Mr. Bland, a Texas farmer in his 70s, saw that the neighborhood children had no safe place to run around and made a quiet decision in 1999. He'd give 87 acres of his land for $10 so kids could have a park. More than two decades later, that same land is being cleared for a 135,000-square-foot data center, just 500 feet from the home of the woman who has spent the last year fighting to stop it.
According to an investigation by 404 Media from the original deed from July 7, 1999, it was clear that the 87.97 acres in Taylor, Texas, were “held in trust for future use as parkland.” That deed is still on record. But in a series of transfers that eventually spanned nearly three decades, the land was eventually sold by the Taylor Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) to data center developer Blueprint for $10 million in 2025.
