Judge blocks Westlake vote on controversial data center, granting restraining order to Keller HOA
A Tarrant County judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Town of Westlake from voting on or taking action to approve the proposed data center development agreement.
A Tarrant County judge granted a Temporary Restraining Order at the request of the Lakes at Marshall Ridge Homeowners Association in Keller to prevent the Town of Westlake from voting on the development agreement. Specifically, the order prevents the town and its officials from holding a vote on, approving, adopting or taking any action to implement Resolution 26-25 concerning the Circle T Data Center, including at the special meeting underway on Monday.
The order was issued at 3:01 p.m. The special hearing was already underway in Westlake, where the town council was set to vote on the data center development agreement.
A hearing is set for Aug. 26 at 10 a.m. in the 342nd District Court. The council voted to table the vote until after the hearing.
The controversial Westlake data center
The data center is planned to sit on land near Highway 377. That's near the border of Keller's Marshall Ridge neighborhood, and those residents are concerned about regional impacts.
The council says the land is already approved for a data center, and that power, water use and noise considerations were all taken into account during the approval process.
The developer said in Monday's special meeting that it plans to have an independent entity conduct a noise study after the data center is built to make sure they're in compliance with Westlake's rules and confirmed the development will go through Gov. Greg Abbott's audit, and it will take months.
Last week, the City of Keller sent a resolution to Westlake, formally expressing its opposition to the data center.
