{"id":1526951,"date":"2026-07-23T03:21:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T08:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1526951"},"modified":"2026-07-23T04:25:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:25:23","slug":"developer-walks-away-from-data-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1526951","title":{"rendered":"Developer walks away from data center"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"HENDERSON COUNTY \u2014 For the past several months, residents in an East Texas town have been protesting, petitioning and working to make their voice heard against a data center proposed to be built near their lake. On Wednesday, they won the battle after the developer announced it was no longer pursuing the project at Cedar Creek Lake. Diode Ventures, the developer of a proposed data center near Cedar Creek Lake, has backed out of its plan to build at that location, according to Henderson County Pct. 1 Commissioner Wendy Spivey.<\/p>\n

Several town halls were held in Tool for residents to raise their concerns, led by the volunteer-run Save Cedar Creek Lake coalition. Their message was unified and blunt: \u201cProfit should be secondary to people\u2019s welfare.\u201d The advocacy group started a petition, which gathered well over 3,000 signatures from residents asking local and state officials to take action against proposed data centers.<\/p>\n

Spivey said that she appreciates Diode Ventures for taking the time to listen to the community\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

Spivey also shared the following statement from Diode Ventures, confirming they\u2019re no longer pursuing the Key Ranch location:<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Judge McKinney and Honorable Commissioners:<\/p>\n

We\u2019re writing to provide you with an update on our land site assessment in Henderson County, Texas.<\/p>\n

Governor Greg Abbott has made clear that data centers seeking to do business in Texas must be responsible stewards of the state\u2019s natural resources, power infrastructure, and most importantly, the communities in which they operate. Diode shares that expectation and is committed to meet or exceed state and local standards in our projects.<\/p>\n

We appreciate recent conversations with Governor Abbott\u2019s staff, State Representative Cody Harris, County Commissioner Wendy Spivey, and Henderson County leadership, as Diode evaluated a potential data center site near Cedar Creek Lake. The perspectives shared by residents, local leaders and stakeholders led us to conclude that the site under evaluation, in particular its close proximity to the rural residential community of Cedar Creek Lake, does not meet the higher standard we believe should guide data center development. Accordingly, Diode will not pursue land development at this location. Instead, we will focus on opportunities where we can support Texas\u2019 growing infrastructure needs. We support practices that allow for responsible data center development, including the use of advanced water efficient technologies, like closed-loop and air-cooled systems, while engaging openly with communities from the beginning of the site exploration process.\u201d
\n Diode Ventures<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In May, the Henderson County Commissioners Court passed a resolution urging the governor and state representatives to prevent local officials from becoming \u201cpowerless observers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resolution also requests that no further A.I. data centers move forward without an independent assessment of impacts on natural resources. It further asks state legislators to examine the issue and, if necessary, call a special session to address what the county describes as \u201curgent reliability, water supply and local governance concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the developer no longer plans to build in the area, Save Cedar Creek Lake says \u201cthe fight isn\u2019t over,\u201d encouraging the community to stay watchful and organized if \u201canyone comes for the lake again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HENDERSON COUNTY \u2014 For the past several months, residents in an East Texas town have been protesting, petitioning and working to make their voice heard against a data center proposed to be built near their lake. On Wednesday, they won the battle after the developer announced it was no longer pursuing the project at Cedar … Continue reading Developer walks away from data center<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1504768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-25 06:27:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1526951"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1526953,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526951\/revisions\/1526953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1504768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1526951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1526951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1526951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}