Overview
- Red Oak’s city council approved rezoning for a roughly 830-acre Compass Datacenters campus after a packed meeting that stretched late into the night.
- Residents warned about noise, heavy traffic during construction, water runoff, light pollution, lower property values, and how close the site sits to homes and schools.
- The council set limits on noise and lighting, banned cryptocurrency mining, and said cooling would use a closed-loop system that does not rely on city water.
- Planners had urged denial, and the council passed the plan in a 4–1 vote as staff touted $72 million in grid upgrades and a $2.82 million, 10-year tax break.
- In a related step, Somervell County voted to ask state leaders to pause new data center applications and to give counties more zoning power, citing a surge from about 40 planned projects two years ago to nearly 400 this year.