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Data Center Watch Report · ZIP 75134

Lancaster

Dallas

Under constructionZIP 68.1% Blackpop 18,305

Under construction / Approved — multiple large campuses (Oncor/ERCOT)

Researched: 2026-08-02 · Lead source: Brockovich AI Data Center community map (1 resident report, 2026-07-11) · ZIP demographics: 68.1% Black, pop 18,305 (Census ACS 2023) · County: Dallas (~22% Black) Status: Under construction / Approved — multiple large campuses (Oncor/ERCOT)

This report is research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice.

0. Snapshot

Lancaster — a majority-Black suburb in southern Dallas County — has become one of the most concentrated data-center build sites in North Texas. It is not one project but a cluster along the I-35E logistics/inland-port corridor: STACK Infrastructure (DFW02, ~216–220 MW, 102 acres), a large WHL Dallas 45 campus proposed as up to 13 buildings / ~2.5M sq ft over 530+ acres ("Project Orange"/"Project Labrador"), Skybox PowerCampus Dallas (300 MW, ~1M sq ft, 100 acres), Yondr (163 acres, 550 MW critical IT load, groundbreaking slated 2026), and a QTS building (~413,725 sq ft, $288M). Power comes from Oncor on the ERCOT grid, so Texas's 2025 SB6 large-load rules apply here. The city has actively courted these projects with Chapter 380 incentives.

This clustering in a Black-majority ZIP, inside a county that is only ~22% Black, is the environmental-justice pattern this project documents.

1. The Facility & Where It Sits

Confirmed / reported projects in and around Lancaster (75134/75146):

  • STACK Infrastructure — DFW02 campus. ~216–220 MW, 102 acres, ~17 miles south of downtown Dallas. Local incentive counterparty listed as "Sl DFW02A, LLC." (DCD; Data Center Map; company press release, Apr 2024.)
  • WHL Dallas 45, LLC — "Project Orange" / "Project Labrador." Two adjacent sites, up to 13 facilities and ~2.5 million sq ft across 530+ acres. Lancaster City Council approved rezoning for both. (DataCenterDynamics.)
  • Skybox Datacenters — PowerCampus Dallas. ~100 acres near I-35E in southern Dallas County, up to 300 MW and up to ~1 million sq ft, private on-site substation, "hyperscale" tenants. Partners: Skybox, Bandera Ventures, Principal Asset Management. (Dallas Innovates.)
  • Yondr Group (UK). 163-acre site in Lancaster, 550 MW critical IT load, groundbreaking slated for 2026. Yondr's first announced U.S. expansion. (Dallas Innovates.)
  • QTS. Two-story ~413,725 sq ft building, ~$288M, Nov 2024–Dec 2025 window. (Baxtel.)

Where it sits: The corridor runs along I-35E / U.S. 45 in southern Dallas County — the same "inland port" logistics belt (Prologis, Walmart, UNFI, DSV, Wayfair, Kodiak) that Lancaster has recruited for years. This is a Black-majority city; the loads are landing on the Black side of the county line, adjacent to established residential Lancaster.

Exact parcel-to-home distances were not verified project-by-project as of 2026-08-02 — residents should confirm the nearest campus to their block using the case files below.

2. Public Hearings & Notices

  • Lancaster City Council approved rezoning for the WHL Dallas 45 "Project Orange" and "Project Labrador" sites (DataCenterDynamics). Exact case numbers, vote tallies, and dates were not located in a primary city record as of 2026-08-02 — request them from the City Secretary.
  • Lancaster maintains a public Chapter 380 Agreements page listing ~30 economic-development agreements (Walmart, Prologis, UNFI, Kodiak Robotics, In-N-Out, Wayfair, DSV, etc.). Individual data-center agreement PDFs (dollar values/terms) are linked there but were not all machine-readable in this pass. (lancaster-tx.com/1320.)

Caution / cross-check: several widely-circulated "Lancaster data center" items are not this city — e.g., a $1B data center that "stalled" over a tax break in spring 2026 is Edged Data Centers at Veale Ranch in west Fort Worth (Tarrant County), reported by KERA; and a "$20M community benefits agreement / Harrisburg Pike / Greenfield Road" council vote is Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Neither belongs to Lancaster, TX. Verify any claim against a Lancaster, TX (Dallas County) source before relying on it.

3. Power

  • Serving utility: Oncor Electric Delivery, on the ERCOT grid. That means Texas SB6 (2025) governs these large loads: large demand sources (broadly, facilities over ~75 MW) must help pay for their own transmission/distribution interconnection, and ERCOT can order them to curtail during firm-load-shed events and grid emergencies. Utilities must install equipment enabling that curtailment before interconnection. (Public Citizen Texas Data Center Policy Guide; Pillsbury, Bracewell, McGuireWoods summaries of SB6.)
  • Who pays: SB6's intent is that large-load customers — not ordinary ratepayers — bear interconnection and stranded-infrastructure cost. In practice the allocation is still being worked out in PUCT rulemaking; residents concerned about rate impacts should file/track comments at the PUCT.
  • On-site generation / substations: Skybox's campus includes a private on-site substation; other campuses will require new Oncor substation and transmission work. Combined nameplate across the announced Lancaster campuses is well over 1 GW if all are built.

4. Water & Drought

  • Statewide, Texas is heavily stressed: reporting in 2025–2026 put a large share of the state in drought, and the Texas Water Development Board flagged a multi-million-acre-foot structural water shortage. A single large data center can consume up to ~5 million gallons of water per day for cooling (Public Citizen; Texas Tribune reporting).
  • For the DFW/North-Central Texas region, drought coverage contracted in mid-2026 (extreme "D3" removed) but eastern counties remained drier. Check current status for Dallas County at drought.gov/states/texas/county/dallas.
  • Project-specific water sourcing (municipal potable vs. reclaimed/greywater), withdrawal permits, and cooling technology were not verified per campus as of 2026-08-02. Ask each developer and the city whether cooling is water-based or closed-loop/air-cooled.

5. Population & Who Lives Here

  • ZIP 75134: ~68.1% Black, population ~18,305 (ACS 2023). Lancaster is a historically Black, working-to-middle-class south-Dallas suburb — one of the anchor Black suburbs of southern Dallas County.
  • The county around it (Dallas) is far less Black (~22%), which is exactly why siting the heaviest industrial electrical loads here reads as an environmental-justice question rather than a coincidence.
  • Health-burden and redlining specifics for 75134 were not compiled in this pass; the relevant lived-experience issue for residents is cumulative industrial/logistics load (warehouses + now data centers) concentrated on the south side.

6. Money — Abatements, Incentives, Jobs

  • State: Texas exempts qualified data centers from the 6.25% state sales tax on equipment, electricity, cooling systems, and backup generators (Tax Code §151.359 / §151.3595). The statewide value of that exemption was ~$1B in 2025, projected toward ~$1.75B by 2030. (Public Citizen.)
  • Local (Lancaster Chapter 380): The city's agreement tied to the STACK/"Sl DFW02A, LLC" campus is valued at $5,120,000, with real-property tax rebates up to 45% and infrastructure reimbursements up to $1.5M if conditions are met; the city also offered to add 10% if the company relocated its regional HQ to Lancaster (or 15% for global HQ). (Public Citizen policy guide, citing the Lancaster agreement.)
  • Jobs: Data centers are capital-intensive but employment-light once built — typically tens of permanent operations jobs per large campus, versus large construction headcounts that end at completion. Verify the permanent-job commitments in each signed agreement, not the press-release construction numbers.

7. Community Reaction & News Coverage

  • Local/regional outlets covering the Lancaster/southern-Dallas cluster: Dallas Morning News, Dallas Innovates, Dallas Business Journal, KERA (Dallas NPR), and trade press (DataCenterDynamics, Data Center Map, Baxtel).
  • Broader Texas coverage of data-center water, grid, and tax-break backlash: Texas Tribune, Inside Climate News, Governing, E&E News/POLITICO, Public Citizen.
  • No organized Lancaster-specific lawsuit or petition was located as of 2026-08-02. Absence of a public record is itself worth noting — decisions here have moved largely through council zoning and Chapter 380 approvals rather than contested hearings.

8. Find Out For Yourself

City of Lancaster, TX (Dallas County) — verify these against the city site before quoting:

  • City Hall: 211 N. Henry Street, Lancaster, TX 75146 · 972-218-1300 (lancaster-tx.com).
  • City Secretary: Sorangel O. Arenas (Deputy: Stephanie Renteria) · 972-218-1309 · citysecretary@lancaster-tx.com — request data-center rezoning case numbers, votes, dates, and the signed Chapter 380 agreements.
  • Mayor: Clyde C. Hairston (at-large). Council (single-member districts): Carol Strain-Burk (D1), Marco Mejia (D2), Derrick D. Robinson (D3), Stanley M. Jaglowski (D4), Mitchell Cheatham (D5, Mayor Pro Tem), Betty Gooden-Davis (D6, Deputy MPT). Confirm your district and its member via the city's Council Members page.
  • Chapter 380 agreements: lancaster-tx.com/1320 (agreement PDFs + dollar values).
  • Council agendas/minutes: posted via the city's Granicus/Swagit portal linked from lancaster-tx.com.
  • Power / rates: Oncor public affairs; PUCT filings and comments at puc.texas.gov (search SB6 large-load rulemaking and any Lancaster-area interconnection dockets).
  • Water: City of Lancaster utilities + the relevant Groundwater Conservation District; current drought at drought.gov (Dallas County).

Questions worth asking when you call:

  1. Exactly which parcels are approved for data centers, and how close is the nearest campus to my home, school, or church?
  2. Is each campus cooled with water (how many gallons/day, from what source) or closed-loop/air-cooled?
  3. What are the permanent (not construction) job commitments, and are they clawed back if unmet?
  4. What did the city give up in each Chapter 380 deal, and for how many years?
  5. Under SB6, who pays for the new Oncor substations and transmission — the developer or Oncor's general ratepayers?
  6. What noise, light, and backup-generator (diesel/gas) limits are in the site plans, and who monitors them?

9. If You're Thinking About Moving Here

Lancaster is an established, majority-Black suburb with real amenities and a strong sense of community — but the south-Dallas I-35E corridor is being built out simultaneously as a warehouse/logistics hub and a multi-gigawatt data-center cluster. Honest unknowns for a prospective resident as of 2026-08-02: (1) cumulative noise, light, and backup-generator emissions once several campuses operate near homes; (2) whether cooling draws on municipal water during a drought-stressed decade; (3) whether SB6 cost allocation ends up on residential electric bills; and (4) land-price and property-tax pressure as industrial demand rises. None of these is disqualifying, but ask the city for the specific parcel map and each signed agreement before you buy near the corridor. This is research, not real-estate advice.

10. Sources

Lead source: resident reports on the Brockovich AI Data Center community map, then independently verified against public records. Research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice. Some resident-reported pins remain uncorroborated and are labeled as such above.