A Data Center Is Proposed Near You: What Now?

1 Find out early

You usually get only 10 to 15 days’ warning before a city zoning hearing, and 30 days to act on a state air permit notice. Set up alerts before a project is announced. Official notice comes through these channels:

The 200-foot mailing rule means most neighbors never get a letter, because a data center tract is often hundreds of acres. Don’t count on the mail.

• Join TCEQ’s county mailing list. Send the Chief Clerk your name, address and county. You’ll get every air, water and waste notice filed there.
• Watch city and county agendas. By law they are posted at least 72 hours before each meeting, usually online.
• Watch the legal notices in your local paper, and look for rezoning signs on large tracts.
• Search TCEQ’s Commissioners’ Integrated Database for new permits by county or company name.
• Follow the tax breaks. Abatement and economic development deals often reach a council or school board agenda before any zoning request.

Some projects need no rezoning at all. A site already zoned for industrial use is “permitted by right”, and unincorporated county land has no zoning. Then the TCEQ permit may be the first public notice there is.

2 Zoning hearings

Zoning is the strongest local lever, but only inside city limits. Texas counties have no general zoning power, so on unincorporated land there may be no zoning vote at all.

Inside a city

A data center usually needs a rezoning, a specific use permit or a development agreement. That means a public hearing at the planning or zoning commission, then another at city council. At both:

1. Sign up to speak. Most cities cap comments at 2 to 3 minutes and require sign-up before the item.
2. Submit written comments too, so they go into the record.
3. Stick to what the council can legally weigh: land use, noise, traffic, water and sewer capacity, and fit with the comprehensive plan.
4. Bring neighbors. Council members count heads.

After a decision

A person aggrieved by a city staff decision on a specific project who owns property within 200 feet can appeal to the Board of Adjustment within 20 days. A Board of Adjustment decision can be challenged in court within 10 days.

Outside city limits

The county can still act on roads and driveway permits, floodplain rules, subdivision plats and some nuisance issues. Commissioners court meetings are public and take public comment. Tell your state representative too: the lack of county authority is a live issue for the 2027 legislative session.

Open meetings law applies. Councils and commissions must post agendas at least 72 hours ahead and deliberate in public. If a deal seems to have been decided behind closed doors, write down what you saw and when.

3 Air permits

Any data center with its own gas turbines or diesel backup generators needs a TCEQ air permit. For some air permits, the right to a contested case hearing is lost if nobody requests one within the window in the first notice (NORI). Read that notice the day you see it.

1. Application filed
2. First notice (NORI) + site signs
3. Technical review
4. Draft permit (NAPD) + comment period
5. Response to comments + decision letter
6. 30 days to request a hearing or reconsideration
7. Commissioners vote or SOAH hearing

The NORI and the NAPD are your two chances to get into the record. Anything you want argued later has to be raised in a comment during the comment period.

What to file, and when

File online at tceq.texas.gov/goto/comment, or by mail to the Office of the Chief Clerk, MC 105, TCEQ, PO Box 13087, Austin TX 78711-3087. Include the permit number and the applicant’s name.

To qualify as an affected person

You must show the permit would harm you in a way not shared by the general public, such as your health, safety or use of your property. Your request needs:

• Your name, address and daytime phone
• The permit number and applicant name
• A clear statement that you are requesting a “contested case hearing”
• Where your home or property is, and how far it is from the facility
• How you would be harmed differently from the general public
• The disputed issues, each one raised in a comment during the comment period

A group can request a hearing if it names at least one member who qualifies. A contested case is a trial-like proceeding before the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH). A lawyer isn’t required, but it helps.

Free help: TCEQ’s Office of Public Interest Counsel (512-239-6363) explains the hearing process. The Public Education Program (800-687-4040) can tell you where an application stands.

4 Water

Water approvals are split among several bodies. Start by finding out where the project’s water will come from: a city utility, new wells or surface water.

• New wells: your groundwater conservation district. Most of Texas is covered by a local district that permits large wells. Applications get public notice and a hearing before the district board. Many districts want a written contested case request shortly before that hearing (Lost Pines GCD, for example, asks for it at least five days ahead). Rules differ, so read your district’s as soon as an application is filed.
• River or lake water: TCEQ water rights. New surface water rights go through TCEQ, with the same comment and hearing process as air permits.
• City water and wastewater. If the city supplies it, capacity comes up at the zoning hearing and in any development agreement. Ask how many gallons a day the site will use at full build-out, and in a drought.

5 Tax breaks

A property tax abatement needs two public votes, and the second requires 30 days’ notice. That makes it one of the most predictable openings to weigh in. Tax breaks are also a real bargaining chip: in September 2026, AWS dropped its Hood County bid rather than give up a 90% property-tax rebate.

How a Chapter 312 abatement works

1. The city or county designates a “reinvestment zone.” It must hold a public hearing first, with newspaper notice at least 7 days ahead. Anyone may speak and present evidence for or against.
2. It votes on the abatement agreement. The meeting notice must go out at least 30 days ahead, naming the property owner and applicant, the zone, what will be built and the estimated cost. A majority of the full governing body must approve it at a regular meeting.
3. The agreement can last up to 10 years, and each other taxing unit (county, hospital district, college district) can sign its own deal.

What to ask for at the hearing

• Clawback terms that recapture the taxes if promised jobs or investment don’t materialize. The law allows them but doesn’t require them.
• Annual compliance reports, which the owner must certify to each taxing unit.
• Water use, noise and setback conditions written into the agreement itself.

Watch for the side doors. Details the company submits with its application are confidential until the agreement is signed, and public after. Cities and counties can also offer incentives as economic development grants (Chapter 380 for cities, 381 for counties), which don’t follow the same 30-day notice rule. School districts can’t grant 312 abatements but can offer value limitations under the state’s JETI program. Signed abatements are reported to the Texas Comptroller, and the Governor has said he will ask the Legislature to eliminate data center incentives in 2027.

6 Get the records

The Texas Public Information Act lets anyone get copies of existing government records without saying why. If a city or county needs more than 10 business days, it must tell you when the records will arrive. To withhold anything, it usually has to ask the Attorney General for a ruling.

How to ask

• Send a written request to the public information officer by email, mail or hand delivery. Many cities have an online portal.
• Ask for records that already exist. The office doesn’t have to answer questions or create new documents.
• Keep a copy of your request and proof it was received.

What to request

• Nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) signed with the developer or a consultant by the city, county or economic development corporation
• Emails and texts between officials and the developer, its lawyers or site selectors, for a set date range
• The zoning, platting or permit application and any site plans
• Tax abatement or Chapter 380/381 applications and draft agreements
• Water and wastewater capacity studies, and any “will serve” letters
• Meeting calendars for the mayor, city manager and economic development director

If they stall, call the Attorney General’s Open Government Hotline at 512-478-6736 or toll-free 877-673-6839, or file a complaint with your district or county attorney.

Your rights and who to contact

You have a right to notice, to speak at zoning and tax hearings, to comment on state permits and to see public records. If you own nearby property, you may also be able to protest a rezoning or request a contested case hearing.

Checklist and timeline

Most of the first two groups can be done in the first week.

Want it on paper? Download the printable one-page checklist (PDF) with the key deadlines and phone numbers, to hand out to neighbors or bring to a meeting.