Tech vs. Tradition: Small Texas Town Embroiled in $1 Billion Data Center Battle Over Promised Parkland

TAYLOR, Texas — A legal showdown in a small Texas town highlights the growing tension between rapid tech expansion and community preservation.

At the center of the controversy is an 87-acre vacant plot of land in Taylor, Texas. In 1999, a local family signed the land over with a strict, deeded condition: it must be held in trust as future parkland for the community. Instead, the Taylor Economic Development Corporation recently sold the property to Blueprint Projects LLC for $10 million.

Blueprint Projects plans to construct a massive, three-phase, $1 billion data center on the site. The 135,000-square-foot facility is designed to house heavy server infrastructure for data storage and Artificial Intelligence processing.

City officials strongly defend the sale. They project the data center will generate roughly $50 million in new tax revenue over the next ten years, split between city services and the local school district. Officials claim these funds can be used to improve infrastructure and build public parks in alternative locations.

However, the local community—particularly residents of the historically Black and brown neighborhood adjacent to the site—is pushing back. Neighbors express deep concerns that the energy-intensive facility will strain the local power grid, deplete water supplies, and cause utility bills and property taxes to skyrocket.

Led by resident Pamela Griffin, the community filed a lawsuit to enforce the original 1999 deed restrictions. A judge has issued a temporary injunction, halting all development on the site while the case is reviewed by the Third Court of Appeals.