$10B Fort Worth Data Center Gets Win From City Amid Pushback

Tribune News Service — The Fort Worth Zoning Commission at its meeting on April 8 unanimously voted to recommend that the City Council approve a request from Black Mountain — a Fort Worth-based energy consortium looking to develop a $10 billion data center on Fort Worth’s southwest edge — to amend parts of its development proposal.

Black Mountain has already petitioned Fort Worth to rezone roughly 431 acres for the data center, even as public opposition to the project has grown. Two rezoning requests for roughly 87 acres are scheduled to go before the Fort Worth City Council in June after questions from city leaders stalled the development’s progress.

On Wednesday, the Zoning Commission reviewed the site plan for the data center portion of the development for the first time. The 187-acre site, at the corner of Lon Stephenson Road and Forest Hill Drive, was initially rezoned by the Fort Worth City Council in 2025.

The site plan was discussed with residents in Forest Hill at a tense meeting March 11. The data center campus, standing 68 feet tall, would encompass 232.5 acres, with four buildings, according to the site plan. There would be 2.2 million square feet of enclosed space with an Oncor electricity substation in the center of the property. The site would also include roughly 300 parking spaces. Buildings would be made out of concrete, glass and metal.

The site plan includes a 70-foot increase in the setback against Lon Stephenson Road, putting the edge of the campus 150 feet away from single-family residential zoning.

Houston-based BCEI is listed as a developer on the site plan, with Kimley-Horn listed as the engineer.

Local residents who spoke to commissioners said a promise from Black Mountain CEO Rhett Bennett to introduce the future data center’s operator to residents at a community meeting has not been fulfilled.

Residents called for the Zoning Commission to continue the motion to June, after the city has had time to review informal reports and briefings on data centers that are coming ahead of the next City Council meeting.

“This is a huge behemoth of a data center that’s going to cause so many issues for Fort Worth,” Jaime Perkins, an environmental advocate who lives in Arlington, told commissioners.

Commissioner Tammy Pierce asked Bennett about what data centers are used for, the power infrastructure they need, and whether the data center might cause health risks to surrounding neighborhoods.

Bennett said that data center developers in Texas must get approval from the state’s power grid to operate, and that according to environmental studies performed by Black Mountain, the data center would not create any health risks.

Pierce told the commissioners that data centers are a part of progress.

“I trust the city of Fort Worth, I trust our leadership team, I trust the due diligence that you have done,” Pierce said. “It sounds like to me, these data centers with AI and all the demands of 5G, is part of progress. And with progress, people are afraid of change.”

The Weston family, which owns Fort Worth’s historic Weston Gardens, met with Bennett to discuss the data center recently.

Jackson Weston, Weston Gardens president and son of its owner, Sue Weston, said the conversation was productive, but his family still has concerns about the project.

“I feel overall kind of neutral, a little bit disappointed, but I predicted that,” Weston said about the vote. “We’re looking forward to the City Council and preparing for that.”

The Zoning Commission unanimously voted to recommend that the City Council approve the planned development amendment with eight requests from city staffers related to the site plan.

©2026 Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.