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Water use, noise and cost are among some residents’ concerns as data center plans continue to expand in Cedar Creek.
The overview
Developer EdgeConneX is nearing completion of the first of 19 buildings across three campuses along FM 535—the first of which will be filled by AI cloud company CoreWeave. About 7 miles south, Pacifico Energy is pursuing a separate 2,842-acre data center and on-site natural gas power project.
Together, the four sites span about 4,306 acres.
“We had a beautiful forest; it’s all gone,” said Cedar Creek resident and business owner Maria Bowen, whose neighborhood sits less than 2,000 feet from EdgeConneX.
Damian Ameen, who also lives in Cedar Creek, said development is unavoidable, but “there does need to be control, and it needs to be balanced.”
“What’s this land going to be used for if we don’t use it for data centers?” he asked. “It’s not going to sit vacant. Not in this area.”
What's happening
Bowen said she learned that the construction she’d been watching for months was for a data center less than a week before EdgeConneX held three open-house-style meetings in mid-June. She found them helpful, but believes more should have been communicated—and sooner.
Like Bowen, other residents wished there had been more communication from the start.
“I have a lot of questions that I thought would be answered ... they couldn’t tell me specifics,” said Brittney Hoch, Bastrop resident and president of the Coalition of Democratic Allies.
Hoch said she hoped Bastrop County commissioners would take notice of residents’ frustration and reconsider or pause the projects; however, Bastrop County spokesperson Lyndsey Schroeder said that isn’t a decision counties can make, noting it lies more in permitting and abatement approvals. As of press time July 24, commissioners planned a public hearing July 27 to consider updated tax-abatement guidelines with stricter requirements.
Some residents are turning to community organizing for answers. More than 100 people packed into Bastrop’s Hampton Inn & Suites on July 22 for a cross-partisan town hall, where Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller called for a moratorium.
“We have got to put some guardrails around this industry, or we’re going to be in a huge train wreck,” he said.
Bastrop resident Linda Curtis, co-founder of the League of Independent Voters, spearheaded the event and said a lack of local transparency is creating confusion and frustration.
“We can choose anger or organizing for open government,” she said. “I choose the latter.”
What residents are asking
Others to watch
