Red Oak residents pack city council meeting to protest 800-acre data center project

Red Oak residents push back on building data center

The City of Red Oak is discussing building a data center on existing farmland, but many residents are against the idea. FOX 4's Vania Castillo has more on what residents have said during tonight's city council meeting.

RED OAK, Texas - There were so many people at the Red Oak City Council meeting that FOX 4 reporters were almost not allowed inside the room, due to the nearing maximum occupancy. 

The capacity was 136 and there were at least 70 people who had to wait outside. 

Proposed data center sparks heated council meeting

What we know:

Everyone was in attendance regarding the proposed data center development in Red Oak.  The proposal would rezone more than 800 acres of agricultural land for the project.

But as with many of these data center projects, there are concerns about the demand for power, water supply and noise. Further frustrating some of the Red Oak residents who oppose the data center, the Red Oak City council went into executive session for almost an hour.

Residents raise concern over data center

Local perspective:

Residents were told they were only allowing those that were in favor of the data center an hour in total to talk, and those against the data center an hour to talk as well.

City leaders attempted to dispel some of the concerns by saying it would not draw on city water for cooling the center, and pointed out the millions of dollars in tax revenue that the data center would bring. 

The Red Oak residents did not care to hear it.

"How many are next to your house?"

What they're saying:

"How many of these data centers are next to your house, Mr. Mayor, how many are on the east side of town? Some of y'all should start taking a real close look at where you live, and think about what one of these centers is going to look like when they build it," said Red Oak resident, Martel Edwards.

"And we don't know what's going to happen to the children who are going to be going to schools. All of our schools over there, the high school and the junior high are going to be pretty close to this new patent board facility. Y'all don't know what's going to happen," said Kim Sterman, another Red Oak resident.

Dig deeper:

Some residents told FOX 4 that they were frustrated and felt that city council went into executive session as long as they did, in hopes that some of the residents would leave. But the Red Oak residents weren’t going anywhere and said they’d be willing to stay until 2 a.m. if that’s what it took.

Tax Revenue vs. Quality of Life

What's next:

The meeting remains ongoing as city council members are expected to start hearing from people in favor of the data centers.