Taylor’s City Council approved a development agreement Oct. 8 that sets the rules for a 664-acre data center and gas-power campus on the edge of town, just five days before the city’s planning commission was scheduled to hold a public hearing on a new code for that kind of project.
The agreement, laid out in a 243-page council packet, declares itself the project’s “first permit.” KUT reported the vote was unanimous.
The site sits in Taylor’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, the unincorporated land just outside the city limits where the city has only limited powers. City staff told council that without the deal, “the project would remain in Williamson County, which has no zoning authority and minimal development regulations,” according to the staff summary in the packet. The agreement is the city’s tool for attaching standards to land it does not control.
The city used Section 212.172 of the Local Government Code, which lets a city contract with an owner of land in its extraterritorial jurisdiction to extend the city’s planning authority, apply development regulations, set annexation terms and specify how the land may be used before and after annexation. It is not a tax-abatement deal. The Taylor Press reported that the agreement carries no city or county incentives.
The packet lists what the developers, Taylor Technology Campus LLC and the landowners, agreed to build on 664.39 acres along FM 112: data center buildings, electrical substations, gas infrastructure and battery storage. Buffers are 300 feet on the north, east and west sides and 700 feet on the south for the data center, gas plant and batteries. Noise at the property line may not exceed the greater of 65 decibels or the pre-development level, measured after an acoustic study. Cooling uses a closed loop fed by reclaimed water, with a system volume capped at 1.575 million gallons. The agreement says air quality “will be enforced by” the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state environmental regulator. The developers commit about $28.2 million to community investments, including $10.2 million for Taylor ISD.
Section 5.2 says the developer “has vested authority to develop the Project in accordance with this Agreement” and that for purposes of Chapter 245 of the Local Government Code, the state’s permit-vesting law, the agreement “is the ‘first permit.'” Section 5.3, as summarized in the packet, lets the developer choose to follow later amendments to the standards when that benefits it. The city cannot make the same choice.
The council delegated approval of the project’s plat, the map dividing land into lots, to the city manager under Section 212.0065, with only the applicant allowed to appeal a denial to council. And annexation comes later: the developers must file a voluntary petition within seven days after the preliminary plat is approved. If they have not closed on the land by Oct. 8, 2027, or another termination event occurs after annexation, the agreement lets them petition for disannexation.
The Taylor Press reported a projection of $1.38 billion in city property-tax revenue from 2027 through 2046, about $69 million a year against roughly $21 million the city collects now. KUT reported Taylor ISD Superintendent Jennifer Garcia-Edwardsen backed the deal.
Opponents say it forecloses the city’s own rulemaking. The Taylor Press reported more than 20 residents spoke against it and that critics said the vote locks in the project ahead of the new guidelines. Resident Justin Irving told the paper, “This isn’t the end of this fight.”
The Planning and Zoning Commission meets Oct. 13 to hold a public hearing and make a recommendation on the city’s Phase 1B code update, which creates a new Section 4.4 for digital infrastructure uses, according to its agenda. Whether that section will reach the campus is answered by the agreement, not the hearing. The next filing to watch is the developers’ traffic study and preliminary plat, which starts the seven-day clock on annexation.
Prior Dispatch coverage: Taylor council vote preview; explainer on what counties can and cannot do.