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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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As the use of artificial intelligence continues to grow and the data centers needed to power it become increasingly unpopular among Americans, a fierce battle is being waged in Texas to stop the development of a 1.1-million-square-foot data center just outside Dallas.
The project by Virginia-based developer PowerHouse consists of four buildings on an 87.9-acre site along Denton Highway in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Westlake.
City officials have greenlit the project, saying in a social media announcement last month they expect it to generate an estimated $5 million annually in revenue for the first 10 years and $7 million annually after that. They say the facility would also create 75 jobs, while using 54 million gallons of water per year.
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That is a rather small number compared to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) estimates that a medium-sized data center can consume up to roughly 110 million gallons of water per year for cooling purposes—the equivalent of the water used by a town with a population of 10,000-50,000 people.
Westlake homeowners and a nearby Buddhist monastery have expressed concerns about being so close to the planned facility and the impact of the infrastructure on their health and the areas’ noise levels, according to an NBC 5 DFW report.
Residents of the neighboring city of Keller have also expressed skepticism about the project, saying they feel they had no say in a decision that would also impact them.
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Keller Residents Gripe About the Data Center
One Keller resident, Jesse Smith, in response to Mayor Ross McMullin, wrote on Facebook that “there’s a not-zero chance that a data center this close to Keller will ‘not’ affect our water supply or electricity supply and rates.”
Another resident, Melissa Stafford York, wrote, “It’s crazy that they are supposedly allowed to build this on their fence line where it does not impact them but only their neighbors. It’s like putting a landfill on your fence line by your neighbors’ house. ‘They’ are getting financial rewards while Keller pays the price.”
The data center is slated to be built less than two miles away from Ridgeview Elementary School, which school board election candidate Barbara Brewer spoke about with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, saying her “concern is for these kids. How is it going to affect them?”
McMullin said Westlake’s decision to approve the proposal was also surprising.
“My City Council colleagues and I were unfortunately surprised by the news as well,” he wrote on Facebook.
While vowing to advocate for Keller residents, McMullin admitted to Keller having no zoning or land-use authority over this property, as the data center would sit entirely on Westlake ground.
“Since this project sits entirely inside Westlake’s municipal boundaries, Keller leaders cannot rezone the land, deny permits, or impose any conditions on the development,” McMullin wrote.
The city of Keller government later wrote on social media that, despite trying to discuss residents’ worries with Westlake officials, their concerns were not “meaningfully addressed.”
Westlake officials fired back, saying the proposal for the data center was discussed with Keller officials at a December 2024 meeting attended by former Keller Mayor Armin Mizani and City Manager Aaron Rector, according to the Telegram.
Mizani later wrote on Facebook that the meeting depicted the data center as a proposal, not a final project.
On August 12, Keller’s City Council issued a unanimous resolution opposing the data center in Westlake; a few days later, on August 19, it authorized legal action.
Lakes at Marshall Ridge homeowners association (HOA), which represents a Keller neighborhood next to where the data center will be built, sued Westlake, along with two residents.
On that same day, a Tarrant County judge issued a temporary restraining order on the project, siding with the plaintiffs who said that moving forward with the project would have caused imminent and irreparable harm to nearby residential property.
Westlake’s Pro-Data Center Arguments
Westlake officials have promised transparency about the data center project, reassuring residents that they will not feel any financial pain due to the construction. They say the facility will provide an economic boost to the town.
The city website says residents’ electricity bills will not increase due to the project, adding that the data center has actually paid provider Oncor to bring infrastructure to the west side of Westlake and drop a 350-megawatt substation near the pump station, “at no cost to residents.”
The additional power, officials said, will be used for both the pump station and future expansion of the Westlake system, “making power more reliable in town.”
The city has also addressed concerns about noise levels connected to the data center, saying it will comply with Westlake’s ordinances of no more than 56 decibels from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and no more than 49 decibels from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
“That’s equivalent to a household refrigerator,” the city said.
Homeowners v. Westlake: The Lawsuit
On Wednesday, a Tarrant County judge heard arguments from the lawyers of the Lakes at Marshall Ridge HOA and from the town of Westlake.
According to the plaintiffs, the site plan does not mention a setback and landscaped buffer mandated by the town’s zoning ordinance between the data center and single-family homes and it failed to mention the facilities while considering an amendment to nearly double permitted building heights, according to a CBS News report.
“Can you imagine the difference between having like a Walmart behind you as opposed to a Cowboys stadium behind you?” attorney John Friedman, who represents the plaintiffs, said on Wednesday, according to the CBS News report.
“They’re going to have this big data center with lights going on. I mean, it’s going to be lit up center all day, every day, 24 hours a day, right behind them.”
Newsweek contacted Westlake city authorities and Friedman for comment by email on Thursday.
The judge left the temporary restraining order on the project in place but is expected to make a decision on whether to lift it or extend it next week. As of now, it will last until September 8.
Americans’ Growing Dislike of Data Centers
The case in Texas is unfolding as the tide is turning against data centers across.
A July poll by Emerson College found that 63 percent of U.S. voters oppose AI data centers being built in or near their community, up 21 percentage points from when the question was last asked in December 2025.
The poll was conducted between July 19 and July 20 among 1,100 likely 2026 voters.
According to the Data Center Opposition Report, a group that documents grassroots opposition to facilities across the U.S., there are at least 580 local data center opposition groups across 43 states—organizing through Facebook. In total, these groups have 640,000 members.
This grassroots opposition has forced state leaders and lawmakers to scrutinize the facilities more closely and be more skeptical of new projects and their effect on surrounding communities.
In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott has directed the Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to audit all proposed data center projects seeking to connect to the state’s power grid before construction moves forward.
The Texas Tribune reported in June that Texas had 335 existing data centers, with at least 248 more in the works, based on data from Cleanview.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson and Geoffrey Rowland.
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