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Red Oak annexes hundreds of acres and rezones 718 acres for proposed data center complex
Summary
The city approved two voluntary annexations totaling roughly 418.7 acres and rezoned about 718 acres to allow a large data center complex; council set landscaping, screening, noise and construction-hour requirements in the planned development ordinance.
The Red Oak City Council on Jan. 13 voted 5-0 to approve two voluntary annexations and a zoning change to allow a proposed data center complex on lands in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ).
The council approved: (1) ordinance No. 25-001 for roughly 96.564 acres in the Lucy Vaughn survey; (2) ordinance No. 25-002 for roughly 322.1244 acres in the John Bell, William H. Morris and James M. Riggs surveys; and (3) ordinance No. 25-003, which rezones approximately 718.1238 acres to permit a data center complex and associated infrastructure. All votes were 5-0.
Nut graf: The rezoning establishes a planned development (PD) tailored to data-center operations and includes standards intended to limit visual, noise and lighting impacts on nearby residences while allowing high-capital, low-occupancy industrial uses.
Planning staff described the conceptual site as including 17 data center buildings, three administrative buildings, 11 switch stations and nine detention ponds, with access points from FM 983, FM 813 and Sutton Road. The PD requires 3-inch-caliper trees at intervals along major frontages, 50 percent shrub screening where properties abut residentially zoned parcels, interior parking landscaping and a minimum eight-foot black wrought-iron security fence. Maximum building height in the PD is 70 feet; construction hours were limited to Monday–Saturday, 7 a.m.–7 p.m.; and fixed equipment, including generators, must include sound attenuation. A maximum 70 dBA limit for noise was specified comparable to other data center PDs the city has approved.
Applicant Dylan Adame of Kimley-Horn Associates, who identified himself at the meeting, said the company had designed the site layout to locate buildings and equipment yards toward the interior so external screening can be effective. Adame told council the team had tried to follow the city’s screening and photometric standards and said they would submit more detailed landscape and elevation plans with later development submittals.
Councilmembers asked about a creek running through part of the tract (Brushy Creek) and about an adjacent planned residential development; staff said the PD’s landscape and screening provisions were designed to reduce impacts on nearby single-family lots. The planning commission recommended the zoning change on condition that the property be annexed, a condition the council satisfied by approving the annexations earlier in the meeting.
Ending: Council approved the annexations and the PD-based zoning 5-0. City staff said developers will return with detailed construction and landscape plans for staff and council review before building permits are issued.
