TAYLOR, Texas—Taylor’s rural landscape is changing rapidly as major technology projects move into the city northeast of Austin. A $17 billion Samsung semiconductor facility, three planned data centers and related industrial development are reshaping a community known for its agricultural land, historic downtown and population of roughly 17,000.
Many newer residents moved to Taylor after the pandemic seeking affordable land and a quieter setting. Sarah Medina and her husband, Tate Green, bought land in south Taylor about five and a half years ago, where they established a homestead with a garden and several farm animals. They intended to remain there permanently, but construction at Samsung’s 1,200-acre campus, about a mile from their home, has changed their plans and daily surroundings.
County Road 401, once surrounded mainly by farmland, now carries delivery trucks, concrete mixers and flatbeds transporting materials to the Samsung site. Construction noise is audible from Taylor High School and nearby housing developments.
Samsung’s arrival was followed by plans for three data centers south of the railroad tracks. Collectively, the projects could require an estimated 1.42 gigawatts of electricity—enough to power about 950,000 Texas homes for a year, or roughly Austin’s annual electricity consumption. The Texas Tribune has reported that nearly 600 data centers were operating or planned across Texas as of September.
The first project, Blueprint Projects, is scheduled to begin construction later in 2026. Its planned 135,000-square-foot facility for data storage and artificial intelligence processing would use 60 megawatts at full capacity. The city initially approved the project in 2024.
A second proposal, KDC Project Comal, is a $2.5 billion, 360-megawatt hyperscale artificial intelligence campus near the Samsung facility. It still requires rezoning. The third development, Taylor Technology Campus, was previously known as Project Mustang. On Oct. 8, the City Council approved annexation of its 664-acre site, allowing the city to regulate the property and opening the way for construction to begin in 2027.
Residents have raised questions about water, energy use, noise, property values and the effects of industrial construction near homes. Samia Brand, who moved to Taylor shortly before the Blueprint announcement, said she received unclear answers when she asked the city about the project and its water sources. Her husband, James Brand, said the development was not what they had envisioned when they moved to the city.
The Blueprint site has also become the focus of a dispute over land once associated with a promise to preserve it as parkland. Pamela Griffin, a Taylor native who lives less than half a mile from the proposed facility, learned about the project after finding a flyer at her home. The property had been connected to the Bland family, whose descendants sold 87 acres in 1999 to the Texas Parks and Recreation Foundation for $10. The deed stated that the land was to be held in trust for future use as parkland.
The Williamson County Park Foundation acquired the property in 2003 and transferred it to the city of Taylor for the same price. Five years later, the city sold the 87 acres to Taylor’s Economic Development Corporation for $15,000 and 39 additional acres, including land that would later serve as a proposed buffer between the data center and a neighborhood. In April 2025, the EDC sold the property to the parent company of Blueprint Projects for $10 million.
The city says the original deed language was not a deed restriction. Griffin and four other residents sued in August 2025, arguing that the land was being misused. A district court dismissed the case in October 2025, finding that the plaintiffs did not own the property or have direct legal standing to enforce the deed, without ruling on the deed’s substance. The residents appealed, and the case remains pending.
Opposition to the projects has organized under the HALT Taylor Coalition. Beginning in February 2026, residents collected signatures for a proposed November ballot measure that would have imposed a moratorium on data centers, cryptocurrency mining and battery energy storage projects until the city created new zoning rules for digital infrastructure.
The coalition submitted 1,400 signatures to the City Council on June 11. In July, the city rejected adding the measure to the ballot, saying state law did not allow a city to enact or change zoning through a popular vote. Taylor instead plans to amend its land development code with requirements for digital infrastructure. The city’s current timeline calls for ratification in 2027, but the changes would not apply to data centers that have already been approved.
Taylor spokesperson Jerrod Kingery said the proposed rules would limit the concentration of data centers and establish long-term environmental protections. The city later apologized after announcing its decision online while residents were still waiting to comment at the council meeting.
The dispute intensified in September when Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into the development on the former Bland family property and whether construction could proceed under the original deed’s parkland language. Taylor said it was not part of the investigation but would cooperate. Griffin and coalition member Carrie D’Anna also petitioned the attorney general’s office for an injunction preventing development while the inquiry is pending.
Residents say the projects could affect Taylor’s environment and quality of life. The proposed zoning amendments would limit data center noise to 50 decibels between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. and 45 decibels overnight, but those limits would not apply to facilities that have already received approval. Griffin is concerned that a constant industrial hum near the Blueprint site could affect residents’ sleep, health and productivity.
The Samsung facility, KDC Project Comal and Taylor Technology Campus are planned on prairie land historically used for corn, cotton and grain sorghum, as well as livestock. For residents who moved to Taylor for its rural character, the accelerating development has turned a search for space and community into a fight over how much of that landscape will remain.
Sources: Inside Climate News.