AUSTIN (KXAN) — Some residents in Taylor are concerned about plans that are moving forward for a 52-acre, $1 billion data center campus, and they plan to show up to the Taylor City Council’s regular meeting Thursday evening as council members are set to discuss and potentially take action on an item related to the development.
Blueprint Data Centers, or Blueprint Projects, is the Austin-based company behind the data center project in Taylor, also home to Samsung’s Austin Semiconductor plant. Blueprint is also developing a similar data center just 20 miles away in Georgetown.
Blueprint projects in April 2025 purchased land for the project from the Taylor Economic Development Corporation for $10 million. The project is currently awaiting approval for an Employment Center Plan, which is set to be discussed at Thursday’s council meeting.
Item 5 on the council’s meeting agenda for Thursday evening is “Discussion, consideration, and possible action on Ordinance 2025-17 regarding a request for an Employment Center Plan referred to as Blueprint Data Centers.” This comes after a public hearing and introduction of the ordinance was held at the council’s June 26 meeting.
Property where the project is planned had previously been zoned industrial until the land development code was updated in 2023, designating the land as an employment center, or EC.
According to Taylor’s Land Development Code, “all areas designated as EC require an Employment Center Plan to be approved prior to any development or redevelopment activity on the property. Employment Center Plans allow development standards for sites that provide locations for job centers that may require deviations from the development standards of the other Place Type zoning districts.”
Community concerns
Community members plan on attending Thursday’s meeting to hold a “peaceful demonstration” beforehand and provide commentary during the meeting. Those plans stem from residents’ environmental concerns over the development and what they said has been a “complete lack of transparency and meaningful communication” from Blueprint. That’s according to Sarah Winters, a Taylor resident who lives about a mile away from the planned development.
Winters said via email that members of the Taylor community have been pushing back against the proposed data center, dozens of them organizing through the Facebook group “Halt the BPP Project in Taylor.” Winters also attended a community meeting hosted by Blueprint Monday evening, which she said did not provide clear answers to residents’ concerns. KXAN has reached out to Blueprint to ask about the meeting and the company’s plans for the data center. We will update this story if we receive a response.
The city of Taylor’s website states that, following community feedback, the city hired HDR to conduct an environmental impact study. The city’s website lists some of the concerns expressed by residents and direct responses to those concerns from the third-party environmental impact assessment.
Still, Winters feels that isn’t enough.
“After sustained community pressure, the City of Taylor eventually commissioned an environmental impact study—but the actual findings have not been shared publicly,” Winters said via email. “Aside from a few brief summaries posted on the city website, residents have not been given access to the full report, making it impossible to verify what was studied, what risks were identified, or whether any recommendations are being followed.”
KXAN has reached out to the city of Taylor to request a copy of the study and to ask whether the study has been made publicly available.
The bio of the Halt the BPP Project in Taylor Facebook group says members are “not against development — we’re against this development in this location.”
Background on the data center development
According to the city’s website, project discussions started in early 2024, then Blueprint and Taylor Economic Development Corporation entered an agreement in August 2024, which the city council authorized the next week.
Blueprint projects in April 2025 purchased land for the project from the TEDC for $10 million. The proposed location is inside Carlos G Parker Boulevard between Martin Luther King Boulevard and the railroad tracks, per the city’s website.
The company received tax incentives from the city council for the project. According to the Taylor EDC, Blueprint was required to commit a minimum capital investment of $225 million and create at least five jobs. In return, the EDC said the city would grant a 10-year, 50% tax rebatement for each of the planned three phases of construction. A separate agreement with the city and Taylor EDC granted Blueprint a 50% rebate of the local use tax collected on materials used for construction, according to a press release from TEDC.