Primary-source record

§1 · The site

§2 · The ordinance — Lavon Ord. No. 2024-12-01

At its regular meeting on December 3, 2024, the Lavon City Council took up Item 6.A: an amendment to Ordinance No. 2022-10-03, the existing Planned Development regulations for the Elevon commercial, business-park, and mixed-use parcels. The amendment, codified as Ordinance No. 2024-12-01, made it possible for a hyperscale data center to be developed on Land Use Parcels 8 and 9.

Public hearing, discussion and action regarding an application to amend the Elevon Planned Development District as provided by Ordinance No. 2022-10-03 that established the Planned Development regulations for commercial, business park and mixed uses in the Elevon development project, more specifically to amend the regulations for Land Use Parcel 8 and Land Use Parcel 9 to define the use of data center and amend associated screening, dimensional standards, building materials, and setback requirements on approximately 79.3 acres situated in the Drury Anglin Survey, Abstract No. 2, Tract 75, southwest of the intersection of FM 2755 (McClendon Road) and Watkins Road (CR 541), Lavon, Collin County, TX, (CCAD Property ID 2543097).

Lavon City Council Agenda, December 3, 2024 — Item 6.A, lines 25–30

The published agenda lists three procedural steps for the item: (1) presentation of the proposed amendment, (2) a public hearing to receive comments, and (3) discussion and action regarding the proposed amendment and accompanying ordinance.

The December 17, 2024 follow-on meeting was officially cancelled, leaving the December 3, 2024 meeting as the last 2024 regular session.

§3 · Verbatim ordinance language — the definition of “Data Center”

The amendment introduces a definition of “Data Center” into the use-list for Parcels 8 and 9. The ordinance language is reproduced below verbatim from the agenda packet:

Data Center** Data Center is defined as data processing center (hyperscale) facilities used to house, and in which are operated, maintained and replaced from time to time, computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems, cooling systems, power supplies and systems for managing property performance (including generators and mechanical and electrical yards), and equipment used for the transformation, transmission, distribution and management of electricity (including private substations), internet-related equipment, data communications connections, private communication towers, environmental controls and security devices, … guardhouse; diesel storage tanks; fuel storage for emergency generators; water storage tanks; security fencing; and other structures, improvements and appurtenances. Any accessory uses to a Data Center use shall be in direct relation to or support of the primary Data Center use.

Lavon City Council Agenda packet, December 3, 2024 — ordinance language, lines 1099–1115

The double-asterisk (**) following “Data Center” in the original PD use table indicates the use is permitted in Parcel 8 by the amendment.

§4 · Verbatim ordinance language — dimensional standards

The amendment carves out a specific dimensional and design standard set for Data Center use:

All entries above quoted or paraphrased from 2024-12-03-Agenda-CC-Meeting.pdf, lines 1018–1184 of the extracted text.

§5 · The applicant, buyer pipeline, and EDC marketing posture

The Dec 3, 2024 council minutes name the applicant on the record: Lovett Industrial (Bennett See, Director), a Houston, TX-based industrial real-estate developer. Lovett presented the application with a draft concept plan and elevations and committed at the public hearing to noise mitigation, “majority gray water” use, and no cryptocurrency / bitcoin mining at the facility. See §7a below for the full public-hearing exchange.

Lovett Industrial is an industrial developer, not a hyperscale data-center operator. The eventual operating tenant or owner would be a separate entity. The Lavon City Council’s 2026 closed-session agendas have repeatedly named three code-name business prospects under economic-development negotiation: Chalkboard 27, Ignite, and Pathways. Whether any of these is the eventual operator for Parcels 8 & 9 is not publicly disclosed.

According to the residents’ group Protect Lavon, as of May 22, 2026:

There is currently NO buyer under contract for the data center. Pam Mundo (Lavon EDC Executive Director) and the City are actively marketing the 79-acre Elevon site specifically for a hyperscale data center.

Lavon Families Against the Data Center / Protect Lavon, public-facing graphic, posted to Facebook 2026-05-22

Three project code-names — Chalkboard 27, Ignite, and Pathways — appear in the Lavon City Council’s closed-session agenda items for both the May 5, 2026 and May 19, 2026 regular meetings, in the section authorizing deliberation under Texas Government Code §551.087 (business prospects under economic-development negotiation). They are identified only as projects “in proximity to SH 78.” Whether any of these code-names corresponds to a hyperscale data-center prospect for Parcels 8 and 9 is not publicly disclosed.

… or (2) to deliberate the offers of a financial or other incentive to business prospects described by Subdivision (1) regarding the projects Chalkboard 27, Ignite, and Pathways in proximity to SH 78.

Lavon City Council Agenda, May 19, 2026 — Item 9, Executive Session

Status update — 2026-06-12. The June 16, 2026 agenda is the first to categorize Chalkboard 27, Ignite, and Pathways as retail projects (Item 8, Executive Session). Prior agendas (May 5, May 19, June 2) referred to them as “projects” without qualifier. The “retail” descriptor materially weakens the inference that any of the three corresponds to a hyperscale data-center prospect for Parcels 8 and 9; hyperscale data centers are not classified as retail use. No operator names, incentive amounts, or Texas Comptroller / Texas Workforce Commission filings have been publicly identified for any of the three code-names as of 2026-06-12.

§6 · What is currently before the council

The June 16, 2026 regular meeting agenda is the most recently posted. It is the first to categorize the Chalkboard 27 / Ignite / Pathways business prospects as retail projects in executive session under §551.087 — a material descriptor change. The prior June 2, 2026 agenda (now held meeting) referred to the same three names as “projects” without qualifier and added open-session items unrelated to the data center (a sign-regulation ordinance, a waste-collection contract amendment, a first reading authorizing Lavon EDC project funds, and a capital-improvement-plan amendment). No open-session data-center zoning item appears on either agenda, and no noise-ordinance amendment is yet agendized (see §6b).

The published portion of that agenda includes routine items (consent agenda, an unrelated SH 78 commercial site plan, speed-limit and gas-rate resolutions). The relevant items for the Elevon data-center situation are in executive (closed) session:

The earlier May 5, 2026 regular meeting agenda included the same closed-session items, plus two additional attorney-consultation items: Elevon Public Improvement District and Reinvestment Zone #2. Its consent agenda also included Resolution No. 2026-05-01, which authorizes a First Amendment to the City’s Professional Services Reimbursement Agreement “for city expenses relating to the scope and expansion of the Elevon Development Agreement” — effectively the cost-recovery framework for the City’s legal and consultant expenses tied to the deal.

Under Texas law, no final action may be taken in executive session; any action must be taken after the council reconvenes in open session. Past 2026 minutes show the executive sessions have repeatedly recessed and reconvened with “no action taken.”

§6a · The full timeline — data-center zoning runs parallel to PID financing

A historical sweep of the Lavon council agenda archive (2017–2026, ~620 PDFs) makes a second track visible alongside the data-center zoning amendment: the Elevon Public Improvement District (PID). The PID is the financing scaffold for public improvements in the Elevon community — bonds are issued and assessments are levied on benefitted properties. A hyperscale data-center build-out on Parcels 8 & 9 would presumably plug into this scaffolding. The two tracks have been evolving in parallel:

All entries above are anchored to lavontx.gov agenda or minutes PDFs; specific line references and the working dossier extension are maintained off-site and available on request via Contact.

§6b · The City’s stated position and the noise-ordinance request — May 2026 correspondence

Between May 19 and May 28, 2026, Lavon residents corresponded with City Manager Kim Dobbs and Mayor Vicki Sanson requesting protections, a public hearing, and reconsideration of the data-center zoning. Their replies placed several elements of the City’s position on the record. The correspondence is held on file and is obtainable from the City as public information under the Texas Public Information Act; the officials’ statements are quoted and summarized below.

On when the data-center use was approved

The resident asked the Council to “abolish” Ordinance 2024-12-01 so that a data center would no longer be permitted. The City Manager’s position is that the use predates the 2024 amendment:

The zoning to allow a data center, among other uses, on the subject property was approved in 2022. The 2024 amendment primarily added restrictions for the data center use. There are myriad potential legal issues involved in down-zoning or removing approved zoning uses unless requested or agreed to by a landowner.

Kim Dobbs, City Manager, City of Lavon — email to a resident, May 28, 2026 (on file)

The resident’s own review acknowledged that Land Use Parcel 9 under Ordinance 2022-10-03 already listed “Data Center” as a permitted use, while arguing that the 2024 amendment introduced a specifically defined “Data Center (hyperscale)” use together with tailored dimensional and operational standards. The open question — whether the 2022 zoning already encompassed hyperscale-scale development, or whether the 2024 amendment materially defined and tailored it — together with a request that the City identify the specific legal doctrines (vested rights, litigation exposure, existing entitlements, or other) underlying its “myriad potential legal issues” statement, is the subject of a written request for clarification sent to the City on May 28, 2026. As of this writing the City had not yet answered those questions.

The practical significance: because the data-center use was on the books in 2022, repealing the 2024 amendment outright would, on the City’s reading, strip the screening, buffer, and setback requirements the 2024 amendment added — while leaving the underlying use in place. Residents and the Council would need to weigh that interaction before pursuing repeal as a remedy.

On what the 2024 amendment changed

In an earlier reply, the City Manager characterized Ordinance 2024-12-01 as adding requirements rather than relaxing them, and cited the specific Planned-Development sections:

• §1.3.53.1 — removed the maximum building-size restriction for a data center on Parcel 8 to match the existing Parcel 9 zoning.
• §§1.3.53.2 and 1.3.59 — added, for both parcels: a 15-foot permanent-green-space landscape buffer along FM 2755; a 6-foot screening wall on the rear and side property lines; a 6-foot (minimum growth within two years) continuous solid evergreen visual screen adjacent to residential property; and preservation of existing trees and vegetation along residential boundaries (so the 6-foot wall sits inside the boundary, not on it).
• §§1.3.56 and 1.3.62 — quadrupled the minimum front, side, and rear setbacks from 25 feet to 100 feet for a data-center use.

These section-level details corroborate and extend the dimensional standards in §4 above. The framing of the changes as net restrictions is the City Manager’s; residents have characterized the same amendment as relaxing limits — pointing to the removal of the maximum building-size cap and the 85-foot height allowance. Both readings draw on the same ordinance text reproduced in §3 and §4; the difference is which provisions are foregrounded.

On a stronger noise ordinance

On May 24, 2026 a resident formally requested that the Council place on a future agenda the adoption of a stronger noise ordinance with objective, enforceable standards for industrial uses including data centers, noting that the City’s current Article 8.03 is “too subjective and difficult to enforce.” The request proposed maximum sound levels measured at residential property lines of 55 dBA daytime (7 AM–10 PM) and 45 dBA nighttime (10 PM–7 AM), C-weighted (dBC) limits to address low-frequency and tonal mechanical noise, and independent professional noise studies both before approval and after construction. The City Manager replied:

The staff will begin research regarding the request for an amendment to the regulations regarding noise. We will stay in touch regarding the research and possible actions.

Kim Dobbs, City Manager, City of Lavon — email to a resident, May 28, 2026 (on file)

As of the June 2, 2026 regular meeting, a noise-ordinance amendment had not yet appeared on a posted Council agenda; the City Manager’s reply indicates it is in staff research. The City separately stated that staff “is studying the issue for options that may be available to help address the concerns” raised about the data-center zoning. Residents tracking this should watch the “Set Future Meetings and Agenda” item on upcoming agendas and the City’s “Notify Me” agenda-notification signup at lavontx.gov.

Comparable jurisdictions. Texas residential nighttime limits run from Plano’s 55 dBA (10 PM–7 AM, Code of Ordinances Ch. 14, Art. V) upward. Virginia data-center jurisdictions have moved more aggressively on industrial/hyperscale low-frequency noise: Prince William County, VA (Code Ch. 14) caps residential daytime at 60 dB(A) per ANSI S1.4-1983 and in 2023 removed the nighttime HVAC exemption (§14-4) to reach data-center cooling systems specifically; a March 2025 update proposes adding dBC and octave-band sound levels to capture low-frequency content. Fairfax County, VA (Zoning Ordinance amendment, adopted Sept. 10, 2024) requires pre- and post-construction sound studies, ≥ 200-ft data-center building setback and ≥ 300-ft generator setback from residential lot lines, and full equipment enclosure. Chandler, AZ Ordinance No. 5033 (adopted Dec. 5, 2022, effective Jan. 5, 2023) pins enforcement to a measured pre-construction baseline rather than a fixed dBA: post-construction noise may not exceed the baseline, with annual noise research for five years. The resident’s proposed 55 dBA day / 45 dBA night / dBC low-frequency limits track or are slightly stricter than these peer regimes, and the Chandler baseline-cap model is the most directly transferable structural design.

On whether a data-center application is pending — the Mayor’s statement

On May 24, 2026 a Lavon resident submitted a message through the City’s official Council contact form opposing the advancement of any application related to the proposed data center and requesting that the Council hold a full public discussion, with adequate notice, before any approval moves forward. Mayor Vicki Sanson replied on May 26, 2026:

Just to clarify, there are no active or ongoing data center construction projects in the city, and no applications for such projects are currently pending review.

Vicki Sanson, Mayor, City of Lavon — email reply to a resident, May 26, 2026 (on file)

The Mayor’s statement is consistent with the rest of this record and should be read alongside it. The public file shows the data-center use is already zoned and permitted on Parcels 8 and 9 (§2–§4); that there is no buyer under contract and the site is being actively marketed for a hyperscale data center by the Lavon EDC (§5); and that business-prospect negotiations are continuing in executive session (§5–§6). A formal development application is the step that would follow a committed buyer. The Mayor’s statement confirms that none has yet been filed and that no construction is underway; it does not speak to the zoning already in place or to the marketing and closed-session activity documented above. Both can be true at once: there is no pending application today, and the parcels remain zoned and marketed for the use.

§6c · The Municipal Development District (MDD) — a separate question

Separate from the data-center zoning, residents have been asking about a Municipal Development District (MDD). An MDD is a special-purpose entity authorized under Chapter 377 of the Texas Local Government Code: if approved by the voters inside its boundary, it can levy up to a half-cent sales tax (capped by state law) within a defined district — typically in a city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) — to fund economic-development and public-improvement projects, governed by an appointed board. It levies sales tax, not property tax, and an election is required to create one. Two distinct MDD efforts appear in Lavon’s record, and they are easily confused:

Why this is in the file. The 2026 MDD’s described boundary — non-residential properties adjacent to FM 2755 — runs along the same corridor where the Elevon data-center parcels (Land Use Parcels 8 & 9, southwest of FM 2755 and McClendon Road) sit. That is a geographic overlap, not a documented causal link: the public record does not state the MDD is being created for the data center, and the two are separate instruments — an MDD raises sales-tax revenue for projects; it does not approve, zone, or permit the data center. Residents tracking the data center should nonetheless watch the MDD election window (November 2026 or May 2027) and its final boundary map, and note that only voters inside the adopted MDD boundary — not all Lavon residents — would vote on it.

Sources: Lavon City Council agenda packet, January 6, 2026 (MDD informational narrative and the “Potential MDD Properties, January 2026” map, packet p. 141); January 20, 2026 minutes (boundary discussion and the November 2026 / May 2027 election window); February 18, 2025 resolution calling the prior ETJ-wide MDD election. MDDs are authorized under Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ch. 377 (see § 377.021 on district creation and ballot language; § 377.101 on the sales-and-use-tax rate and 2% combined-rate cap).

Status update — 2026-06-12. No MDD-related item appears on the May 5, May 19, June 2, or June 16, 2026 council agendas. The Jan 6, 2026 packet p. 141 map (SH 205 / SH 78 / FM 2755 non-residential corridor) remains the most recent public boundary description; the November 2026 / May 2027 election window described at the Jan 20, 2026 meeting has not been formally called.

§7 · Who voted on the ordinance — CONFIRMED

The Dec 3, 2024 council minutes were initially published only as a scanned-image PDF (no machine-extractable text). However, the full minutes were attached verbatim to the January 7, 2025 council agenda packet as the prior-meeting minutes for consent-agenda approval. That packet was machine-extractable, and the vote attribution is now on the public record:

MOTION: APPROVE AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE 9.03 ZONING ORDINANCE… TO AMEND THE REGULATIONS FOR LAND USE PARCEL 8 AND LAND USE PARCEL 9 TO DEFINE THE USE OF DATA CENTER… INCLUDING PROHIBITION OF CRYPTO CURRENCY MINING AND THE DEFINITION.
MOTION MADE: SHEPARD
SECONDED: JACOB
APPROVED: UNANIMOUS

Lavon City Council Minutes, December 3, 2024 (reproduced in 2025-01-07 agenda packet, lines 297–305)

Two facts worth flagging:

1. The motion was made by Mike Shepard, seconded by Travis Jacob, and approved unanimously. Both Shepard and Jacob are continuing members of the 2026 council. So is Mike Cook, who participated in the consent-agenda motion earlier in the same meeting.
2. The council added a prohibition on cryptocurrency / bitcoin mining to the ordinance during the meeting itself. The motion as adopted explicitly says “INCLUDING PROHIBITION OF CRYPTO CURRENCY MINING AND THE DEFINITION.” This language was not in the original proposed amendment text from the agenda packet; it was added in response to questions during the public hearing.

Council composition continuity:

• Continuing from Dec 2024 to 2026: Mayor Vicki Sanson, Mike Cook, Mike Shepard, Travis Jacob, Lindsey Hedge.
• New since the Dec 2024 vote: Rachel Dumas.
• Off council since 2024: Nabors, Vallejo (appointed to Planning & Zoning Commission Nov 2024), Cox, Dill.

§7a · The December 3, 2024 public hearing

The minutes capture who spoke and what was said. The project sponsor was named for the first time on the record at this meeting:

Kim Dobbs, City Manager, provided information regarding the proposed application for an amendment to the Planned Development Ordinance. Bennett See, Director, Lovett Industrial, presented details regarding the proposed project including a draft concept plan and elevations.

Lavon City Council Minutes, December 3, 2024

Lovett Industrial — a Houston, TX-based industrial real-estate developer — was the named applicant. (The title-holding entity for Parcels 8 & 9 is still TBD; it is likely an affiliate of MA Partners, the master developer of Elevon. Other Elevon-affiliated LLCs visible elsewhere in the agenda corpus include MA Elevon 429, LLC, MA Elevon 492, LLC, and BTR AT ELEVON LLC.)

Five Collin County residents spoke at the public hearing:

Per the minutes, the residents “shared concerns regarding noise, traffic, water, energy usage, drainage and security.”

Bennett See’s on-the-record responses, per the minutes:

Mr. See provided plans for noise mitigation, use of majority gray water, number of employees expected, and added that no crypto currency/bit coin mining would take place at the facility.

Lavon City Council Minutes, December 3, 2024

The notice procedure followed by the City:

Ms. Dobbs noted that 25 neighbor notices were mailed to the owners of properties located within 200 feet of the applicant property, no notices were returned in favor or opposition of the request and that the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval.

Lavon City Council Minutes, December 3, 2024

The 25-notice / zero-return / P&Z-unanimous procedural posture is now documentable from the city’s own minutes. The City followed the statutory 200-foot mailed-notice requirement; broader public awareness of the project did not surface until May 2026.

§8 · Source files

Every claim above is anchored in a public document. The originals are listed below with their publishers.

• Lavon City Council Agenda, December 3, 2024 regular meeting — PDF on lavontx.gov (26 MB; the data-center ordinance language is at the back of the packet)
• Lavon City Council Minutes, December 3, 2024 — scanned-image PDF on lavontx.gov. The machine-readable version is embedded in the Jan 7, 2025 agenda packet (next entry).
• Lavon City Council Agenda, January 7, 2025 — PDF on lavontx.gov — contains the verbatim Dec 3, 2024 minutes including the vote attribution.
• Lavon City Council Agenda, July 1, 2025 — PDF on lavontx.gov — contains the consolidated Elevon Planned Development document with Land Use Parcels 1–9 mapped (Parcels 8 & 9 = 79.312 acres).
• Lavon City Council Agenda, November 18, 2025 — PDF on lavontx.gov — the preliminary 2025 Amended and Restated Service and Assessment Plan for the Elevon PID; includes the full PID timeline back to Nov 2, 2021.
• Lavon City Council Agenda, May 19, 2026 — PDF on lavontx.gov (most recent posted agenda)
• Lavon City Council Agenda, May 5, 2026 — PDF on lavontx.gov (includes the Resolution 2026-05-01 reimbursement-agreement item)
• Lavon City Council Agenda & Minutes archive index — lavontx.gov
• Collin Central Appraisal District — collincad.org (search Property ID 2543097)
• Lavon Economic Development Corporation — lavonedc.com (Elevon master-planned-community marketing material)
• Elevon master-planned community — elevontx.com
• Lovett Industrial (applicant) — lovettindustrial.com
• Texas Open Meetings Act (Tex. Gov’t Code Ch. 551) — statutes.capitol.texas.gov
• Texas Public Information Act (Tex. Gov’t Code Ch. 552) — statutes.capitol.texas.gov

Residents’ group

• Lavon Families Against the Data Center / Protect Lavon — private Facebook group, founded May 22, 2026. The group hosts the most current resident-side information; this page does not mirror its content.