scale developments on water use, traffic, pollution and health concerns.
Alex Wolf, who lives in Granbury, said in an interview that he presented a petition during the commissioners court meeting with over 200 signatures calling on Andrews and Wilson to resign because they were not listening to their constituents.
Wolf, who owns Zev Martial Arts, moved to Granbury 10 years ago to raise his family.
“For me personally, (data centers are) just something I don’t want in my backyard,” he said.
“If we have local government that is not listening to the people, that to me is perhaps a larger issue than data centers,” Wolf said.
Wolf said his original intent was to submit a recall petition, but the Texas Constitution does not allow that for county commissioners, he said. He added that he got most of the signatures while attending a protest against data centers on Saturday in Granbury’s town square.
Commissioner Dave Eagle brought the six-month moratorium proposal back for a second vote after Van Zandt County commissioners voted unanimously in favor of a moratorium on green-energy projects. The proposal stated that companies had to show that components used in battery-storage facilities did not come from countries including China, Iran and North Korea that are listed in the Lone Star Cyber Security Act.
Before the vote on the moratorium, Eagle pointed out that Hood County has special protections under a section of the Local Government Code, subchapter 231K, which grants special protection of the Brazos River watershed, which is entirely in Hood County.
The subchapter, adopted by the state legislature in 1999, authorizes Hood County to regulate development in specific unincorporated areas to protect the Lake Granbury and Brazos River watershed.
“The entire county is a watershed. Do we not have a duty to protect that,” Eagle said.
But Andrews said state law doesn’t give counties the authority to issue moratoria. He cited several court cases supporting his position.
Andrews said he was elected to represent the people in his district, but he has to follow the law.
“I was asked to follow the law, and I have to uphold the law,” Andrews said.
Andrews described visiting a data center in Irving where he stood 5 feet from the roof and was able to carry on a conversation, stating that noise was not an issue.
Massingill said he wants to see the state legislature give counties the authority to have more control over regulations and also to have the authority to issue a moratorium. But Massingill added that he is concerned about saddling taxpayers with high legal bills if the county is sued over a development moratorium.
“If you want to spend money and lots of it, get a litigation going on.”
He referred to a lawsuit filed against Hood County by Mara Holdings, a bitcoin-mining company over allowing an election on the Nov. 3 ballot to incorporate an area called Mitchell Bend. Mitchell Bend residents wanted to incorporate in hopes of regulating noise and pollution from the nearby crypto-mining company. But they lost the election last November.
But those who spoke implored the commissioners to temporarily pause going forward with data centers because of concerns over noise, pollution traffic and concerns about what the data centers would do to their quality of life.
State Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield, urged commissioners to enact a temporary moratorium since the county has special protection for the watershed to allow more time to study the concerns surrounding data centers.
“I would implore that this commissioners court use that authority that has been given,” Cook said.
Cook was the mayor in Mansfield before he was elected to the state legislature in 2020.
Molly Tanner, who is 14, described how she loves playing outside with her brothers and sisters.
“My concern is my health and my siblings’ health,” she said.
“As a teenager, I shouldn’t have to worry about that. What’s going to happen when construction starts. If these data centers go up we will have to move, and this has caused a huge amount of stress on my family,” she said.
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 7:18 PM.