Black Mountain Fort Worth AI Data Center Site Plan Watch

Fort Worth City Council has approved an amended site plan for Black Mountain's proposed data-center campus in southeast Fort Worth. The August 25 vote covers 187 acres near Forest Hill Drive, Lon Stephenson Road, and Anglin Drive. Current KERA News and Fort Worth Report coverage says the plan now contains four data-center buildings with just over one million square feet of ground coverage, an onsite electrical substation, a maximum building height of 70 feet, and a 300-foot building separation from homes.

The vote is an important entitlement milestone, but it is not a notice to proceed. Public sources do not yet identify a tenant, utility capacity, committed IT load, construction financing, building permits, general contractor, EPCM, architect of record, MEP engineer, electrical contractor, low-voltage firms, carriers, equipment vendors, or commissioning authority. Black Mountain's widely reported $10 billion figure remains a project estimate rather than an executed construction award or a disclosure of committed spend.

For LVN readers, the useful signal is the shift from a much larger early concept to a defined four-building plan with an onsite substation. That creates a clearer future scope for campus fiber, pathways, security, fire alarm, controls, operational networks, public-safety coverage, grounding, testing, and integrated commissioning. None of those specialty packages should be treated as awarded until a source names the responsible firm and role.

Black Mountain Fort Worth at a glance

Item	Current public record
Location	Southeast Fort Worth near Forest Hill, Lon Stephenson, and Anglin
Current plan	187 acres, four data-center buildings, and just over 1M square feet of ground coverage
Broader land	Approximately 430 acres reported across the project family
Power element	Onsite electrical substation included; MW, utility service, and delivery sequence undisclosed
Stage	Site plan approved; preconstruction and building-package status undisclosed
Investment	$10B developer/project estimate; contracts, financing, and spend undisclosed
Schedule	Six-to-eight-year buildout described by developer; building dates undisclosed
Jobs	1,000-3,000 construction and 100-300 operations jobs estimated by developer

The current plan needs to stay separate from two older numbers. Black Mountain's broader land position is reported at approximately 430 acres, while the approved amended site plan covers 187 acres. Earlier concepts called for 18 buildings and roughly three million square feet. The approved plan reduces that to four buildings with just over one million square feet of ground coverage. The older concept remains planning history, not the current approved building plan.

The official ZC-26-041 case record identifies Black Mountain Power, company leader Rhett Bennett, and Halff representative Bob Riley. It lists addresses along Lon Stephenson Road and Anglin Drive, the 187-acre area, the electrical-substation request, the 70-foot height, revised separation language, parking at one space per four employees, and an included site plan. The live Legistar detail page still shows an earlier continued status, so the posted final action and minutes remain a useful follow-up even though current reporting verifies the August 25 vote.

Two earlier City records show how the campus land position developed. ZC-25-131 added property along Forest Hill Drive to a planned-development district limited to data-center and related uses. ZC-25-132 added acreage along Lon Stephenson Road and Anglin Drive. Those records support the project family and named parties, while the 2026 site plan controls the current four-building description.

The named organizations and role boundaries

Organization	Source-backed role	Boundary
Black Mountain Power	Developer, project sponsor, and site controller	No tenant, GC, EPCM, or specialty awards disclosed
Halff	Site-planning and municipal-application consultant	No full-campus architect, MEP, ICT, or commissioning award established
City of Fort Worth	Zoning, site-plan, and development authority	Municipal approval does not establish construction release

Black Mountain's Fort Worth project site describes a six-to-eight-year buildout, closed-loop cooling, developer-funded localized infrastructure, dedicated transmission, 1,000 to 3,000 construction jobs, and 100 to 300 onsite operations jobs. Those are developer planning statements. They do not identify an executed utility agreement, project financing, building-by-building schedule, contractor payroll, or current project openings.

Halff is the clearest named consultant in the municipal files. The evidence supports Halff as the site-planning and application representative. Halff also publishes an ICT capability overview covering networked cameras, access control, CAT6A structured cabling, redundant single-mode fiber, network switching, rack cooling, UPS systems, and control-room environments on other work. That capability helps illustrate the technical disciplines Halff can design. It does not prove that Halff holds the full architecture, engineering, ICT, security, fire alarm, or commissioning package for Black Mountain's campus.

No reviewed current source names the general contractor, construction manager, EPCM, architect of record, civil contractor, MEP engineer, electrical contractor, substation contractor, telecom designer, fiber carrier, low-voltage integrator, fire-alarm contractor, controls integrator, equipment manufacturers, or independent commissioning provider. The accurate contractor table is therefore short. Adding familiar data-center firms without project-specific evidence would weaken the record.

Power and infrastructure questions

The onsite electrical substation is the most consequential new infrastructure item in the amended plan. Black Mountain says local infrastructure and dedicated transmission will be developer funded, but the reviewed sources do not identify the serving utility, requested megawatts, service voltage, interconnection status, transmission route, substation EPC, transformer supplier, protection-and-controls designer, SCADA integration, or energization sequence.

Those details will determine how the four buildings are phased. A campus can receive site-plan approval long before firm power, construction financing, released equipment, and executable delivery dates align. Useful power milestones include a utility service agreement, ERCOT or transmission filings, substation permits, transformer and switchgear orders, protection studies, civil packages, equipment delivery, backfeed, and first energization. Until those records surface, verified utility MW and IT critical load remain unknown.

Fort Worth's data-center policy page explains that the city is developing broader standards around setbacks, noise, cooling, lighting, landscaping, and community impacts. It also notes that grid operations sit with ERCOT, state regulators, utilities, and transmission providers. Those citywide policy actions should be tracked alongside the project without being presented as a reversal of the project-specific site-plan vote.

Black Mountain says the campus will use closed-loop cooling with low public-water consumption. The statement is directionally useful, but the final cooling topology, mechanical equipment, makeup-water demand, water agreement, controls platform, and contractor awards remain undisclosed. Closed-loop systems still need power, monitoring, alarms, leak detection, controls networking, emergency sequences, and commissioning.

Where low voltage will enter the plan

System	Likely campus need	Evidence to watch
Fiber and OSP	Diverse carrier entrances and interbuilding backbone	Carriers, routes, duct banks, vaults, splicing, OTDR
Structured cabling	Data halls, MMRs, operations, and support areas	Pathways, tray, labeling, testing, digital turnover
Access and CCTV	Perimeter, vehicles, buildings, and secure rooms	Integrator, VMS, credentials, storage, acceptance
Fire and life safety	Halls, electrical rooms, batteries, and support space	Alarm design, interfaces, AHJ review, acceptance
BMS, EPMS, and DCIM	Cooling, power, capacity, alarms, and facility visibility	Platforms, points lists, OT networks, trend data
DAS and radio	Operations and emergency-response coverage	RF study, AHJ criteria, installation, commissioning
Grounding and bonding	Telecom rooms, pathways, racks, and equipment	Design, testing, inspections, QA records
Integrated commissioning	Phased turnover across power, cooling, controls, and security	Scripts, witness tests, failures, retests, closeout

A four-building campus spread across 187 acres creates a substantial outside-plant problem. Carrier entrances, campus fiber, electrical distribution, security, fire, roadwork, and utilities will cross shared corridors. Civil and specialty teams will need coordinated duct banks, vaults, handholes, spare pathways, route separation, groundwater protection, grounding, labeling, pull plans, test requirements, and accurate as-built records.

The onsite substation also expands the operational-technology layer. Protection relays, metering, utility telemetry, SCADA, EPMS, BMS, generator controls, cooling controls, alarms, time synchronization, historian data, and cybersecurity boundaries have to operate as one facility system. Package documents will eventually define which networks are owner furnished, which are contractor furnished, who integrates the points, and who witnesses functional and failure-mode testing.

Security will begin at the property line. A mission-critical campus of this size will typically require vehicle screening, perimeter detection, video surveillance, visitor management, access control, intercoms, secure doors, resilient security networks, and centralized monitoring. Fire alarm, suppression interfaces, emergency communication, and public-safety radio coverage will develop in parallel. These are reasonable system categories for an approved data-center campus, not claims that Black Mountain has awarded them.

Jobs, trades, and contractor readiness

Black Mountain estimates 1,000 to 3,000 construction jobs over six to eight years and 100 to 300 onsite operations jobs. Those numbers are a workforce forecast. They are not current openings, awarded-contractor headcount, or proof of a specific construction start. The more actionable hiring signals will be project-specific superintendent, safety, project-controls, field engineering, QA/QC, electrical, fiber, controls, security, fire, testing, commissioning, and operations roles tied to Fort Worth.

Contractors can prepare for those signals with documented mission-critical experience, safety metrics, bonding and insurance capacity, staffing depth, BIM and coordination processes, manufacturer certifications, QA procedures, material tracking, test records, cybersecurity practices, and digital closeout examples. The eventual owner, GC, EPCM, utility, and specialty prequalification documents will control the actual requirements.

Fiber and ICT teams can use BICSI education and certification for data-center design, installation, pathways, project management, and documentation. Fiber Optic Association resources cover OSP construction, splicing, cleaning, inspection, loss testing, and OTDR records. NFPA training supports electrical, fire, and life-safety coordination, while OSHA outreach training supports field safety and contractor onboarding. These resources build readiness; they are not project hiring guarantees.

The next construction checkpoints

The first checkpoint is the City's final August 25 action record, approved plan, and meeting minutes. Those documents should resolve the stale status on the Legistar detail page and preserve the exact 300-foot separation amendment. Parcel and planned-development documents can also reconcile the broader 430-acre land position with the 187-acre approved phase.

The second checkpoint is the power package. A named utility, service request, transmission route, substation design team, equipment order, protection study, permit, civil release, or energization target would materially improve the campus schedule. The third is the building delivery team: architecture, MEP, GC or EPCM, civil, electrical, low-voltage, carrier, security, fire, controls, and commissioning announcements.

The final early checkpoint is executable work. Building permits, financing, a tenant commitment, bid invitations, contractor prequalification, mobilization, grading, foundations, substation construction, long-lead deliveries, or project-specific hiring would move the project beyond entitlement. Until those appear, Black Mountain's southeast Fort Worth campus is best described as a high-confidence, site-plan-approved development with a defined four-building layout and an undisclosed construction team.

LVN Signal will continue tracking the approved plan, parcel family, utility and substation architecture, delivery team, bid access, hiring, field activity, carriers, specialty packages, and commissioning milestones. For low-voltage firms, the immediate opportunity is preparation and source monitoring. The first named package holder can quickly reveal where prequalification and supplier outreach should go.