Westlake Approves Data Center Deal After Keller Settlement

Westlake’s Town Council on Thursday, Nov. 12, approved a developer’s agreement for a data-center campus after hearing public comment for and against the project, the town said in an official meeting recap posted the same night. The recap identified the action as Resolution 26-36, approved as presented.

WFAA reported later Thursday that the company behind the campus is PowerHouse Data Centers, and that the plans call for four buildings and 1.1 million square feet on a tract of about 88 acres where U.S. 377 meets Westport Parkway, on the northeast side of that intersection. Official minutes were not opened for this report, and neither the town recap nor WFAA published a roll-call tally. The vote described by both is approval of a development agreement, not the award of a construction contract or a building permit.

The Keller lawsuit was settled first

The council voted a week after a court fight by Keller neighbors was called off, WFAA reported. Town Manager Wade Carroll told the station the case has been dismissed and that Westlake was not a party to the settlement. The station said the deal was struck by the developer, the city of Keller, and a homeowners association. Plaintiffs named in that account were the Lakes at Marshall Ridge HOA and three residents, Linda Bjorn, Sharon Sanden, and Kevin Myers. WFAA said the settlement was signed Nov. 5 and appears on Keller’s website.

WFAA reported a payment due from the developer within 45 days, totaling $1.876 million, divided into a $1.5 million noise-mitigation fund, $300,000 toward fire protection, and $76,000 to cover Keller’s legal and consulting bills. According to the station’s account of the settlement, the earth berm is to be two feet taller than first planned, rising to 10 feet, noise will be watched for three years rather than one, and staging for construction is to be kept farther from houses. Night readings at residential property lines would be capped at 49 decibels from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m.; daytime readings at 56 decibels. Before the campus opens, the developer is to run a baseline noise study. The buffer planting must be majority evergreen, with dead trees replaced, diesel backup generators fitted with EPA Tier 4 controls, and generator tests confined to 10 a.m. through 4 p.m., the station reported.

A Westlake staff memo, as quoted by WFAA, notes that the town “has not agreed to allow another municipality to enforce” its ordinances inside Westlake. The council, the station said, also authorized Circle T Owner LP — the legal owner of the land — to reimburse Westlake for lawyer and public-relations costs tied to the lawsuit, and it approved a fresh mutual-aid pact with Keller. WFAA added that in September the town had already voted against renewing a police-services contract with Keller that is in force through Sept. 30, 2028.

Distance, water, and the arguments at the dais

Keller’s figure, reported by WFAA, is 506 feet from backyard lines in that city. Westlake, in a July 29 statement cited by the station, put the closest home inside Westlake at roughly two-thirds of a mile. The station described the last row of Marshall Ridge houses as backing up to a tree line, with the proposed yard on the Westlake side of those trees.

At an Aug. 4 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, the developer said the campus would take all of its power from Oncor and would draw roughly 165,000 gallons of water in an average day, WFAA reported. The same account said the permit would allow as much as 1.5 million gallons a day. Those figures are the company’s statements at that meeting, not an independent measurement.

Mayor Kim Greaves called the project a substantial investment. WFAA reported the town’s own estimate as about $5 million a year over the first decade, or about a 14 percent increase in town revenue. Those are the town’s figures, as relayed by the station. “We hate being called a bad neighbor, and hopefully this puts it behind us, and we will prove how well we will do this,” Greaves said, according to WFAA. She also said a project that produces that kind of revenue “with a handful of cars and issues like infrastructure” is “a good thing.”

Some Westlake residents spoke in favor. Wally Maya told the council he believes artificial intelligence and the centers that support it amount to a new industrial revolution, and that the town should not slow that kind of technological change, WFAA reported. Keller residents who spoke were sharply opposed. One said it did not feel like being a good neighbor. Don Trost rejected the town’s “responsible growth” language and called the project, in the station’s account of his remark, “a big stinking pile of BS.” Joshua Rabe brought a guitar and sang verses against putting a data center next to homes and a school, the station reported.

The official recap lists Town Hall at 1500 Solana Boulevard, Suite 7200, in The Terraces Building 7, Westlake, Texas 76262, and gives 817-430-0941 as the main telephone number.

Related reading: Lytle Approves Sewer Agreement for Project Cinco Data Center.