Wichita Falls council rejects rezoning to allow large data‑center campus near Shepherd Air Force Base

The Wichita Falls City Council on May 5 voted down a rezoning and special‑use request that would have allowed a multi‑building data‑center campus north of Airport Drive and near Shepherd Air Force Base. Council members and dozens of residents spent more than an hour and a half questioning developers and staff about traffic, noise, lighting and water use before the motion to approve failed at the meeting’s close.

Staff opened the public hearing by explaining the applicant’s request: to convert three zoning districts covering about 95.82 acres and 21.11 acres into a planned unit development (PUD) that would lock a site plan and add higher standards for mitigation and screening while explicitly allowing data centers and excluding cryptocurrency mining. Planning staff said the PUD would let the city require traffic, sound and lighting studies and set limits at the property line.

Brad Altman, representing TxData, and members of his development team described a phased campus and said they were not committing to an end user at this stage. The developer presented a conceptual layout of nine two‑story buildings and described mitigation measures including decibel limits for neighboring properties, down‑shielded lighting and contractual requirements that would bind future owners. “We went through not only the sound, but the light, the traffic…to alleviate those concerns,” Altman told the council.

Residents pressed the team on environmental and public‑safety risks. “What happens when it contaminates our groundwater, our aquifers?” asked Annette Stream, citing a recent, out‑of‑state lawsuit involving a data center. The project’s mechanical engineer, James Kalei of Trane Technologies, said the site’s proposed cooling system would be a modern closed‑loop design and would require an initial system charge — ‘‘for a 350‑megawatt facility, about 500,000 gallons for initial flush and fill’’ — and then modest ongoing use ‘‘about 25,000 gallons per year’’ for humidification, which he compared to the annual water use of a single household. Kalei added the team would perform on‑site sound and lighting testing to confirm compliance.

Other residents and council members said the campus felt too close to housing and a mobile‑home park, and they questioned who would ultimately build and operate the facilities. Council members repeatedly asked whether requirements placed in the PUD would be enforceable if the land changed hands; staff said the PUD governs the property and would bind subsequent owners, and special‑use conditions would be applied at permitting.

Despite those assurances, several council members said too many unknowns remained. One council member noted the area’s heavy daily traffic serving Shepherd Air Force Base and said adding construction and operational traffic raised safety and congestion concerns. After deliberation the council took a voice/hand vote on a motion to approve the rezoning and special use; the motion failed and the council did not grant the PUD.

The rejection leaves the applicant with the option to revise the PUD and return with additional studies and tighter assurances, or to pursue other land‑use configurations. Planning staff and the developer said they would continue to work on traffic, lighting and sound studies and that any future developer would still have to comply with the PUD’s limits if the council reenacts a similar ordinance.

The public hearing reflected a split in the community: several speakers and former officials said data centers bring tax benefits and infrastructure investment, while many residents urged more protections for groundwater, noise and neighborhood livability. No vote tally with member names was recorded on the motion at the time of the meeting.

The council did not set a new hearing date; next procedural steps will depend on whether the applicant revises the proposal or submits additional evidence to alleviate the council and residents’ concerns.