Kahla Project data center, Marquez, Texas

Belltown Power plans a 1,500 megawatt data center, the Kahla Project, on private land near Marquez in Leon County, Texas. County Judge Byron Ryder said the company told him it would be a $15 billion project: "They were hoping to get half of it done in '26 and the other half in '27, like they were talking about tonight, speeding it up," he said at a January 2026 town hall.

Ryder said the county has little power to stop a project on private land: "We can make it difficult for them, and we probably will make it difficult for them, but we really can't make, we can't keep them from coming if they want to come."

Nearly 200 residents of the county, whose population is about 17,000, turned out for the January town hall, where Ryder said Belltown Power had given little explanation of the project's specifics. Resident Daniel McCoslin said, "We're hoping that the EPA and TCEQ can help file lawsuits against these companies because the quality of air that these data centers emit and the danger to the environment, we have 11 endangered species that exist in Leon County."

He vowed residents would "make a stand until they run bulldozers through the pastures, and it's going to be a long, drawn-out fight for us." He also raised the toll on farms nearby: "it's going to be a huge detriment on ranchers in general. And we have a lot of chicken farms here. So the constant noise and lights will destroy our poultry business here as well."

The county's main leverage is tax policy: Ryder said officials would withhold a tax abatement, "so that might discourage it right there." Officials also said they plan to form a 391 sub-regional planning commission to coordinate with other agencies on construction.