Not a Partnership, a Takeover Plan
Lacy Lakeview didn’t show up to “chat” with Elm Mott’s water board. They showed up to move the chess pieces.
They came once in July, and again in January, and if you read the minutes it’s not hard to see the shape of it. It’s utilities. It’s pipe. It’s control. And if you control water and sewer you don’t just serve an area, you steer it. You can pretend it’s about “growth” and “opportunity” but it’s still a power grab with a smile on its face.
Download the complete meeting minutes (PDF)
July 7, 2025: the first poke at the fence
The minutes show the Elm Mott water board met Monday July 7th, 2025, and that’s when Mayor Chuck Wilson and City Manager Calvin Hodde approached the board about “possibly combin[ing] water and sewer resources” for a development on three hundred acres at the end of South Katy.
And the board’s response was basically: No Action.
That matters. Elm Mott didn’t jump. Elm Mott didn’t beg. They didn’t hand over the keys.
So Lacy Lakeview came back.
January 5, 2026: the long sales pitch and the quiet admissions
On January 5th, 2026, they’re back in the room. Same two guys. Now it’s not a vague idea, it’s a whole pitch, and it goes on and on.
And in that pitch, they admit the part nobody in Elm Mott should ignore:
1) They want to run pipe down Katy Parkway, through the middle of all this
Wilson points at Katy Parkway, calls it the old railroad right-of-way, says it runs “all the way to Ross,” and says the county owns it. Then it turns into, well, we can just run pipe down there.
So let’s say it plain. They’re looking at a corridor that cuts right through this area and thinking “that’s our path.” That’s not partnership, that’s route planning.
2) They need effluent, and they need it from Elm Mott
This is where it gets ugly, because they start talking about the cooling system and gray water demand.
They talk about 400,000 gallons a month of gray water, up to 80% gray water in the system. They say the data center “wants to use the effluent” but won’t generate it themselves.
Here’s what they don’t say directly but Chuck and Hodde admit Lacy Lakeview’s own sewer system is maxed out. They can’t take on massive new load, they need Elm Mott’s wastewater capacity, wastewater, and runoff.
They talk about package plants and “purple pipe” to capture and push that reclaimed water up toward the site. They make it sound like infrastructure investment, like they’re doing Elm Mott a favor.
But it’s extraction. They need what Elm Mott has because their own system is failing, and they found a customer - the data center - that’ll pay for the takeover.
3) Lacy Lakeview’s sewer crisis became Elm Mott’s leverage point
The minutes reveal Lacy Lakeview has a serious problem: a $15 million sewer need, and their pipes are full. Wilson admits in a rain event, it overflows.
And instead of that being Lacy Lakeview’s problem to solve, they’re looking at Elm Mott’s wastewater as the solution. They want 400,000 gallons a month of gray water. They talk about package plants and purple pipe to capture Elm Mott’s effluent.
That’s not partnership. That’s predatory. They’ve got infrastructure problems they can’t afford to fix, so they’re trying to absorb Elm Mott’s capacity to bail themselves out AND serve the data center.
4) The annexation talk was not subtle
A board member asks how annexation would work and Wilson says their city attorney told them annexation affects CCNs, basically that annexation makes an area eligible for the city to deliver water.
Maybe that plays out legally, maybe it doesn’t, I’m not your lawyer and neither is he, but here’s what matters: they’re thinking in annexation terms, and they are saying it out loud in a water board meeting in Elm Mott.
That should set off every alarm bell you have.
5) The real tell: “between here and the river”
This was the line that hit me like a punch. Wilson says if they’re bringing in infrastructure then it “should be infrastructure to develop everything between here and the river.”
Not just the data center. Not just one site. A whole corridor.
And then Ray Bartosh, the water board VP, acknowledges what people actually want. He says folks built out here because they didn’t want to be in a city, they don’t want to be annexed.
Wilson’s response? He knows. He says people don’t want it. And he’s talking about it anyway.
So he knows. He knows people don’t want it. And he’s mapping out the takeover regardless.
So what is this, really
This isn’t just “a presentation about a data center.” It’s a map being drawn in real time, with water and sewer as the ink.
It looks like this:
- Use the data center to justify big utility builds
- Use Katy Parkway as the corridor
- Use gray water demand as the hook
- Use Elm Mott’s sewer strain as the pressure point
- Talk annexation and CCNs like it’s already their game to play
- Start thinking bigger than the project, “between here and the river”
If you live in Elm Mott and you’re thinking “that sounds dramatic,” fine, I get it, we all want to believe people mean well. But read the minutes. This isn’t me reading tea leaves, it’s right there in the meeting record.
Why it matters
Elm Mott is a community because it still has some say over its basic bones. Water. Sewer. Local meetings where a regular person can show up and actually be heard.
If Lacy Lakeview or some new district structure ends up controlling that, you don’t just lose a utility board, you lose your leverage, you lose your voice, you lose the ability to say no next time. And there will be a next time.
And you can call it “North Lacy” or “development” or “progress” or whatever shiny word they want to use that week, but it’s still the same thing: power moving away from the people who live here and toward the people who want to build over us.
What Elm Mott needs to do right now
Not next year. Not after another “informational” visit. Now.
- Get independent legal counsel. Not someone friendly to the city’s plan. Elm Mott needs their own attorney looking at every angle.
- Demand clear written proposals only. No more rambling verbal pitches that can be walked back later. Put it in writing or it didn’t happen.
- Make it public. Mailers, a simple website, town hall style meetings, explain the gray water plan and the corridor talk and the annexation comments. People deserve to know.
- Build a local coalition. You get picked off easier alone.
- Show up. Seats in that room matter, bodies in that room matter, because silence is permission in Texas whether anybody admits it or not.
Bottom line
Lacy Lakeview didn’t come to Elm Mott because they love Elm Mott. They came because Elm Mott sits where they want to run the pipe, and because Elm Mott has assets they want, and because they see a future corridor they want to control.
If you want Elm Mott to stay Elm Mott then you better act like it, because the other side already is.
Next Elm Mott Water Board Meeting: February 2, 2026, 6:00 PM at 314 W. Elm Mott Drive
Show up. Ask hard questions. Don’t let anybody talk you to sleep with “opportunity” while they’re measuring your community for a takeover.
Sean Terrell is a resident of Elm Mott and organizer of the community opposition to the L2D2 data center project. Learn more at wacodatacenter.com.