Prosper's Town Council will decide Tuesday, Sept. 8, whether to approve or kill a $580 million data center that the town's Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously rejected.

The 7-0 P&Z vote on Sept. 1 was a recommendation. The council's vote is binding. As we reported Sept. 2, commissioners cited a lack of detail on noise, power use and permitted uses before voting to recommend denial of Project Tomahawk, proposed by White Rose Partners for 37.3 acres near FM 1385 and Parvin Road.

White Rose Partners representative John Varin told the commission the facility would create 20 to 50 permanent jobs and generate up to $2.5 million a year in sales and franchise tax revenue for Prosper, according to Community Impact. Opponents gathered more than 1,600 petition signatures. Town staff received over 400 written comments opposing the project before the Sept. 1 hearing, Commissioner Josh Carson said, and residents spoke against it for over an hour.

Mayor David Bristol appeared at the Planning and Zoning (P&Z) meeting as a private citizen and asked the commission to deny the rezoning. Bristol said officials lack guidelines for data centers at the local and state level. He stressed that his sworn obligation runs to the residents of Prosper, as reported by Community Impact.

Carson questioned the project's benefit to Prosper during the hearing. He said the tax revenue was real but that he could not find a broader net benefit for the town, according to NBC DFW.

The proposed facility would be a single building of roughly 225,000 square feet on about 20% of the site, with a maximum height of 40 feet plus 20 feet for rooftop equipment, according to town documents. White Rose Partners chose the location because of its proximity to a Brazos Electric Power Cooperative substation bordering the property to the southeast.

Residents raised concerns about water use, noise, power consumption and property values. Several speakers questioned the accuracy of studies commissioned by the developer, particularly noise projections. The planned development would cap noise at 65 decibels, a level Commissioner Glen Blanscet compared to something between an air conditioner and a vacuum cleaner.

The coalition opposing the project includes both Republican and Democratic precinct chairs. Katie Murray, a Democratic precinct chair in Little Elm's Union Park neighborhood, organized 11 precinct chairs from Celina, Aubrey, Pilot Point and Little Elm into a group called Prosper Residents for Responsible Land Use. The group collected the 1,600-plus signatures.

The Prosper vote comes amid growing scrutiny of data centers statewide. Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a halt to new data center grid connections on Aug. 3, pending audits by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, known as ERCOT, according to NBC DFW. Texas state senators said at a Sept. 1 hearing that they plan to propose tighter data center regulations in the 2027 legislative session, according to Community Impact.

As of Sept. 1, White Rose Partners managing partner Jeff Eigenbrood had not confirmed whether the company would proceed with the application to the Town Council. The Sept. 8 council meeting agenda had not been posted as of Thursday, Sept. 3.