Granbury data center power plant sows transparency concerns
Update: Granbury council approves rezoing for data center.
As the city of Granbury prepares to hold concurrent meetings that will decide the fate of a potential power plant for a data center development, tensions swirl between residents and city officials surrounding their transparency — and some are threatening legal action.
At a Jan. 6 meeting, residents expressed fear and anger as the Granbury City Council approved the annexation of 2,090 acres, known as Knox Ranch, that straddles Meadow Wood Road, south of U.S. 377 and north of Paluxy Highway. The land is owned by Granbury Reddy Land Partners.
On April 7, the Granbury City Council will meet to decide whether to rezone that newly annexed land to allow the construction of a power plant.
At the Jan. 6 meeting, Granbury city manager Chris Coffman said that city leaders had not received any communications from a developer interested in the land.
Residents have claimed that city leaders did indeed know about the development — a claim that Coffman told the Star-Telegram Tuesday afternoon is “spreading misinformation.”
“I’m tired of this crap,” Coffman said. “People are lying about what I’ve said and what we’ve done … these people are nuts. They don’t have any knowledge of what’s going on, and they’re making lies and accusations about my staff.”
Dallas-based developers Bilateral Energy received approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in July 2025 to build an “electrical generating facility” with eight turbines and 87 linear generators at 1225 Meadow Wood Road, in the center of the property.
In July 2025, the Granbury City Council approved a letter of support and a proposal for a tax agreement for “Project Patriot,” but the details of the agreement were discussed in executive session.
The name, Coffman said, was his invention.
“I gave it that name because we’re in a cyber war for security, a cyber Cold War, and if the nation doesn’t rise up, we’re going to all be speaking Mandarin,” Coffman said.
That agreement, according to a letter of support from the city addressed to representatives with Bilateral Energy, outlines a 60% city property tax abatement on both real and personal property owned by the developer for 10 years, and 1% electricity sales revenue shares derived from the property’s onsite electricity generation.
In exchange, the city asked Bilateral for a $2.7 billion capital investment and the creation of 60 full-time jobs paying $90,000 per year.
Coffman said that although the city had been approached by Daniel Wong — director of Bilateral Energy — he had been unaware of any company that Wong worked for.
Coffman said that after the letter was sent, his economic development director Shea Hopkins entered into talks with Bilateral, eventually getting the city a tour of a data center in Irving on Jan. 5 led by Wong.
Emails from Jan. 2 show that members of the Granbury City Council — in addition to staff from Granbury’s city manager and economic development offices, and Hood County Commissioner Jack Wilson — were listed in a group set to be shown data center equipment.
Coffman told the Star-Telegram that he did not think that the tour he was receiving was from Bilateral Energy — he thought the tour was being offered by Edged Data Centers, another data center developer that has faced opposition for its plans near Benbrook.
Coffman maintained that the first time he learned of Bilateral’s involvement with a data center project coming to Granbury was at the Jan. 6 meeting, and said that anything else was a mischaracterization.
“I had no idea there was a company named Bilateral Energy until I saw the permit after we annexed them,” Coffman said.
Coffman shared a letter with the Star-Telegram, sent to him by the law firm Dias Hall Law on April 6, asking him to preserve communications pending potential legal action.
The letter names four people, and “currently unnamed taxpayers, ratepayers, and registered voters of the City of Granbury and/or Hood County, Texas” as the law firm’s potential clients. The city of Granbury, along with the council members, city manager and economic development staff, and Hood County Commissioner Jack Wilson — as potential defendants or “sources of pertinent information.”
The City Council will also consider new design and zoning standards for data centers, which would “provide supplemental standards to safeguard the interest of the City,” at Tuesday’s meeting.
The public hearings Tuesday on the rezoning and the design standards are at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 116 W. Bridge St.
This story was originally published April 7, 2026 at 3:58 PM.
