Red Oak neighbors, including a Marine combat veteran, are opposing an 800-acre data center over health concerns as the city council considers a rezoning decision.
RED OAK, Texas — On 20 acres just outside Red Oak, Chris and Jazmin Villegas have built what they consider their own slice of home.
“We like to call it our piece of Texas,” Chris said.
But Jazmin, a Marine combat veteran and cancer survivor, is among a growing number of neighbors worried about what may be coming next door — a proposed data center just beyond their property line.
“Why the data center worries me? Because we don’t know the health risks that come with it,” she said.
The project has sparked a grassroots organizing effort as the city council decides whether to rezone agricultural land for the 800-acre development. Residents have launched a Change.org petition and, in recent days, have shifted their focus to filing formal protests.
Signs opposing the project line the front of homes along the western edge of the proposed site, where at least one neighbor said he didn’t want his view to change.
If approved, it would be Red Oak’s third major data center since 2020. Two others are already under construction.
City leaders say tax revenues from the projects have helped fund schools and public safety. City Manager Todd Fuller says they’re a fiscal win for residents.
“They’re self-contained. We get a lot of revenues off of it, without having a lot of expenditures, which gradually allows us to reduce that tax rate to be able to benefit the citizens,” Fuller said during a planning and zoning commission meeting in late April.
The commission voted 3-2 against the rezoning request, but the city council has the final say.
For the Villegases and their neighbors, the financial argument isn’t enough. Jazmin and her family say they’ll keep fighting, whatever the council decides.
“I feel like I have given to this country, and now that doesn’t matter,” Chris said.
Neighbor Lacey Hamel said she isn’t questioning anyone’s motives — she just believes the community deserves more of a voice.
“I don’t believe that there are bad intentions with this. I just believe that there needs to be another side to this conversation,” Hamel said.