Texas State Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, said he will ask Gov. Greg Abbott to stop a proposed data center project in Archer County if the company doesn’t answer some constituents’ concerns soon.
Frank of the 69th House District posted on Facebook Friday that he has spoken to the team planning to build and occupy what is called the Three Way Road project and shared with them concerns he has heard from constituents. He urged the company to agree to an informational meeting with area residents.
Frank will continue to call “the team that is planning to build and occupy the Three Way Road project” weekly to request a meeting for residents, he said on Facebook.
“I am extremely disappointed to report that we have not received a commitment from them as of yet,” Frank said on the post that followed an April 2 town hall meeting in Lakeside City.
Frank’s, district director, Bob Payton, said the lawmaker was “tied up on other matters” Monday and unavailable for comment on the project.
Archer County Judge Randall Jackson said Monday, “We are probably a week away from revealing the owner of the land and the company that’s proposing to put in a data center.”
He said the land in question is about 2,500 acres of private agricultural property, and he is aware some people who live in the area are “very anxious” about what might be built.
“I’d be anxious if someone was trying to build next to my place,” he said.
Jackson said data centers are moving rapidly into cities and rural areas in Texas, and there’s no legislation concerning noise, lights and how neighborhoods are disrupted.
“In our case, the county is the only governing body or taxing entity that can participate in the abatement process,” he said. “That’s the only tool the county has to make sure that some of those noise levels, light levels and construction traffic is contained.”
Megan Atchison lives in the area and opposes the development. She is active in a Facebook page called Stop the Archer County Data Center.
“I do believe if we push back it may keep this company at bay,” she said Monday in an interview.
Atchison said property owners have the right to sell their land, but “I think it’s really more on the part of the government, the state, that we’re allowing these things to come into these rural counties,” she said.
She said there are about 70 homes in the immediate vicinity of the property, which she said is close to Wichita Falls.
“We’re only a few miles from Southwest Parkway,” she said.
Atchison said she doesn’t oppose data centers per se, but “big tech wants to control the world and force us to eat fake meat.”
Frank said he will continue to call the developers weekly to request a meeting.
“If I don’t hear from them by the end of next week with a firm date, I will be calling the Governor’s office to see it there is any way to get this project stopped until constituent concerns are addressed,” Frank said in his Facebook post.
He has scheduled other community meetings on April 20 in Munday, Seymour and Vernon.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: State lawmaker may ask governor’s help to get info on area data center
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
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