Judge Blocks Westlake Texas Data Center Vote
Residents of Westlake, Texas, have opposed plans for a data centers directly across from a residential neighborhood. As the Town Council considered the project, a judge issued a temporary order preventing its final approval.
A senior vice president of the company behind the project offered to conduct a noise study to demonstrate compliance with the town’s noise ordinance.
That assurance sounds reasonable, but it misses the real problem.
Most noise ordinances rely on A-weighted decibel measurements, which understates the problem. Data centers also generate C-weighted low-frequency noise that reaches far and wide into nearby residential homes at all hours. They could technically comply with the existing noise ordinance while still producing disruptive noise.
Their proposed noise study may also fail to represent what residents would experience over time.
By framing the issue strictly in terms of compliance with the existing ordinance, the company deliberately obfuscates the issue. An ordinance not designed for the impacts of data center noise cannot protect the surrounding community.
The judge’s intervention gives Westlake time to consider those effects before approving the project. Once a data center is built and operating, proving a noise nuisance—and obtaining meaningful relief—may be far more difficult.