A site plan for a data center at the Keller-Westlake border was approved by the Westlake Planning & Zoning Commission Aug. 4 before a capacity crowd at town hall.
Westlake officials announced a data center would be constructed in the town’s southern limits next to the Marshall Ridge housing subdivision in Keller. Many of the 40-plus speakers at the meeting were from Keller.
What happened?
The Westlake commission approved the site plan following more than two hours in closed session, which was preceded by nearly two hours of public comments.
Some stipulations to pass the approval include:
- Install either a series of sound barrier walls, a minimum of 8 feet in height, or as required to visually screen the data center from line of sight along the entire length of the southern boundary of the property, except the entry drive
- Install sound barrier walls and/or acoustics around all HVAC cooling towers, generators, fans and any other similar equipment that are designed to be compatible with the architectural design of the building
- Provide immediate and continuous visual screening using evergreen and hardwood trees with a minimum of 3-inch caliper along the entire length of the southern property
According to a Westlake spokesperson, land use had already been established and a data center is within the permitted uses. The Aug. 4 meeting was to determine if the site plan complied with the development standards criteria approved in Town Ordinance 307.
The outlook
With approval from planning and zoning, the next step is Westlake Town Council voting on the plan, which is set for Aug. 18.
Deputy Town Manager Jason Alexander said that as long as the developer was compliant with provisions, the plan should be approved.
According to documents, no construction is permitted to take place on the site until the development agreement has been passed by council.
“The city of Keller remains in close communication and in full support of our residents, particularly those in the Marshall Ridge community,” Keller Mayor Ross McMullin said in an Aug. 5 statement to Community Impact. “We also expect our neighbor to the north to treat our residents with the same courtesy and respect as they have over the longstanding history of our towns. In that spirit, we will continue to fully review the processes and procedures related to Westlake’s project and will continue to work with our residents to best support them.”
The details
Jeff Parsons, senior vice president of development and construction for American Real Estate Partners and PowerHouse Data Centers, spoke at the meeting to present details on the four-building complex on 90 acres. Town documents call the development the Circle T Data Center, and no timetable was listed for the construction.
Circle T Ranch is part of AllianceTexas, a 27,000-acre master-planned development in north Fort Worth.
Parsons said the company was purposeful with the design and cited major corporate headquarters located in Westlake, such as Charles Schwab and Deloitte.
“We wanted to take a nod from all of that, have a high level of architecture and aesthetic to the project and really be considerate of all our neighbors around us,” Parsons said.
Zooming in
The location will have an Oncor switchyard north of the town of Westlake’s existing pump station with capacity for 350 megawatts.
During the presentation, PowerHouse Data Center stated that the data center would use 300 megawatts and the remaining 50 megawatts would be available for use within the Westlake community.
The presentation stated there would be a 75-foot buffer from U.S. 377 and a 220-foot landscape buffer on the south side of the property, which abuts to Keller city limits.
The building footprint to the property line, which is next to residents on Llano Court in Keller, is 506 feet away. The closest Westlake house is more than 1,200 feet away, according to previous reporting.
The development will have two ancillary buildings: a security building at the main entrance and a pump/water treatment building near two water storage tanks, which will hold 5.5 million gallons of water.
The average daily water demand is 165,000 gallons per day with a peak of 1.5 million gallons per day, according to the presentation. The four data center buildings will demand 54 million gallons per year, which is less than 1,000 homes, according to the city’s website on the development.
The background
Former Westlake Planning & Zoning commissioner Linda Bjorn addressed the board about the lack of transparency about the data center.
She said she was on the commission when a list of potential developments that included multifamily housing and a data center was discussed in December 2024. She questioned the water and electrical usage for a data center and was told a PowerPoint presentation was shared with Keller city staff.
When she inquired about when that information was shared, she said she was told the document could not be found.
When another meeting for the property was scheduled for January 2025, Bjorn said Westlake Mayor Kim Greaves called to remove her from the commission. The town website does not have any agenda item or minutes to acknowledge her removal.
“The night before the session, I received a call from Mayor Greaves that I was being removed, replaced on P&Z effective immediately,” she said. “I asked why, and he stated this is due to my vision not being aligned with the current town of Westlake's business vision plan.”
She criticized the town’s handling and verbiage on water infrastructure improvements approved in the May 19 meeting. Teague Nall and Perkins, Inc., was awarded an $830,000 contract for the design of an elevated storage tank project after identifying the need for additional storage capacity within the town’s water distribution center, according to council documents. There is an estimated construction cost of $8 million for the new tank and it would be awarded in the fall of 2027.
“Our Westlake leadership has said all the wonderful things this water tower and data center will do for us,” Bjorn said. “But if we can't trust them to be transparent or tell the truth about the data center, or at least find such records of it, how can we take their word on the benefits?
What they’re saying
Terry Wilkinson, the Westlake Planning & Zoning Commission chairman, said he drove past the proposed data center property and the residential houses near it in Keller.
He said he then made the 2.3-mile drive to the Facebook Meta Data Centers located in the Alliance area of Fort Worth.
“I got out and walked several areas around the perimeter and there was an obvious noise generated from that campus,” Wilkinson said. “However, whenever I encountered areas where there were berms, that sound was greatly mitigated.”
He asked the developer to add additional berms near the southern boundary.
