In 2025, survey markers appeared on rural land near Bells. There was no project announcement and nothing on a county agenda. According to The Texas Tribune, the local officials residents asked said they knew nothing about it. Residents searched property records and mapped the companies signing contracts with nearby landowners. One of them was Black Mountain, a Fort Worth energy and digital infrastructure group. In March 2026, at a town hall in the Fort Worth area, Black Mountain CEO Rhett Bennett confirmed that the company was exploring a data center near Bells, the Tribune reported. Black Mountain declined to comment for the story.
Grayson County Commissioner Art Arthur gave the Tribune an answer that should matter to anyone shopping for acreage in the county. "Nothing in no way, shape, form or fashion has ever been presented to the government of Grayson County," he said. "I don't know that there has to be. That's the scary part."
He's describing how rural Texas land law is built. Outside city limits, the county regulates how land gets divided. It does not decide what the land is used for. The only use controls on a rural tract are the ones written into the deed records, and a buyer can only check those before closing.
What Grayson County Can and Cannot Regulate
The Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M puts it plainly. Public land-use regulation in Texas is mostly municipal. Counties have limited authority that "does not include zoning" but does include platting and a short list of specific topics. Here is what each of those county powers covers on unincorporated land:
| County power | What it covers | What it does not reach |
|---|---|---|
| Platting | Division of land into lots, public access, roads, utilities, drainage | Use or residential density, per TRERC |
| Building code | Single-family homes and duplexes | Manufactured or modular homes |
| Fire code | Commercial and multifamily structures, in larger counties only | Everything else |
| Drainage | How new development handles runoff | What the development is |
| Zoning | Not a county power | Every use decision |
The platting row matters most. TRERC says platting regulations outside city limits "may not affect use or residential density." Platting is also rule-based rather than discretionary. If an application meets the published requirements, approval is required. If the local government misses the statutory deadlines, sometimes called the "plat shot clock," the application is deemed approved.
Grayson County's 2026 agendas reflect this. Commissioners spent the summer on replats, road acceptances and plat actions, including a 5.14-acre Old Tioga Road Addition replat and the addition of Meadow Estates Court to the county road system in August. Those are subdivision and road decisions. None of them decides how the land will be used.
How Bells Found Out, and When
The public record of how Bells learned about the project shows how far a project can get before anyone announces it:
- 2025. Survey markers appear on land outside Bells.
- Before March 2026. Residents trace contracts with nearby landowners and find a power plant permit from a company that shares Black Mountain's address. The Tribune reported that the permit suggests the data center could build its own power source.
- March 2026. The CEO confirms the exploration at a town hall about a different project, outside Grayson County.
- At Commissioners Court. On a date KTEN's report does not print, residents fill a Grayson County Commissioners Court meeting, and the court approves a resolution asking the Legislature to look at data center regulation, KTEN reported.
According to the Tribune, this order is typical of the industry. Crusoe, the developer of a large data center in Abilene, told state grid officials in a presentation that local outreach typically begins after it has secured land, selected contractors and begun financing.
County Judge Bruce Dawsey explained the county's position to KTEN: "They own the property; they can do what they want with it. That sounds well and good until you have something that's impacting the rest of the community." He said the resolution was a request: "We're asking that the state gives us some control on what happens in our county." KTEN reported that the county is limited by a state property rights law that protects owners from government action restricting how they use their land. Grayson is one of at least 34 Texas counties that have formally asked the state to release more information about these projects, according to the Tribune, which cited a tracker kept by Public Citizen.
Where Fannin County Found Leverage
Next door in Fannin County, a battery energy storage facility near Savoy shows the kind of leverage a county does have. It comes through the topics the county is allowed to regulate, such as roads and emergency access.
KTEN described the Savoy project as a 300-megawatt battery facility south of U.S. 82, near a power substation and less than half a mile north of town. In September 2025, the operator sued Fannin County, its commissioners and the county fire marshal, according to North Texas e-News.
By April 2026, the dispute centered on a road. North Texas e-News reported that commissioners conditionally extended the completion date for a second access road at the Platinum Energy facility. Under the original terms, the company would owe $450,000 if the road wasn't finished by July 2026. The delay came from an easement the City of Savoy did not grant until April 21, 2026, so the county moved the deadline to October 5, 2026. Commissioner Waggoner pointed out that the road is strictly a fire lane and not for public access. We found no public report confirming whether the road was finished by that date.
The county's role in Savoy was conditions on emergency access, backed by a dollar amount. It did not approve or deny the facility's use. That is the same limit Bells ran into.
The State Is Gathering Information, and Most of It Won't Be Public
State government has become more involved since August. On August 3, 2026, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT to audit data center projects moving through ERCOT's grid interconnection process before they go forward. Projects that don't comply would be denied a grid connection. The Tribune reported that the directive requires proposals to disclose tax breaks, power use and generation, water use and cooling, efforts to reduce local impacts, and ownership.
ERCOT followed on September 14 with a State and Community Impact request for information to covered developers. Responses are due at 5 p.m. Central on October 12, 2026, which is today, and ERCOT expects a joint report with the PUC by December 10, 2026. The same notice says a September 14 letter from the governor directed the Texas Water Development Board to work with ERCOT on water-use audits.
None of this has yet given a landowner near Bells more information. The Tribune reported that ERCOT treats project-level data, including location, developer and expected power use, as private and publishes only aggregate figures. The governor did not respond to the Tribune's questions about whether the new reporting would be made public. Any new rules from the Legislature would come in a future session and can't be counted on today.
The Deed Records Are the Zoning Map
With no zoning and limited state disclosure, the remaining land-use control is private. TRERC explains that restrictive covenants are recorded documents that bind every later owner, whether or not that owner knew about them. Covenants that "run with the land" can last for a set term or permanently. TRERC also notes that a landowner selling part of a property may add restrictions to protect the land they keep from objectionable uses or structures. This is one of the few ways rural land in Texas gets use controls at all.
Covenants are enforced by private lawsuit, not by the county. On Grayson County acreage, buyer due diligence usually covers these items:
- Restrictions on the tract itself. Whether there are any, what uses they allow or prohibit, when they expire, and who can enforce them.
- Restrictions on adjoining tracts. A protective covenant on your parcel says nothing about the 200 unrestricted acres across the fence.
- Recorded easements. Utility, pipeline and access easements give their holders rights that later owners have to accommodate.
- City limits and ETJ status. Cities have limited powers in their extraterritorial jurisdiction, a ring one-half to five miles deep depending on the city's size. Under SB 2038, which took effect September 1, 2023, owners can petition to leave an ETJ. TRERC notes that the law's constitutionality is being contested in court.
- Recent permit notices and plat filings nearby. These were how residents near Bells pieced the project together. The Tribune reported that one local landowner gets notified of every environmental permit approved in his county and the neighboring one.
A title commitment shows restrictions recorded against the tract being purchased. Checking restrictions on neighboring tracts takes a separate search of the county's deed records. For questions about what a specific covenant allows or how enforceable it is, a real estate attorney is the right professional to ask.
Questions Grayson County Buyers Ask
Can Grayson County commissioners deny a data center or industrial project on unincorporated land? Based on the officials' own public statements and TRERC's summary of county authority, the county has no zoning power to deny a use outside city limits. It can apply its platting, road, drainage and code rules within their legal limits.
Does the Bells resolution change anything? It asks the Legislature to look at data center regulation. The resolution itself doesn't give the county any new authority.
Is the Bells data center approved? As of the reporting available in October 2026, Black Mountain had confirmed it was exploring a site and had declined further comment. The county said no project had been presented to it. We found no public filing showing the project has been approved.
Does land inside a city's ETJ have more protection? Cities can apply limited regulations in the ETJ. Zoning still applies only inside city limits, and owners can petition to leave an ETJ under the 2023 law, which is being challenged in court.
A Grayson County tract comes with whatever restrictions were recorded against it and its neighbors. Bois D'Arc Realty reviews deed records and adjoining-tract restrictions with buyers as part of our standard rural due diligence, with help from the surveyors and title companies we've worked with across Grayson County for decades. Start Your Country Property Search with a broker who checks the neighbors' deeds as well as yours.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
