‘Half-measures’: Residents push Fort Worth for stronger data center rules
Fort Worth and Tarrant County residents got an opportunity June 30 to stroll through a city open house presenting a series of rule changes aimed at regulating data center development.
Representatives from several city departments along with the Texas Public Utility Commission and Tarrant Regional Water District were stationed at tables spread throughout the City Hall lobby to answer questions on the city’s proposals to regulate water use, pollution, and economic development incentives.
The event came four weeks after a June 2 City Council presentation outlining proposed changes to the city’s rules.
Some of the suggestions include a ban on cryptocurrency mining data centers and requirements for noise barriers to reduce stress on nearby residents.
Roughly 300 people attended with several saying the event was helpful, while others were skeptical whether the proposed regulations would have any teeth.
“I see a lot of half-measures,” said Alexander Montalvo, a Fort Worth resident and activist pushing the city to establish a data center moratorium.
While having some regulation is better than the city’s status quo, Montalvo argued the city’s proposals don’t address resident concerns around water use, electricity use, zoning regulations and noise pollution.
“That’s not leadership. That’s just pacifying us for corporate interests,” he said.
Arlington resident and longtime JPS nurse Helen Ratliff said the event was helpful, but left her with more questions than answers.
“The infrastructure, whose paying for it? Whose going to eat the costs?” she said.
Ratliff, who has three grandchildren in Crowley, also raised concerns about the potential health impacts on children.
“I’m a nurse, so I know those concerns are valid,” she said, adding that her daughter is considering leaving the Crowley area to avoid data center development.
The city’s regulations haven’t been finalized, and the June 30 event served as an opportunity for residents to provide feedback on how the city should move forward, assistant city manager Jessica McEachern said.
McEachern spent most of the event talking to residents, and taking notes on their feedback.
Along with written and online surveys, this feedback will be used to guide the regulations that ultimately get voted on by the city council at its Aug. 11 meeting, she said.
The Fort Worth zoning commission is expected to take up the regulations governing land use at its 1 p.m. meeting on July 8 at city hall.
Fort Worth should be leading the way on data center regulations, said Mayor Pro Tem Carlos Flores.
“I don’t think we should wait for the state,” Flores said, adding that Fort Worth could serve as a model for how cities regulate data centers.
Wedgewood resident Will Wells said he appreciated the city’s attempt to regulate data centers, but wasn’t sure the rules would be meaningfully enforced.
He pointed to the proposed noise regulations, which will limit data centers noise to no more than five decibels above the noise level before the data center was built.
For the average resident, a fine for a noise ordinance violation would hurt, but for the large companies operating these data centers, it’s the cost of doing business, he said.
The city’s current noise ordinance caps violations at $500, however, it does offer carve outs for things like city permitted events and gas well drilling.
For gas well drilling — which is regulated by a separate section of the city code — noise violations can result in a fine of up to $2,000 per day.
Representatives for the city did not immediately respond to an emailed question asking if the noise rules will impose heftier fines for data centers.
This story was originally published July 1, 2026 at 1:51 PM.
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