Primary-source record
Every claim on this page is traceable to a document on the city of Lavon’s public website, the Collin County Appraisal District, or the residents’ group’s primary-source capture. Where the city’s PDFs are large or hard to navigate, exact agenda-packet line numbers are included so anyone can verify.
§1 · The site
| Master-planned community | Elevon — a 1,600-acre planned community in Lavon, TX, with roughly 4,000 homes plus commercial uses planned. Developed by MA Partners (Allen Jones, Co-Founder & Principal). Homebuilders include K. Hovnanian, Trophy Signature Homes, D.R. Horton, and others. |
|---|---|
| Parcels under amended zoning | Land Use Parcel 8 and Land Use Parcel 9 of the Elevon Planned Development (the “Business Park” portion). |
| Acreage | Approximately 79.3 acres. |
| Legal description | 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, Texas. |
| Tax parcel | Collin Central Appraisal District (CCAD) Property ID 2543097. |
| Ownership | Privately owned by the Elevon developer/builder. The City of Lavon does not own the land. |
| Surrounding uses (per the residents’ group’s site map) | Adjacent and proximate to Elevon residential Sections 1–5, the Lakepointe and Lake Breeze neighborhoods, and McClendon Farms (active agriculture). Union Pacific Railroad lies north. NeSmith Elementary (~1.0 mi), Trails Middle School (~1.3 mi), and Dodson Elementary (~1.3 mi) of Community ISD are nearby. |
§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:
| Maximum building height | 85 feet for data center use (versus 45 ft base height; 65 ft for hotel use) |
|---|---|
| Proximity slope | For the first 50 ft adjacent to single-family residential, maximum height is 30 ft. |
| Maximum building size | “The maximum building size restriction does not apply to a data center.” |
| Minimum front-yard setback | 25 ft / 100 ft for data center |
| Minimum side-yard setback | 25 ft / 100 ft for data center |
| Minimum side-yard (corner) | 25 ft / 100 ft for data center |
| Minimum rear-yard setback | 25 ft / 100 ft for data center |
| Maximum lot coverage | 75% |
| Landscape buffer | Minimum 15-foot-wide landscape buffer adjacent to FM 2755 and McClendon Road, “maintained as permanent green space.” |
| Plazas & open space | “For secured data center uses, the Non-Residential requirements of Section 1.3.4 Plazas and Open Spaces and Section 1.3.4.31 Open Space Connectivity will only be implemented where reasonably feasible or possible.” |
| Above-ground utilities | “Utility lines internal to the site and not visible from the public street may be above ground.” |
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
§6 · What is currently before the council
The most recently posted Lavon City Council agenda is the May 19, 2026 regular meeting agenda, posted to the city website on May 13, 2026 (six days before the meeting, per the Texas Open Meetings Act).
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:
| Item 9, Tex. Gov’t Code §551.071 | Attorney consultation regarding the Elevon Amended and Restated Development Agreement. |
|---|---|
| Item 9, Tex. Gov’t Code §551.087(1)–(2) | Deliberation regarding business prospects and financial incentives for the projects Chalkboard 27, Ignite, and Pathways in proximity to SH 78. |
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:
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| Nov 2, 2021 | Council adopts Resolution No. 2021-11-07 authorizing and creating the Elevon Public Improvement District. |
| Feb 1, 2022 | Council adopts Ordinance No. 2022-02-01, approving the Elevon PID Service and Assessment Plan and levying initial assessments. |
| Oct 3, 2022 | Council adopts Ordinance No. 2022-10-03, establishing the Planned Development regulations for Elevon’s commercial, business-park, and mixed-use parcels — the framework that Ord. 2024-12-01 will later amend. |
| Sept 3, 2024 | Council adopts Ordinance No. 2024-09-01, the 2024 Amended and Restated Service and Assessment Plan. Identifies Improvement Areas #2A and #2B and updates the assessment rolls. |
| Oct 15, 2024 | Council adopts Ordinance No. 2024-10-05, the 2024 A&R SAP — Improvement Area #2A–2B Bonds. |
| Dec 3, 2024 | Council adopts Ordinance No. 2024-12-01, amending Ord. 2022-10-03 to define and permit data center use on Land Use Parcels 8 & 9. Bennett See of Lovett Industrial presents; five residents speak at the public hearing; the council adds a crypto-mining prohibition; motion Shepard, second Jacob, unanimous approval. |
| Dec 17, 2024 | Regular meeting scheduled for this date is cancelled by notice posted Dec 13, 2024; no reason given. |
| Jan 7, 2025 | Dec 3, 2024 minutes adopted as part of the consent agenda. This is the version that became the public, machine-readable record of the data-center vote. |
| Mid-2025 (Jan–Aug) | Sustained Elevon-related activity: Section 2 Phase 2F, Section 3, Section 5 plats and PD amendments. Land Use Parcels 8 & 9 appear in the consolidated Elevon PD document on the July 1, 2025 agenda packet. |
| Nov 18, 2025 | Council takes up the preliminary 2025 Amended and Restated Service and Assessment Plan for the Elevon PID. The agenda packet runs ~900 pages of SAP exhibits. |
| Dec 2, 2025 | Pt. 2 of the council packet contains an assessment roll listing CCAD Property ID 2543097 (the data-center parcels) alongside roughly 200 other Elevon parcels. |
| May 5, 2026 | Resolution 2026-05-01 (Professional Services Reimbursement Agreement for Elevon DA scope/expansion). Executive Session: Elevon Amended and Restated DA + PID + Reinvestment Zone #2 + Chalkboard 27 / Ignite / Pathways business prospects. |
| May 19, 2026 | Same Executive Session items continue; no open-session action taken. |
| May 22, 2026 | Lavon Families Against the Data Center / Protect Lavon Facebook group goes public. |
| June 2, 2026 | Next regular council meeting. |
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.
§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.
Lavon City Council Minutes, December 3, 2024 (reproduced in 2025-01-07 agenda packet, lines 297–305)
MOTION MADE: SHEPARD
SECONDED: JACOB
APPROVED: UNANIMOUS
Two facts worth flagging:
- 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.
- 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:
| Resident | Address on the record |
|---|---|
| Connie Richey | 9661 Sunset Dr. |
| Shelby Strayhorn | 9841 CR 540 |
| Larry Bickle | 17253 FM 2755 |
| James Whitten | 9861 CR 540 |
| Rick Mann | 8311 PR 5397 |
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.