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Back in 1999, 87 acres of land in Taylor, Texas, was donated (nominal fee $10) to the city by a farmer, with a condition in the deed that it would be used for community parkland. In 2025, the land was sold for $10M to a data center developer , who has won several legal battles against the nearby residents who are trying to stop the massive construction project, reports 404 Media . Now, the disgruntled locals are planning to take their case to an appeals court.

To introduce this case, let’s go back to 1999, when the $10 deed was inked. For some background, 404 Media talked to long-time local Pamela Griffin, who used to play on the farmland, and watched her children grow up and enjoy the same freedom. Griffin recalled that old farmer Mr. Bland used to talk to her father from time to time. According to her, Bland once said to her dad, “I see the kids don’t really have nowhere to play.” He continued, “I’m thinking about giving this land for parkland because these kids need somewhere to play.” The original July 1999 deed has since been unearthed, and the farmer did indeed follow through with his words. Now, let’s make the following chain of events simple using a bullet point timeline:

This is quite a tale, and there appears to be a lot at stake for parties on either side of the dispute. In summary, locals face a multitude of undesirable side effects coming from having a data center in their backyard. There’s also the principle of the original deed being ignored, a big deal in Texas. Meanwhile, the council asserts that stopping this kind of development (in the city zone it is situated) is beyond its scope, and the millions in tax raised will benefit residents.

Griffin only found out about the planned 135,000-square-foot data center on the land when local organizers called around the neighborhood to raise awareness in 2025. She didn’t even know what a data center was at the time. Looking it up with her family, the idea of such a construction on your doorstep didn’t appeal .

Locals like Griffin became concerned about impacts to air, water, electricity, and noise. In correspondence with the City Council, they have been assured that work will be done to minimize health risks to people living nearby. Mitigations like a barrier wall, landscaping, closed-loop water cooling, and the developers building their own power substation were mentioned.

While folks might not want to live near a data center for the aforementioned reasons. It may also negatively impact the resale price of nearby homes. However, the City Council says that the expected extra $30M in tax revenue over the coming decade will be a positive for the area. With $20M earmarked for the school district.