Zoning in Hood County, Texas: Watershed Authority and the 2026 Data Center Fight

Subchapter K: the entire county, by statute, is a protected watershed

Most rural Texas counties have no general zoning authority at all, a point the state hub covers in depth -- but Hood County is one of the short list of named exceptions the Texas Legislature has carved out under Local Government Code Chapter 231. Subchapter K, added in 1999, is built around a specific and unusual mechanism: it designates the entirety of unincorporated Hood County a "watershed," on the basis that it drains into Lake Granbury and the Brazos River, and places responsibility on the Commissioners Court to protect the quality and quantity of the county's water resources and preserve the area's value for recreation statewide. On the strength of that designation, the subchapter authorizes the Commissioners Court to adopt development regulations and to create development districts within the county specifically to carry out that watershed-protection purpose.

That's a materially different starting point than a typical rural Texas county, where subdivision platting and floodplain rules are close to the ceiling of what the county can require. In principle, Subchapter K gives Hood County a tool that looks a lot like zoning -- development regulations tied to a stated public-health and environmental rationale, applicable countywide rather than only to a specific subdivision. Confirm directly with the Hood County Commissioners Court what development regulations or development districts, if any, are currently adopted under this authority and whether a specific parcel falls inside one.

The 2026 test: seven data centers, two rejected moratoriums, and an unanswered legal question

In early 2026, seven large data center concept plans arrived in Hood County within a short span -- an eighth site was annexed into the City of Granbury before submitting its own plans -- and most of them left out basic estimates of expected water or power use, with only a handful even identifying where their water or power would come from. One project, a 2,100-acre proposal known locally as "Comanche Circle," included plans for its own on-site water treatment and power generation rather than relying on existing county infrastructure. Given that Subchapter K exists specifically because Hood County's water resources feed Lake Granbury and the Brazos River, this looked like precisely the situation the 1999 law anticipated.

Two Hood County commissioners argued the county's existing development rules were too outdated to adequately protect the Lake Granbury watershed from the pollution and noise risk this kind of large-scale industrial development could bring, and proposed a moratorium to let the county assess water and power impacts before more projects moved forward. The Commissioners Court voted the proposal down on February 10, 2026. A second attempt was voted down again on February 25, 2026 -- and this time, rather than simply rejecting it, the court voted to formally ask the Texas Attorney General for an opinion on whether Hood County has the legal authority to impose a development moratorium at all. County legal counsel's own assessment, given publicly around the same time, was direct: no, the Texas Legislature had not granted the county that authority. As of this research, more than 180 days had passed since the request was filed without a response from the Attorney General's office.

What this means for land near a proposed large development

For a buyer, the gap between Hood County's on-paper Subchapter K authority and its demonstrated 2026 unwillingness (or uncertainty about its legal ability) to use a moratorium against a wave of large industrial proposals is the practical thing to understand. Subchapter K's development-regulation and development-district powers remain real and on the books, but they were not used to pause the 2026 data center wave, and the county's own legal position -- that it may lack moratorium authority specifically -- is the operative one until and unless the Attorney General or a court says otherwise. That means a parcel's proximity to a large proposed industrial or data center site in Hood County should be evaluated against whatever specific, already-adopted development regulations exist (if any), not against an assumption that the county's watershed-protection mandate will be used to block or delay a project.

1. Ask the Hood County Commissioners Court directly whether any development regulations or development districts are currently adopted under Local Government Code Chapter 231, Subchapter K, and whether a specific parcel falls inside one.
2. Check on the current status of the pending Texas Attorney General opinion request on county moratorium authority -- a ruling either way could change what tools the county has available for future large developments.
3. If a parcel is near a proposed data center or other large industrial site, ask the county directly what water-use, power-source, and infrastructure disclosures (if any) that specific project has provided, since Hood County's 2026 experience showed several proposals arrived without basic estimates.
4. Confirm current Lake Granbury water quality and any Brazos River Authority monitoring data directly if a parcel's value depends on lake access or water quality, given the watershed-protection concerns driving this entire episode.