Brookwood Council Vote Clears Last Zoning Hurdle for One of Major 3 Data Center Projects
The Brookwood City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday afternoon to annex and rezone the final parcel of land needed for a New York developer's planned data center campus, further advancing one of three separate data center projects the Tuscaloosa Thread has identified along the town's industrial corridor.
The 5-0 vote covered a single parcel, owned by ALAWEST-AL LLC, that City Attorney Jay Stuck described as the "secondary portion" of land tied to Project Brookwood LLC, an entity connected to the New York firm Youngwoo & Associates. The first portion was annexed and rezoned in June 2025.
With the vote, the parcel enters the city zoned for light industrial use, and application documents said they intend to build a data center campus there.
The three projects are separate, by different developers, on different land. The first the Thread reported was Applied Digital, a Dallas firm that owns roughly 1,300 acres and holds a state environmental permit for a two-million-square-foot data center.
The Youngwoo project, on a 374-acre tract just to the west, is the one the council acted on this week.
City Engineer Collins Espy walked the council through the map. All three projects are in relatively close proximity to Brookwood Middle School.
Much of the meeting saw city officials making the case for annexation as a form of control. Stuck argued that land left in the county "would be subject to county regulations, of which there are very few," and "essentially no legal controls by the city of Brookwood."
By coming into the city, he said, a project subjects itself to zoning, building permits and inspections, a certificate of occupancy, and an annual business license the city can revoke.
"The fact that these folks are willing to annex is a good thing," he said.
As at earlier meetings, the middle school drew the most concern.
Asked about its place inside the industrial corridor, Barger said the city is "in talks with the county board of education regarding remediating that situation," adding that "we've never liked the middle school being on our industrial corridor, so we are looking at options." He gave no timeline.
Other residents pressed on what is not yet known, like where "blowdown" water from a closed-loop cooling system would be discharged and how to regulate noise from any hyperscale data center — much less three in close proximity.
On noise, Stuck said the city has no decibel-specific ordinance but would monitor any industrial project to ensure they stick to the terms of any development agreement they reach with the city, but emphasized they would have no control over a project that wasn't annexed into Brookwood.
On power, Barger said there is "no infrastructure cost to the city," and that a developer would pay for the transmission line and the grid connection, and that other utilities like road, water and sewer are already in place for the Youngwoo site.
The five-member city council unanimously passed the vote, completing the annexation and rezoning process for the Youngwoo site. Specific site plans, a land development permit, building permits and state environmental permitting still lie ahead.
By the city's account, the parcels held by the other two developers are annexed and zoned appropriately, but no projects have been formally presented for their approval.
For more coverage of this project and other industrial development in West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.
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