The historic Weston Gardens is in jeopardy of losing its tranquility now that a company wants to build a data center adjacent to the property. Photo by Michael. Smith.
Sue Weston walked me down a long, pumpkin-lined drive toward the Weston Gardens, four acres of naturalistic historic English-style demonstration gardens in far south Fort Worth. There are terraces of rock work, lily ponds, a Wisteria arbor and across the creek, a life-sized stone ship built in the 1940s for social events. Everywhere there are gardens with many beautiful native plants, full-grown examples of those available across the road in the Garden Center.
The family-owned business known as Weston Gardens in Bloom is one of the first full Texas native plant nurseries in the state. After 40 years operating in its tranquil setting on the edge of Fort Worth, the Gardens are facing the threat of industrial development.
Just behind the Demonstration Gardens is property that Black Mountain LLC wants to develop into a data center. Black Mountain is an oil and gas, minerals and frac sand company whose request to rezone a portion of this semi-rural community goes before the Fort Worth City Council on Sept. 30.
Weston, the Gardens' owner, worries that the data center will bring noise and traffic, making their property unusable for its current purpose. So do at least 930 others who have signed their petition to City Council members, opposing the data center project.
NEARLY 100 YEARS
The Gardens were originally built in the 1930s and developed through 1940s by Leon and Peggy Bandy. Over the decades, lots of folks in Fort Worth attended parties there and danced on the deck of that rock ship (complete with a main mast, rigging and crow’s nest).
In 1984, Sue and Randy Weston bought the property across the street and started the garden center. They soon discovered the historic gardens across the street and acquired the property in 1988. The neglected gardens were unearthed and revitalized by the Westons, who used the built structures to display the native and drought tolerant plants they sold in the nursery.
This week, Weston showed me into a sunlit, airy room with comfortable chairs and a floor made of dark bricks. When I looked more closely, each brick had the concentric growth rings of trees. This room was once a horse barn with bricks made from the Bois d’Arc tree whose wood is so strong and enduring that it might outlast the clay bricks. It’s evident that this is a historic place. During the Great Depression, Leon Bandy offered work to those who needed it, paying fifty cents a day for the construction of the gardens.
Today, Weston Gardens is a multigenerational family business. Randy Weston passed away in 2017 and Sue has carried on the work. Their 33-year-old son works in the business and one of his two sons told Ms. Weston that he already knows what he wants to do when he grows up. He wants to take care of the nursery and gardens.
LOOMING DATA CENTER PLANS
Earlier this month, the Fort Worth Zoning Commission supported rezoning the area from the current agricultural, manufactured housing, single-family residence and general commercial uses to include “planned development/light industrial” to allow a data center to be built. Black Mountain LLC and others made the request. The Zoning Commission can make recommendations but the Fort Worth City Council has to approve the change. That issue will be before the Council at their next meeting, Sept. 30.
According to Weston, Black Mountain already owns more than 300 acres in addition to the acreage they are currently asking for.
“They want to put in two buildings and additionally a 20-foot wall” right along the edge of her property. The zoning request includes increasing the maximum building height to 70 feet for data center use. That would likely mean a five to six-story building. Weston said that representatives of Black Mountain told her, “It’s going to be like Alliance. This is going to be great. It’s going to be very quiet.”
Green Source Texas reached out to Black Mountain for comment but the company has not replied as of press time.
According to the National League of Cities, there are about 3,600 data centers in the U.S. as of this year. They defined data centers as “physical sites that host the hardware, such as computer servers and telecommunications equipment, required for on-site or cloud data storage, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) computing.”
The website Data Center Knowledge discussed what they described as “constant noise” from data center generators, HVAC condensers, compressors, and fans. The article was not addressing this particular proposed data center. The article described one Arizona community in which “The data centers create an inescapable high-pitched humming noise 24/7, interrupting sleep and threatening the health of residents.”
But Weston has been told this one would be quiet. More information is needed to judge what the impact will be, such as the purpose of the center. An article in January of this year from Data Centre Dynamics said, “Rhett Bennett, Black Mountain’s CEO, suggested the site would not be used for cryptomining while speaking at the city’s Jan. 8 planning commission meeting.” Cryptomining is associated with significant noise, as noted in a January 2025 Fort Worth Star-Telegram article, in which the Black Mountain CEO is quoted in a Zoning Commission meeting at that time.
Chris Nettles is the Fort Worth City Council representative for the district in which Weston Gardens is located. Green Source Texas reached out to Councilman Nettles for comment but has not received a reply as of press time.
FUTURE UNCERTAIN
As we completed our walk in the Demonstration Gardens, Sue Weston talked about the venue’s importance to community members as a place of refuge. She pointed out that many people have been married at Garden’s outdoor wedding site, so the landscape has a special significance for them. A person with terminal illness once sat in the beauty and quiet of the Gardens to pray and meditate. Weston talked about there being some things that money — even the money from a lucrative development — cannot buy.
After 40 years in which the Gardens have been a home and a family business for the Weston family as well as beloved green space for visitors, much seems to be at stake.
If the Data Center project goes through, and if the gardens can no longer be enjoyed as a quiet sanctuary, a local customer told Sue recently.
“I won’t come back,” she said.
Some losses would be too painful to revisit.
HOW TO TAKE ACTION
The Fort Worth City Council will discuss the Data Center at the next meeting.
When: Sept. 30, 2025, 10 a.m.
Where: Fort Worth City Hall, 100 Fort Worth Trail, Fort Worth
Carpool from Weston Gardens.
Petition by Weston Gardens.