Can Texas counties stop data centers? Mostly no. Their say comes through roads, plats, flood rules and tax abatements.

Outside the few areas where Texas counties may zone, no statute clearly lets a county ban or pause a data center. What a county does hold is a short list of approvals a site may need from it, such as closing a county road, approving a plat, enforcing flood rules and granting a tax abatement. Those approvals are where it can set terms.

A county acts through its commissioners court, the county judge and four commissioners, and that court can do only what the Texas Constitution and state laws give it the power to do. The Attorney General said in a 2023 opinion that this covers the powers a statute grants outright and the ones that necessarily follow from them. When a county asks your project for something, the first question to ask back is which statute lets it.

The county is the main local government for a campus outside city limits. A nearby city can also hold subdivision powers in its extraterritorial jurisdiction, the unincorporated area next to its limits. A site near a city may answer to that city's subdivision rules as well as the county's.

Where Texas counties can zone

If your site is in unincorporated county land, find out first whether it sits in one of the few places where the Legislature let a county zone. Texas cities can zone land by use and decide where industrial buildings may go. Counties have no general power like that.

The county zoning chapter of state law gives zoning powers for a handful of named lakes, islands and base areas. Some of those powers apply only after county voters approve them, and some reach only a narrow band of land or a few subjects. A parcel near an airport can face real land use rules from the county too, because a separate law lets a county with an airport hazard area adopt zoning that says which land uses are allowed there.

Hood County has a grant that reaches the whole county. Its commissioners court can set rules on lot coverage, population density and building size anywhere in its unincorporated area, and on the roads, water, wastewater and drainage that serve development there. Each rule needs a public hearing and the votes of a majority of the full court.

The Texas Tribune reported that Hood's court voted 3 to 2 on Feb. 10, 2026 against a six month pause on new data center development. We don't know whether Hood has adopted any rules under its grant that would reach a data center, and on a Hood County site that is the first thing to ask the county.

Can a Texas county pause data center construction?

If a county you are working in starts talking about a pause, it helps to know that Texas cities have a written procedure for one and counties don't. A city has to hold hearings and make written findings before it can pause property development, and House Bill 2559 changed those steps effective Sept. 1, 2025. The state's county subdivision law has no procedure like it. A county that wants a pause has no written path to follow.

The Attorney General took up a county pause in 2023, when the Franklin County Attorney asked about one aimed at commercial solar projects. Opinion AC-0003, issued Aug. 16, 2023, said a moratorium usually means a temporary stop on an existing licensing, permitting or approval process. It found "no statute specifically authorizing" a commissioners court to impose one on a solar facility.

Franklin County's request leaned on the county's road powers, and later briefing added a public health law. On roads, the opinion said solar builders have to follow valid county road rules like anyone else who uses a county road, and that a court would likely find a pause reaching past road use invalid. The health law lets a county enforce laws needed to protect public health, which the opinion read as enforcing a health law already on the books. A pause that enforces no such law would likely fail as well.

The opinion was about solar, and it said it did not consider whether a county's other regulatory powers could support a moratorium. Plan as if that question is still open for a data center.

The Delta County Attorney put the data center version of that question to the Attorney General on Feb. 24, 2026, in request RQ-0634-KP, asking whether counties may pause energy facilities, data centers and data mining facilities. The Attorney General hasn't answered it yet.

A Feb. 10, 2026 letter from Sen. Paul Bettencourt and Rep. Jared Patterson is attached to that request. In it they wrote that HB 2559 left counties out because counties have no power to impose development moratoria in the first place. They also wrote that the Senate Committee on Local Government will consider legislation to clarify county powers if necessary. The Legislature could answer the question before the Attorney General does.

What happened in Hill County

Hill County's commissioners voted in May 2026 to pause data center construction. About two weeks later a developer sued the county, and in early June the court dropped the pause. The Texas Tribune reported that Hill County appears to be the first Texas county to pass a data center moratorium.

On May 12, 2026, the commissioners court voted 3 to 2 for "a one-year moratorium on data center construction in Hill County." The order says the aim was to "assess the far-reaching impact to the local community from these facilities." County Judge Shane Brassell and Commissioners Jim Holcomb and Larry Crumpton voted yes. Commissioners Scotty Hawkins and Martin Lake voted no.

Later that month, on May 27, that developer, RCM Hill, LLC, sued the county and the three members who voted yes in federal court for the Western District of Texas, in Waco. Its complaint says the order "categorically bars the commencement of construction pertaining to data center related projects in Hill County."

The developer said it had contracts to buy more than 800 acres for more than $80 million and was securing the entitlements for a 1,235 megawatt data center, far above the 75 MW line ERCOT uses for a large load.

It argued the three members had no power to pass the moratorium, called it a taking and a denial of due process, and put the county's exposure above $100 million. The complaint also said the order's waiver process set no filing requirements, no deadlines for a decision and no standards for granting a waiver.

The county's June 4 agenda packet includes a proposed waiver agreement with another landowner that cites "the four waiver standards in the Moratorium." The minutes record no action on it.

Eight days after the suit, on June 4, 2026, the court voted unanimously to rescind the pause. The rescission order describes the pause in broader terms, as a moratorium on large scale industrial energy storage, power generation and data processing construction in the county's unincorporated areas.

At the same June 4 meeting that ended the pause, the court adopted a Data Center Development Review Checklist "as revised during court."

On July 9, 2026, both sides agreed to dismiss the case for good.

The case ended without any ruling on whether the pause was lawful, so the next county to try one has nothing from it to lean on.

What the Hill County checklist asks for

If a county hands you a review checklist, Hill County's shows what one can ask for. The court revised the checklist before adopting it on June 4 and amended it on June 30, 2026.

The draft in the June 4 agenda packet is titled Major Industrial Development Review Checklist and comes with a policy. It is written for data centers, for energy projects such as battery storage, power generation and renewables, and for other large industrial work. The applicant files the package before asking the county for any discretionary decision, such as a road use agreement, a development agreement, a tax abatement or a subdivision approval. The June 30 version applies only when a developer asks the county for a development, tax abatement, road use or infrastructure agreement, or another agreement the commissioners court is free to refuse. It doesn't cover the duties state law already places on developments, like on-site septic systems, building in a floodplain and work on county roads or drainage.

Under the draft, the county would see most of your diligence file before it commits to anything, from surveys and traffic, heavy haul and water studies to plans for noise, lighting, hazardous materials and emergencies. The June 30 version cuts that back to the items that fit your project and reasonably relate to the decision you asked the county to make.

Budget for the review as well. The draft and the version adopted June 4 both set an escrow deposit of $150,000 for the county's review costs, and the June 30 version replaced that figure with a deposit "in an amount established by the County." All three versions then say the county's Development Services sets the first deposit by the project's size, complexity and expected impacts, so even under the draft the real figure could be above or below $150,000.

Under the draft and both signed versions, if the county needs more, the applicant has to top up the escrow on request, and review can stop until it does. Whatever isn't spent goes back to the applicant.

None of that buys an approval. Under the draft, nothing in the policy obliges the county to approve anything you submit. Count the escrow and the studies as money you put up before the commissioners court makes any decision.

The checklist only bites when the county has one of those decisions to make on your site. If the decision is a plat, state law limits what the county can ask for, because a county may not make a plat, development permit or subdivision application carry any study, document or agreement "not explicitly required by state law." Before you hand over plat stage studies, ask the county which state law requires each one.

Why a county pause can reach an ERCOT application

If your campus is in ERCOT's Batch Zero process, a county pause can follow it into its paperwork with the utility. Batch Zero is ERCOT's one-time, transitional process for studying large loads, such as data centers, across the whole system. ERCOT has said it intends to submit a separate rule change later for an ongoing batch study. ERCOT points anyone connecting a load facility of 75 MW or more to its rule change for that process, Planning Guide Revision Request 145, or PGRR145.

The PUCT approved PGRR145 on June 18, 2026, and it took effect July 11, 2026. Under it, the large load gives its utility a notarized account of where it stands on the discretionary approvals it needs from state and local authorities. The utility can ask for an update to that account as often as once a quarter.

One eligibility path also required a sworn statement, due to the utility by July 10, 2026. The large load had to swear that it had every discretionary approval the local government where it was connecting required, such as zoning, or that it needed none. The Hill County developer's complaint says the moratorium made that statement impossible for it.

What a Texas county can require

County road closures

If the site plan closes or reroutes a county road, plan for a unanimous vote of the commissioners court, which means any one member can hold the closure up. The one change that doesn't need every vote is shortening a road from end to end. The court also can't discontinue a road until the replacement road it has named is ready.

Heavy haul terms come through a county permit or a road use agreement, but a Texas county may not require a road use agreement from a truck running under certain state overweight permits.

Plats

How you split the land decides whether the county sees a plat at all. Outside city limits, an owner who divides a tract into two or more parts for lots, streets or other public areas has to have a plat drawn. If every lot is more than 10 acres and none of the land is laid out for public use, the county can't ask for one. Check that line before you draw the parcels, because it can take the plat out of the deal.

If you do need a plat, the county must act on a complete application within 30 days of receiving it. It can approve the plat, approve it with conditions or turn it down.

The county can't stretch that clock without your written request, except when a state property rights law calls for a takings impact assessment. If the county asks you for more time, you can say no. Each extension adds no more than 30 days to the clock.

If the decision on your plat also needs another public body's approval, the county's plat deadline doesn't apply to it. Your schedule then has to carry that other body's timeline too.

If the county misses the deadline, your plat is approved without a vote. If it turns you down and you sue, it is the county that has to prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that its refusal meets the law, and the judge can't simply defer to it.

Flood rules

Pull the federal flood map and the county's flood damage prevention order early, because on a site with mapped floodplain, the county's flood order will set terms the project has to meet. Every Texas county must adopt the orders it needs to take part in the National Flood Insurance Program.

State law also lets a county limit development on land exposed to flood damage, and on a campus that can mean keeping buildings off the flood-prone part of the site.

Fire code

Whether your campus faces a county fire code depends first on the county's size. A county may adopt one if it has more than 250,000 people or sits next to a county that size.

The code covers commercial establishments, and the statute doesn't say whether a data center is one. It also leaves out an industrial facility whose own fire brigade meets federal workplace safety (OSHA) requirements. Ask the county early how it classifies your campus and whether that exemption fits. Those two answers decide whether the fire code and its permit step apply to you.

Where the code applies, the county must issue or deny a building permit within 30 days. If it lets more than 30 days pass without doing either, the construction is approved for fire code purposes. Caldwell County adopted portions of the 2024 International Fire Code on Aug. 13, 2026, according to the county's meeting recap, and a campus there has that code to plan around.

Tax abatements

If you want an abatement, expect the county to bargain, because it can say no. The state abatement law says a county's own guidelines give no one a "legal right" to have a request considered or granted.

An abatement takes all or part of a property's value off a taxing unit's bill for up to 10 years. Before the county can sign one, your land has to sit in a reinvestment zone. Outside city limits the county creates that zone itself after a public hearing, which puts one more hearing on your schedule before any abatement is signed.

A site in a state enterprise zone skips that hearing, because its land already counts as a reinvestment zone. On a site inside city limits, you can seek a county abatement once the city has granted one.

A county abatement covers the county's own tax. The same court can also sign abatements for some other local taxing units it oversees. Ask which of those reach your site, because you could leave with more than one.

Caldwell County used that room in both directions in 2026. Its Aug. 13 recap says the county approved abatements for two data center developments earlier in the year to make sure the developers signed development agreements with the county that help protect water and avoid noise and light pollution.

On Aug. 13 the same court unanimously approved Resolution 34-2026. Its minutes say the court "will not enter into economic incentives agreements," and they name tax abatements for "large scale data centers and battery storage facilities." That pause lasts until the 90th Texas Legislature's session adjourns, so a campus there shouldn't expect a county abatement before then.

A campus that won't be ready to sign an abatement before Sept. 1, 2029 needs the Legislature to continue the abatement law, which otherwise expires that day. School districts are a separate case, because a Texas school district's maintenance and operations tax sits outside a Chapter 312 abatement.

Agricultural development districts

Neighbors have tried other tools to keep data centers out. On Aug. 4, 2026, McLennan County landowners asked the commissioners court to create an agricultural development district for that purpose. The local news station KWTX reported that the court denied the petition, and quoted County Attorney Mike Dixon as saying such a district "has no zoning power."

The state law behind these districts is written to give incentives for agricultural operations and facilities. Even without zoning power, a petition like this one tells a developer where local opposition is organizing.

What to check on a county site

Check with your own counsel before you rely on this.

Begin with where the parcel sits. Find out whether it is inside a city, in a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction or in unincorporated county land, and whether it falls in one of the county zoning areas, in Hood County or in an airport hazard area. Other statutes reach single activities, such as outdoor lighting near certain observatories and military bases.

Then list every county approval the site plan needs, from road closures and heavy haul routes to a plat if the land division triggers one, the flood order, a fire code if the county has one, and any abatement. Also confirm the county has adopted abatement guidelines and criteria and passed a resolution saying it will take part, which it needs before it can sign an abatement. Read those guidelines and its recent orders, including any suspension like Caldwell County's.

Keep a running log of the commissioners court's agendas and minutes for any pause, checklist or review order. A load in Batch Zero may have to report its progress on discretionary approvals to its utility when requested, up to quarterly, and that log is what the report will draw on.

If county approvals are shaping what you can build on a site, our Entitlements & community page describes how we connect counsel's position to design, public commitments and budget. You can also write to us at help@sitebraid.dev.