Fort Worth leaders receive data center recommendations that could lead to moratorium on development

FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth leaders could put a temporary moratorium on data center developments as the city learns how to manage the industry's growing impact.

Fort Worth data center moratorium

Local perspective:

On Tuesday, November 10, the Fort Worth Data Center & Infrastructure Commission, a commission appointed by the Fort Worth City Council in August, delivered recommendations on data center development in the city.

The commission gave 19 recommendations in total after studying four areas of data center development: electricity, water use, land use and neighborhood impacts, and economic impacts.

Some of the commission's recommendations include:

• Requiring closed-loop cooling systems to recirculate water rather than draw in new water
• Increase the distance from homes to data centers from 50 feet to 350 feet
• Enforce noise regulations on data centers

The recommendations could lead to a 90-day moratorium on data center development in the city, something that has been in the works since the committee was created in August.

Such a moratorium would allow the city to review the commission's recommendations and decide whether changes are needed to the city's zoning rules and development codes.

You can find the commission's full report below.

No action was taken on the commission's findings at Tuesday's meeting.

What they're saying:

Michael Slattery, the chair of the commission, tells FOX 4's Vania Castillo these recommendations would give the city a "roadmap" on how to move forward with data centers.

"It would give data center developers much more certainty. It's certainly not going to please everybody, and I think ever does. And I think that I think it starts to put some certainty around how to move this forward," Slattery said.

Some residents at Tuesday's city council meeting said the recommendations don't go far enough.

"Two months is not enough time to consider all of the issues involved with a data center," resident Julie Waters said. 

"Today, you have an opportunity to save your seat in the next election. Listen to the cries of your people who have come before you, meeting after meeting, asking for a moratorium. If not for your people, then for then at least to wipe away the stain of corruption on your reputation and legacy."

The backstory:

Fort Worth leaders have been considering their position on data center development since this past summer.

In early July, Fort Worth's zoning commission voted against new restrictions on future data center projects in the city, citing the need for more information on the rapidly-changing industry.

Several days later, five Fort Worth City Council members called for a moratorium on data center construction. They say the pause would allow the city to discuss and refine regulations on data centers.

That call led to the creation of the committee that gave today's findings.

Fort Worth currently has four operating data centers, with at least four more in development. 

What's next:

Fort Worth city staff say the next public hearing is planned for January 12, 2027. The earliest a data center moratorium could be enacted is February 2027.

Officials noted that existing sites and projects already moving through the application pipeline would be exempt from the moratorium if the policy is formally adopted next year.

Fort WorthTechnologyEnvironment