About 20 people attended a court hearing at Williamson County's courthouse annex in Georgetown on Monday to support a lawsuit against a proposed data center. Many, like Taylor resident Lisa Drummond and her husband, wore red shirts and stickers to show they oppose the project.
"When they say show up in a red shirt, I show up in a red shirt," said Drummond. "We want to support our neighbors, you know?"
The project planned for a south Taylor neighborhood remains on hold while a state district judge decides on the future of the lawsuit, which was filed by five nearby residents. The residents claim the data center is being built on land that was supposed to become a park.
District Court Judge Ryan D. Larson said he expects to make a decision by the end of the week.
"I'm so proud that this community showed up today," said Pamela Griffin, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. "We're going to continue to fight and continue doing what we need to do for our community, no matter what happens."
Griffin and other plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit own property that backs up to the site where Blueprint Data Centers plans to build a 135,000-square-foot facility. It would house servers, or computers, that can be used for a variety of purposes, including data storage and artificial intelligence processing, according to the city of Taylor's website.
The lawsuit aims to stop all commercial development and construction on the site. It references a land deed from 1999 that shows the previous owners, the Cromwell family, granted the property to a nonprofit "to be held in trust for future use as parkland." It also mentions concerns about the potential environmental, health and safety impacts of bringing a data center to the neighborhood.
Several people testified at Monday's court hearing, including Taylor's assistant city manager, Carly Pearson, and Blueprint's founder and CEO, Yaerid Jacob.
During their testimonies, Pearson and Jacob said that prior to the lawsuit, they were not aware of any deed restrictions on the site.
Jacob also said his company, which purchased the site from the Taylor Economic Development Corporation last year, has already sunk nearly $30 million into the project.
Attorney Christopher Mugica, who represents Blueprint, said the company is likely lose money the longer the project is delayed.
Mugica also pointed out that there's an approximately 600-foot "buffer zone" between Blueprint's proposed data center and the nearest homes. That piece of land, he said, is still owned by the city of Taylor.
