Put Fort Worth Residents Before Data Center Corporations

To the Fort Worth Mayor and City Council: 

We are Fort Worth residents, and we are demanding that our city put the needs of its residents before the profits of data center corporations. 

Fort Worth is facing a rapid expansion of data centers that will place enormous demands on our electricity, water, land, infrastructure, and neighborhoods. We cannot allow corporations to reshape our city while residents are left to bear the costs. 

We demand that Fort Worth: 

• Mattie Parker must recuse herself from all votes related to the data center industry due to her husband being a registered lobbyist for the data center industry.

• All elected officials must commit to not taking any money from people/ organizations related to the data center industry including Black Mountain’s CEO Rhett Bennett who has donated $48,500 since 2021.

• The Fort Worth Mayor and Council must pass the 90 day data center moratorium and extend the moratorium for an additional 90 day term.

• While Fort Worth looks into a Data Center Moratorium the city council must deny all permits for data center construction.

• Fort Worth must ban data center construction in all areas of Fort Worth through zoning reforms.

• Fort Worth’s ‘Data Center Task Force’ must be updated so all voting members are Fort Worth Residents.

• Fort Worth must make all Data Centers ineligible for all tax abatements and other economic incentives issued by Fort Worth.

Data centers can consume enormous amounts of electricity and water, generate significant noise, require hundreds of acres of land, and place additional pressure on infrastructure and natural resources. Meanwhile, Fort Worth residents are already dealing with the consequences of rapid growth.

Our water, electricity, land, and public resources should serve our communities, not corporate profits.

We are calling on Mattie Parker and the Fort Worth City Council to stop rubber-stamping data center expansion and take immediate action to protect Fort Worth residents. 

Our city is not for sale. 

We demand a moratorium. We demand stronger zoning. We demand an end to corporate subsidies. And we demand democratic control over the future of our city.