Overview
- Westlake's Town Council approved the development agreement on Thursday, Nov. 12, clearing the way for an 88-acre, roughly 1.1 million-square-foot data center near U.S. 377 and Westport Parkway.
- A negotiated settlement tied to the approval requires nearly $2 million in payments that include $1.5 million for noise monitoring and community programs, $300,000 for Keller Fire Rescue, and smaller sums for legal and consulting costs.
- The deal mandates specific protections such as daytime and nighttime noise limits at residential property lines, an independent baseline noise study, quarterly monitoring for three years after operations begin, a 10-foot landscaping berm with tree-replacement rules, and EPA Tier 4 controls with generator testing limited to daytime hours.
- Keller obtained contractual rights to enforce the noise, screening and operational requirements even though the site sits outside its city limits, and the settlement dissolved the homeowners' temporary court order that had blocked the project.
- The approval resolves months of local litigation and resident opposition but deepens tensions between Westlake and Keller and raises wider questions about Texas's rapid data center growth, local services impact, and potential state-level scrutiny.