A company representative identified as Modicon, speaking for Golden Hogglebeam LLC, told the Bastrop City Council the firm owns about 106 acres of a former paper-mill brownfield and plans a ballasted solar farm connected to modular data-center containers.

Modicon said the site is a certified brownfield that cannot be disturbed, so the company planned to use concrete ballast blocks to hold solar arrays above the soil. “This property is a brownfield site… You cannot construct on You cannot build on it… The soil cannot be disturbed,” Modicon said, adding the firm already procured solar panels and expects initial capacity in the single-digit megawatts to tens-of-megawatts range and to supply a colocated data center.

The applicant told the council the zoning board unanimously approved a special use permit on Jan. 27, and that the approval occurred before the council’s later 12-month moratorium on similar projects. “We were approved on January 27… our approvals have happened before this moratorium,” Modicon said.

Councilors pressed for details. One asked about investor origin and potential local investors; Modicon said investors are from across the U.S. and that local investors within a 50-mile radius were not known. Council members also asked for copies of signed documents and meeting records after some city records could not be located during a review. “I’m gonna go back and I’m gonna find the meeting,” a council member said, noting gaps between what the applicant produced and what staff could verify.

Christina Moore, an attorney for the applicant, asked the council to schedule a special session so the company could provide investor lists, approvals and other documents and requested interim guidance on whether the city could proceed with occupational licensing while procedural questions are resolved.

The council did not take a final vote on the project. Members requested that staff and the applicant deliver the documented approvals, signed paperwork and any public-records evidence used at the zoning board so the council can review the matter in a follow-up session.

The council also discussed the project’s likely local jobs: the applicant estimated roughly 10–15 permanent data-center positions and said construction and operations would involve additional contractor and temporary jobs. The applicant said the solar installation plus data center would create temporary construction employment and ongoing, higher-wage technical positions associated with data-center operations.

Next steps: Council requested the applicant and its attorney provide signed approvals and investor lists and suggested a special session to consider the project once the records are submitted.