County cites ongoing negotiations over the proposed data center agreement; no new hearing date has been announced.
UPDATE, SEPT. 24: Stonewall County has canceled the Sept. 28 public hearing on the proposed Crusoe tax abatement. County officials cited ongoing negotiations with the company. No new hearing date has been announced.
Stonewall County has canceled a Sept. 28 public hearing on a proposed tax abatement agreement with Crusoe Energy Systems, saying negotiations over the company’s proposed data center complex are still underway.
The county posted a formal cancellation notice Sept. 22 stating the hearing was canceled “due to ongoing tax abatement negotiations with Crusoe Energy Systems LLC for a Data Center Complex in Stonewall County.”
The hearing had been scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 28, at the Stonewall County Courthouse in Aspermont.
The original notice called for commissioners to hold a public hearing on the county’s intent to enter into a tax abatement agreement with Crusoe. The county’s website now lists both that original notice and the subsequent cancellation.
No new date for the tax-abatement hearing was included in the cancellation notice.
Negotiations continue
The cancellation is the latest development in negotiations surrounding Crusoe’s proposed Stonewall County data center project.
County officials began publicly discussing the reinvestment-zone and tax-abatement process tied to the project earlier this year. Commissioners subsequently approved a reinvestment zone, a procedural step that allowed negotiations over a potential tax abatement to continue. The zone itself did not constitute final approval of a tax-abatement agreement.
A previous public hearing on the proposed agreement had been scheduled for June 22 but was also canceled. The proposal later returned for a Sept. 28 hearing before county officials issued this week's cancellation.
Earlier project materials described an AI-focused data center campus proposed near the Flat Top and Greater Swenson area. Those materials identified approximately 1,300 acres within the proposed reinvestment zone, part of a broader project area previously described as roughly 3,200 acres.
The company's original application projected at least 80 permanent jobs paying at least $100,000 annually plus benefits, with an estimated annual payroll of approximately $8 million after full buildout. It also estimated that construction could employ as many as 5,000 temporary workers at peak activity.
Those figures are projections contained in the company's earlier application and do not represent guaranteed employment levels.
Abatement terms remain under negotiation
The original application contemplated a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes arrangement equivalent to 15% of real-property improvement taxes during the abatement period.
County officials previously described those terms as a starting point for negotiations, meaning any agreement eventually presented for consideration could differ substantially from the initial proposal.
Public discussion surrounding the project has included questions about water use, local jobs, infrastructure, taxation, school district boundaries, economic benefits and the project's potential effects on neighboring property.
Landowner Brian Snodgrass has also asked commissioners to encourage additional distance between the proposed development and his ranch boundary because of concerns involving noise, lighting, heat, water use and construction activity.
For now, however, commissioners will not hold the Sept. 28 tax-abatement hearing.
The county's cancellation notice attributes that decision specifically to ongoing negotiations with Crusoe. It does not state when negotiations are expected to conclude or when another public hearing could be scheduled.