Commission approves zoning change to allow data center at Rock Island and Hard Rock Road with screening and generator conditions

The City of Grand Prairie Planning and Zoning Commission on Jan. 27 approved a zoning change and concept plan to add a data-center use to a planned development district for a 16.8-acre site at the southwest corner of Rock Island and Hard Rock Road.

Staff (Savannah) summarized the proposal as a two-story, roughly 401,000-square-foot data center that would include parking, generators, a guard shack and a potential future substation. The plan development standards submitted with the zoning change would define a data center as a facility that houses collections of servers and associated components for remote storage, processing and distribution of data to off-site end users. Staff recommended approval with several conditions: prohibit cryptocurrency mining in the PD; enclose and screen the generator yard with a 25-foot concrete wall (as depicted on the concept plan); require any office-warehouse development to…