Fort Worth Started a Data Center Moratorium Process. A Freeze, If Any, Is February.

Fort Worth City Council didn't put a 90-day freeze on data centers when the meeting ran past midnight on August 11. It voted unanimously to start the state-law process that could produce one later. Under Local Government Code Chapter 212, Subchapter E, the first public hearing is due no later than November 10, 2026. Adoption, if it happens, is tentatively February 16, 2027, and it needs a supermajority. Vested and already-filed projects keep moving.

Watch the full council session (our Granicus remux, about 5 hours 34 minutes): youtube.com/watch?v=aIczekSJ99Q.

National and local rewrites already say Fort Worth "paused" data centers. The vote was unanimous on process. The freeze date isn't today.

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What actually passed

Four data-center actions cleared the dais, plus a water-design update that now hits new facilities on Fort Worth Water.

1. Resolution 26-6059 (unanimous, Council Member Elizabeth Beck motion): directs the city manager to initiate a 90-day moratorium process under Ch 212 Subchapter E. First hearing no later than Nov 10. Process starts. No pause yet.
2. DCIC resolution (10-1, Council Member Macy Hill no): creates the Fort Worth Data Center & Infrastructure Commission.
3. Slattery appointment (10-0, Hill recused as TCU trustee): Dr. Mike Slattery (TCU Institute for Environmental Studies) chairs the commission.
4. Chapter 14 ordinance (10-1): new applications must show PUCT and/or ERCOT interconnection approval.
5. Water design criteria (adopted): new data centers on city water must use closed-loop cooling and obtain NSIU pretreatment permits.

Not voted: the June/July zoning, noise, and incentive package (250-foot setbacks, 5 dBA above ambient, crypto ban, $500 million incentive floor). Zoning Commission had denied the zoning piece 7-4 on July 8. City Manager Jay Chapa pulled those regs after five council members asked for a moratorium track instead.

Assistant City Manager Jesica McEachern said it on the dais: until new regs are adopted, a new application that comes in vests under today's rules. The Chapter 14 filing gate doesn't stop that vesting. It also doesn't apply to annexation or pre-annexation filings. ETJ projects and Fort Worth water customers outside city limits sit outside the new application rules.

The calendar is the product

Staff's briefing and the August 12 city release put this path on the record. Fort Worth Report printed a slightly different first-reading date; confirm against the packet when it posts.

1. Aug 11, 2026: initiate process, DCIC, and Chapter 14 ordinance.
2. Oct 9: publish first-hearing notice in the Star-Telegram.
3. Nov 3: DCIC report at council work session.
4. Nov 10: first public hearing (Beck: "no later than").
5. Nov 13: publish second-hearing notice.
6. Jan 5, 2027: second public hearing.
7. Jan 22: first reading (staff; FWR has Jan 12).
8. Feb 16: second reading and adoption (supermajority). Ninety days start if adopted.
9. May 17: end of initial 90 days.
10. Aug 15, 2027: end if the one 90-day extension is used.

Council can adopt permanent regs anytime during a pause. It doesn't have to wait out the 90 days. After one data-center moratorium under this chapter, the city may not impose another for two years.

Chapter 212 Subchapter E also requires written findings, specific notice, two hearings, two readings at least 28 days apart, and a ban on prohibiting a lawful land use. It doesn't apply to vested projects or projects with zoning applications already filed under Chapter 245.

Two constraints that are already live

Even without a municipal freeze, operators face a stack.

1. Governor Greg Abbott's August 3 directive that the PUCT and ERCOT audit large-load interconnection practice.
2. Fort Worth's new Chapter 14 gate: no new application without evidence of PUCT and/or ERCOT interconnection approval.

Those two lines already bottleneck filings while the city runs its process. Staff left an annexation carve-out on purpose: better to pull projects into the city than leave them in the ETJ on the same water system with weaker setback and noise authority.

The city's own inventory (official FAQ at fortworthtexas.gov/datacenters) is the citable baseline. Four operating developments. Ten buildings in Districts 5 and 10. Combined footprint over 3 million square feet. More than $83 million in gross city property tax over the last five years. The 2024 take is about 8,300 average single-family homes. On known in-progress development, 2030 is about 22,700 homes equivalent.

Closed-loop cooling at 100 acres runs about 300,000 to 1 million gallons per month. Evaporative: 4 to 6 million. A 100-acre single-family tract: about 2 million.

Black Mountain (southeast / Weston Gardens / Benbrook edge) is already zoned. Council Member Charles Nettles has said the site plan isn't pulled by this process. That plan is on the August 25 agenda. Edged near Benbrook was named from the floor the same night.

Commission and the floor

The Data Center & Infrastructure Commission is capped at 11 seats, reports November 3, and is limited to city regulatory authority: zoning, noise, water utility, city incentives. It can't rewrite PUCT, ERCOT, TCEQ, or TWDB rules.

Seats include economic development, data-center operations, environmental specialty, local electric provider, Tarrant Regional Water District, an environmental advocacy organization, and five community members (raised from three after public comment). Members "should be Fort Worth residents where feasible." Council Member Macy Hill cast the only no on the commission and recused on the chair vote because she sits on TCU's board of trustees.

Nearly 50 speakers. Most favored a pause. Pre-meeting rally: 2871 Coalition, Community Design Fort Worth, Krista Erbe. State Representative Vikki Goodwin (D-Austin) said a Fort Worth pause "sends a signal" to the Legislature. Downwinders' Caleb Roberts warned of a race to file before February 16. Council Member Elizabeth Beck was the moderate on the record: industrial use that "looks like an office building," and "we aren't your enemy."

Mayor Mattie Parker's overnight statement said council voted "for a temporary moratorium," then numbered "first step… will not take effect until we complete the state mandated steps." That same conflation is showing up in national rewrites.

From Aug 12 to Feb 16

The operational window is short. McEachern put vesting on the record. Roberts put the filing race on the record. Watch new plats, pre-development conferences, and annexation filings. Staff left the annexation exemption open on purpose.

The November 3 commission report is the next fight: who sits, how many of the five community seats, and whether that document becomes the findings package for a February supermajority.

Fort Worth is running a home-rule city process under Chapter 212 Subchapter E. County Chapter 232 theories don't control this docket.

Full session video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIczekSJ99Q

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Sources

1. Fort Worth City Council regular meeting, August 11, 2026. Hyperscale official-feed remux (Granicus clip 6335): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIczekSJ99Q. City YouTube original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrA2x-zEWkI. Granicus player: clip 6335.
2. City of Fort Worth news release, August 12, 2026: City advances next steps in data center regulation development process
3. City Data Centers FAQ (inventory, tax, water): fortworthtexas.gov/datacenters
4. Texas Local Government Code Chapter 212, Subchapter E: statutes.capitol.texas.gov
5. Fort Worth Report, Nicole Lopez and Cecilia Lenzen, August 12, 2026 (vote tallies, DCIC, timeline)
6. Staff briefing on dais (Asst. City Manager Jesica McEachern); Mayor Mattie Parker statement, ~12:04 a.m. August 12

Not legal advice. Confirm adopted ordinance text and Legistar minutes when posted.