With the advent of motor vehicles and mechanized agriculture, the future of rural Texas changed drastically in the last century. Previously, the agrarian economy encouraged rural population growth with small regional towns. Labor-intensive farming and ranching required a large, physically fit labor force. The lack of development of large-scale manufacturing and transportation inhibited the growth of urban centers.
In the past century, a total reversal has occurred. With growing financial, educational, and cultural opportunities in the cities and lowering opportunities in the rural areas, young Texans and outside transplants have flocked into the metropolitan areas. Other than pockets of oil and gas resources and suburban development, rural areas have seen declining or stagnant populations.
While Texas has become the second-largest state in the nation, rural Texas has continued to concentrate on the production of farm products, poultry, timber, and cattle. Without substantial population growth, the political influence of rural Texas has waned in the state legislature, and its needs and contributions are often ignored.
With a “make-do” attitude, rural leaders have persevered and survived. Strengthened by a belief in the responsibility for conservation and a reverence for natural beauty, rural communities have attracted residents seeking peaceful, inviting surroundings. Historical and environmental tourism and affordable sites for retirement have become major contributors to the rural economy. Completely compatible with the continuing role of farming and ranching, these activities and residents inject new, sustainable vitality into the local business activity. Residents often refer to their small community as a “Little Piece of Heaven.”
This bucolic existence has been rudely interrupted. Like the farmers and ranchers who thought that their groundwater resources were too remote to attract water marketers, the rural residents, seeking peace and quiet in the country, have awakened to find their area subjected to proposed massive development. Attracted by inexpensive land, lack of regulation, and available water and energy resources, data centers and bitcoin mining operations have descended upon rural Texas. Fueled by massive capital investments and state and federal incentives, there is a “gold rush” attitude toward meeting the spiraling demand for data storage and processing. Promising extraordinary expansion of the local appraisal rolls, these proposals can be extremely attractive to rural areas that have been struggling to sustain their local governmental services.
“No such thing as a free lunch.” – Unknown, 1930s. As Texas became the center of economic growth in the nation, some presumed that all growth was good growth. However, experience has proven that there are costs associated with all growth. With increased growth, governmental services must be expanded to meet the need for law enforcement, jails, courts, roads, and indigent health care. These require additional revenue through taxes. Under a state revenue cap, the county will struggle to meet these needs. Non-financial costs, such as loss of privacy, noise, availability of water and power, pollution of the air, water and nighttime light, and safety are often of high local concern, particularly in rural Texas. Rural county leaders have developed structured tax abatement programs as their only available tool to control growth in the unincorporated area and obtain the necessary revenue for its increased costs.
Realizing that land use authority in the unincorporated area of Texas is practically nonexistent, developers of large facilities, such as data centers, often obtain options on tracts of land in rural Texas and secure state and federal incentives before announcing their intended use. With no zoning or permitting authority and little political clout, rural leaders are between the proverbial “Rock and a Hard Place” – Unknown, 1921.
AG Opinion AC-0003 (2023) held that counties cannot enforce a moratorium on projects without specific statutory authority. Pending AG Opinion Request RQ-0633-KP inquires whether Hood County (the only county with county-wide zoning authority) can declare a moratorium on industrial development. Since Commissioners Courts cannot prohibit the sale or lease of private property for these projects, there are few options available. Under present law, Commissioners Courts are left to choose between (1) unenforceable resolutions expressing opposition to the site and/or impact of these proposed projects, or (2) attempting to negotiate a tax abatement agreement with some limitations and conditions to protect local citizens and resources.
While private property rights must be respected, there is a reasonable middle ground. For many years, the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas has urged the legislature to grant limited land use authority to counties to establish buffer zones to protect our existing property owners and citizens. Other states have granted their counties the ability to designate the location of non-compatible uses. There is a precedent in Texas in the authority granted to counties to designate the location of solid waste facilities under Chapter 364, Health and Safety Code. Will Texas leadership extend this authority to its counties to protect the citizens and resources of rural Texas? Will rural Texans refuse to support state leaders who do not commit to local decision making on the location of such projects? Stay tuned. The future of rural Texas hangs in the balance.
