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Regbase

The Data Center Divide

Hunt County

This restriction takes precedence while in effect. The rating below excludes temporary restrictions.

Neutral Data Center Policies

Hunt County bars data centers from receiving county tax abatements; separate enacted measures support a possible unincorporated-area pause and request a state pause, but do not themselves impose one.

current law · Unincorporated areas
Verified adopted data-center-specific advocacy action, not an operative county moratorium.Hunt County Commissioners Court Resolution approving data-center letter and citizen petition (2026)

What this means

The measure is a request to state officials, not a binding rule: it asks the state to pause data center development. It does not itself stop projects or impose new requirements on building, expanding, or operating data centers.

People behind it

  • Precinct 3 Commissioner presenting the item and moving approval.

  • Seconds approval.

Restrictions & requirementsHide restrictions & requirements3

  • Requested, not imposed: state pause on in-process new data-center development pending regulations.

  • Requested, not imposed: water/power consumption plans and limits, power management, location and size controls, road planning and costs, environmental mitigation, noise and discharge management.

  • Requested, not imposed: industrial permitting in unincorporated areas, drainage engineering, and fire-code/developer funding measures for volunteer fire departments.

Sources

current law · County measure
Establishes Hunt County’s guidelines for tax abatements in Chapter 312 reinvestment zones, effective immediately upon adoption and approval on May 12, 2026, to support economic development, job creation, tax-base protection, and infrastructure and resource protection.Hunt County Order No. 0083 (2026)

What this means

The order would bar data centers from receiving Hunt County tax abatements, removing a possible financial incentive for building or expanding them (“absolutely prohibited operations”). It does not ban data centers or otherwise restrict their construction or operation, so the impact is a meaningful financial drawback rather than a general development ban.

People behind it

  • Adopted the Guidelines and Criteria for Tax Abatement and the related absolute prohibitions on specified operations.

Restrictions & requirementsHide restrictions & requirements6

  • Data centers are absolutely ineligible for Hunt County tax abatements. The county may not designate a reinvestment zone for, enter into an abatement agreement concerning, or grant an abatement for a data center, including hyperscale, enterprise, colocation, edge, and modular facilities.

  • The data-center abatement prohibition cannot be avoided through a variance, exception, waiver, grandfathering, amendment, extension, renewal, assignment, or similar action; any instrument purporting to authorize such an abatement is void from the outset.

  • An applicant for a reinvestment zone or tax abatement must certify under penalty of perjury that the proposed facility is not a prohibited operation, including a data center.

  • A facility receiving an abatement that later becomes used in whole or in material part as a data center automatically loses the abatement as of the date that use begins, and all previously abated taxes must be recaptured and paid within 60 days.

  • An abatement recipient must annually certify under penalty of perjury that the facility was not used in whole or in material part as a prohibited operation, including a data center, during the preceding year.

  • An abatement assignment or transfer cannot be approved if the new owner or lessee intends to use the facility in whole or in material part as a data center or other prohibited operation.

Sources

Specific to Hunt County only.

current law · Unincorporated areas
Supports proposed Texas legislation that would give counties narrow, temporary authority to impose moratoriums on certain high-impact development, including data centers, in unincorporated areas; the resolution was adopted on June 9, 2026, and does not itself impose a moratorium or create county authority.Hunt County Commissioners Court Resolution supporting proposed county moratorium authority for high-impact development (2026)

What this means

If enacted, the bill would let counties pause data-center applications and construction in unincorporated areas for up to one year, with further one-year extensions possible if the county meets stricter evidence requirements. That could substantially delay or disrupt projects, though the authority is limited to areas outside cities and requires evidence, a public hearing, and court review.

Timing

Ends
A moratorium may last no more than one year from adoption; each extension may last no more than one additional year.

The resolution does not itself impose a moratorium; it supports proposed legislation authorizing one in unincorporated areas. Extensions require a public hearing and written findings, supported by a preponderance of the evidence and expert testimony, that the potential harm continues and the extension remains necessary.

People behind it

  • State Senator whom Hunt County requests to author, sponsor, co-sponsor, and support the proposed bill

  • State Representative whom Hunt County requests to author, sponsor, co-sponsor, and support the proposed bill

Restrictions & requirementsHide restrictions & requirements11

  • Authorizes a county commissioners court to impose a moratorium in all or part of the unincorporated county on data centers, regardless of their electrical or water demand.

  • A moratorium may prohibit the county from accepting, processing, granting, or approving covered-development applications and may prohibit construction from commencing while the moratorium is in effect.

  • An initial moratorium may last up to one year and must be supported by written findings, a prima facie showing of potential harm, and a determination that it is no broader than reasonably necessary.

  • Before adopting an initial moratorium, the county must hold a public hearing and provide at least 15 days' published and website notice, plus notice to applicants with pending covered-development applications.

  • A county may extend a moratorium for additional periods of up to one year each, but only before expiration and after another public hearing.

  • Each extension requires proof by a preponderance of the evidence, supported by reliable expert testimony or written expert reports, that the harm continues, has not been adequately addressed, and that continuation remains necessary and narrowly tailored.

  • While a moratorium is in effect, statutory deadlines for county action on covered-development applications are tolled, applications cannot be approved by operation of law, and vested-rights periods under Chapter 245 are suspended.

  • Covered development includes any data center and certain other commercial or industrial projects requiring at least 75 megawatts of new electrical load, at least 1,000,000 gallons per day of new consumptive water use, or posing substantially similar potential harms.

  • A moratorium may not stop construction lawfully begun before it takes effect or apply to projects with all required county approvals finally granted before that date.

  • A moratorium may not prohibit work needed to address an imminent public-health or safety threat, repair or maintenance work, or uses protected from county regulation, including agricultural uses.

  • Eligible applicants or property owners may challenge a moratorium in expedited district-court proceedings, and the county bears the burden of proving compliance and the required evidentiary showing.

Benefits & exceptionsHide benefits & exceptions9

  • A moratorium may not require a data center to stop construction that lawfully began before the moratorium takes effect.

  • A moratorium may not apply to a data center whose required county approvals were finally granted before the moratorium takes effect.

  • A moratorium may not prohibit work needed to address an imminent public-health or safety threat, or ordinary repair and maintenance work.

  • The proposed county authority is limited to regulating the timing of county action on development applications and the timing of construction; it does not authorize substantive regulation of a data center's electricity generation, transmission, distribution, sale, pricing, grid interconnection, or grid operations.

  • The proposed county authority does not apply to water appropriation, use, sale, or quality matters within the jurisdiction of state water regulators, or to matters preempted by federal law.

  • An initial moratorium may last no more than one year, and each extension may last no more than one additional year, limiting the duration of any restriction on data-center development.

  • An extension requires new proof by a preponderance of the evidence and reliable expert evidence that the harm continues, has not been adequately addressed, and that the extension is no broader than reasonably necessary.

  • A person with a pending covered-development application or a good-faith plan to develop a data center may obtain expedited judicial review of a moratorium, and a court may dissolve or narrow it if the county fails to meet the required evidentiary or procedural standards.

  • The moratorium authority applies only to unincorporated areas, leaving data centers within municipal boundaries outside its scope.

Sources

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