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Taylor residents are suing their city in an attempt to force it to call an election on a resident-led initiative to temporarily ban data centers.
The suit in the 3rd Court of Appeals comes after the Taylor City Council this month declined to take action on the residents' petition, which called for suspension of approvals until the city creates a new zoning designation specifically for data centers. The water- and electricity-hungry developments are facing increasing pushback across the state.
City officials said state law does not allow them to change zoning by popular vote. But leaders of the petition - which garnered more than 1,400 signatures - are asking the Austin court to force the city to take action, arguing in part that its failure to do so in their July 9 meeting violated the state's Open Meetings Act.
"This is not about whether data centers belong in Taylor - it's about whether our city charter means what it says," said Jose Orta, a resident and community organizer. "We believe the charter required the council to act. They didn't. Now we're asking the courts to compel them to do their job and call an election as required by the Taylor city charter."
The suit aims to force the city to place the petition's proposal on the ballot by November.
State law and zoning changes
It came after residents packed Taylor City Hall on July 9, expecting the City Council to act on their petition. The drive for signatures came after residents learned that an 87-acre tract that had been deeded to the city for a public park in 1999 is now being slated as the site for a data center.
City officials have since said they verified the petition was valid, saying it "far exceeded" the threshold of signatures from at least 10% of registered voters. That's the minimum Taylor's city charter says requires the City Council to either enact the proposed ordinance within 30 days or send it to voters at the next general election. Taylor had 10,852 registered voters as of July 9, according to Williamson County data.
But minutes into the item's public comment period, the city announced it would not act on the measure.
"I want to be clear that this is a determination about the legal process available to the city, not a judgment on those concerns," Mayor Pro Tem Kelly Cmerek said. "Texas law does not allow zoning to be enacted or changed by popular vote, so the council cannot place this measure on the ballot."
This week, the city declined to comment on the suit, which was filed Friday.
It argues the city's decision to take no action, which was posted on social media during the meeting before any vote was taken, violated the Texas Open Meetings Law, with the residents alleging the decision was made earlier in private.
"The fact that a determination was made and published prior to any consideration on July 9, 2026, necessarily means that the ‘determination' was made in executive session or otherwise in a non-public meeting prior to the July 9, 2026, city council meeting," Christopher Osborn, an attorney representing the residents, said in an interview.
Like many cities in the Austin-San Antonio area, Taylor has seen a boom in industrial and data center development. Samsung Electronics' $17 billion Taylor chip factory has already drawn several data developers to the suburb north of Austin.
In March, Taylor City Council unanimously approved plans for a $2.5 billion data center next to the Samsung plant. Nearby Hutto also has given a green light to several data centers, including Skybox's 160-acre, 600-megawatt "PowerCampus."
In 2024, Taylor approved a 135,000-square-foot data center by Blueprint Data Centers at 1601 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The site is about 500 feet from a neighborhood of about 35 predominantly Black and Hispanic families on the south side of town. Pushback eventually led to a lawsuit against Blueprint, though the case was dismissed by a state District Court judge in October. The plaintiffs have appealed.
Outside the ongoing legal challenge, Taylor is already considering changes to its zoning code, including heightened restrictions for "digital infrastructure" developments.
The proposed regulations would set restrictions on water and energy usage, noise levels, light and air pollution, setbacks from nearby homes and require annual transparency reports from data center operators, according to the city documents. Council members are expected to vote on the new zoning code in September.
Data center growth
The state stands to gain billions of dollars in investment from such development, as well as thousands of temporary construction jobs. But local and state officials have raised concerns about the strain data centers could place on infrastructure in a state that's already facing water shortages and whose power grid has struggled to keep up with growth.
In response to the groundswell against such developments, Gov. Greg Abbott recently called for a pause on data center development in rural areas. Several legislative committees are conducting hearings on the issue this summer ahead of the 2027 session.
The Austin City Council this week is set to discuss water restrictions for data centers, including an evaluation of how the projects use non-disclosure agreements to protect their corporate customers.
Hays County approved a six-month pause on approvals for the developments after its county seat, San Marcos, decided to outright remove data centers from its zoning code. Henderson, Hill, Hood, Somervell and Van Zandt counties all have weighed data center moratoriums and called for either a special session or for the issue to become a top legislative priority when lawmakers convene in January.
The attempt to ban or pause data center development is tricky for county governments, which lack zoning authority. Counties and some cities, including San Marcos, have faced threats of lawsuits for restricting development.
There already are at least 76 projects operating or planned between Temple and San Antonio, according to data maintained by the Austin American-Statesman, with about 5,600 megawatts currently under construction in the Austin and San Antonio metro areas.
Read this story on statesman.com
