Data Centers & Your Land: Protecting Texas Landowners

Generally, no. Data center developers are private companies and usually do not hold eminent domain authority. But the utilities, transmission companies, pipeline operators, and some water entities that serve them do, and they use it to acquire easements across neighboring land for the lines and pipes the facility needs. If one of them contacts you, you are facing a condemnation and should get advice before responding.

Start a record before construction begins. Photograph and video your property, write down your well depth and water quality if you have a well, and note sound levels and night lighting at your house and fence lines. Keep every letter, offer and agreement a land agent or developer sends you, and don’t sign an option, easement or good neighbor agreement until a lawyer has reviewed it. Once construction starts, keep a dated log of traffic, dust, noise and any damage.

Document it first — the time, duration, and if possible sound-level readings from your property. Continuous industrial noise that interferes with sleep, livestock, or the ordinary use of your land may be a private nuisance under Texas law. Remedies can include damages for lost property value and lost use and enjoyment and, in appropriate cases, court-ordered limits on the operation.

That is a personal decision, but it should be an informed one. Developer offers tend to look generous against agricultural values and modest against what the land is worth to the project. Get an independent appraisal, understand what happens to your remaining land if you sell only part, and have a lawyer review the option or purchase agreement before you sign. Options in particular can tie up your land for years for very little money.

Typically, a promise by the developer of a setback, a berm, or a noise limit in exchange for your agreement not to object to the project and to release future nuisance claims. The release is usually the point. Do not sign one without understanding exactly what rights you are giving up and whether the promised protections are enforceable.

Condemnation proceedings run on statutory deadlines with short response windows after a final offer. Nuisance claims generally must be brought within two years, but when the clock starts depends on whether the nuisance is treated as permanent (it starts when the interference begins) or temporary (each injury may start a new period) — a distinction that has tripped up many landowners. Early consultation with a lawyer is critical to ensure that any claims are timely.

In condemnation cases, our fee is a percentage of the increase we obtain over the condemning entity’s initial written offer, with no up-front cost. In nuisance, injury, and wrongful death cases, we work on a contingent fee basis and advance the expenses — sound engineers, hydrologists, appraisers, investigators — which are repaid only from a recovery. If there is no recovery, you owe nothing.

Yes. We represent landowners throughout Texas. Our roots are in Central and East Texas, and the people affected by many of these projects are our friends and neighbors, but the law — and the trial — is the same in every county.