Citizens Against SMART / AXIS

03/12/2026

03/10/2026

Did you know that Data Center is an approved use for the SMART Terminal / AXIS Logistics Park? If you have a moment to attend the meeting at the Caldwell County courthouse this Thursday at 10AM, please come to make your voice heard and learn more about what Caldwell County is doing about Data Centers.

This Thursday morning at 10AM at the Caldwell County Courthouse, the Commissioners Court will be hosting a community workshop where folks can hear from County officials about regulating data centers and ask questions. Please attend if you are able!

Note: this meeting time follows the regularly scheduled Commissioners Court meeting; recordings will be available on the county website for those who cannot make it.

Agenda Link:https://www.co.caldwell.tx.us/upload/page/0252/docs/Agenda%20Packets/3.12.26%20Workshop%20Agenda%20Packet%20-%20Data%20Centers.pdf

03/15/2025

⚠️ COMMUNITY CALL TO ACTION! ⚠️

We're asking for your help in filing a TCEQ complaint against the SMART/AXIS Terminal developers for endangering public health.

Since October 2024, the SMART/AXIS developer has been constructing a watershed protection plan and road. Over the course of this time, they frequently create massive dust clouds. Construction dust is a serious health hazard and proven carcinogen.

Today (3/15/25) around 10:30AM the winds around the SMART Terminal AKA AXIS Logistics Park increased above 25mph and shifted to the East. This caused a massive amount of dust particulate to permeate the air, reducing visibility and creating a public health hazard. Wind gusts have been over 45 MPH and are still going strong this evening. Please file a complaint with TCEQ through this link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Environmental_Complaints

There is also a phone number listed that you can call and file the complaint over the phone. You can remain anonymous if you wish. The more people that file a complaint, the greater the chance that TCEQ will step in to mitigate this dust pollution.

⚠️ Info needed to file a complaint, below ⚠️

This project started in October 2024. The property owner is Franklin Mountain San Marcos I. The contractor is Dallas-Based Hard Rock Excavation. The developer is Dallas-based Scarborough Lane Development. One of the permit numbers with the City of San Marcos is 2024-51056. Lat/Long of the project: 29.871899/-97.868752. Location between FM110, SH80, FM1984, San Marcos Regional Airport. If TCEQ requests a contact number for the developer, the number on their website is: 972-380-5900. Scarborough Lane Development's address is listed at: 16380 Addison Rd. Addison, TX 75001

Here is the link to the development's website: https://axislogisticspark.com/

Please LIKE and SHARE and TELL your friends!

03/09/2025

Its been extremely dusty out here on the east side of San Marcos for the past 4 months or so. We think the SMART/AXIS developer is supposed to mitigate construction dust, but it isn’t happening. Our neighbors can’t go outside because of the massive dust clouds in the air that cover everything. These wind storms lately haven’t helped much, either.

They’ve stacked dirt at least 10ft higher than the road in some areas and have been digging their pond. They work 10 hour days, usually 7 days a week nonstop moving dirt.

The company, Hard Rock, is based out of Dallas so we’re questioning the claims from certain city council members that the SMART/AXIS Heavy Industrial Complex will bring local jobs. So far, it seems all the funds that are being spent go to companies in Dallas, which is where Scarborough Lane is based.

If you haven’t had a chance to drive down to the east side of town lately, we invite you to come on over. You can get a nice view of the dust clouds, get a better understanding of how massive this project is, and view the 25 foot+ mountain of dirt that is larger than the cut and fill that’s allowed in the development agreement. When asked about the mountain of dirt, the city’s engineering department couldn’t give an answer and eventually stopped responding to questions asking if the mountain violates the development agreement. The cut and fill allowed is 15-20 feet…. But the mountain is much much higher than that.

08/05/2024

EXCLUSIVE: Timely guest op/ed in the August issue

One of the Nation’s Largest Industrial Parks Next to the San Marcos River? Let's Stop It!

By Annie Donovan & Noah Brock

Asked why they moved to the greater San Marcos area, most folks respond along the lines of, “I came here to get away from the concrete … the pollution … the industry … the traffic … the hustle and bustle of the big city.”

In Martindale, a small city that loves its community and river, there’s a movement to rebuild the downtown. People travel from all over the state and the world to enjoy the crisp, clean and healing waters of the San Marcos River. Nobody associates this area with heavy industry. Yet, since 2019, developers have been working to change that and put the humble San Marcos area on the map by fabricating “one of the largest master-planned industrial parks in the nation,” according to axislogisticspark.com.

Encompassing close to 2,100 acres of land – think 15 Dallas Cowboys AT&T Stadiums – just east of I-35 and extending from the FM-110 loop down Highway 80 all the way to Highway 142, the AXIS Logistics Park acreage (formerly known as SMART Terminal) is owned by Dallas-based developer Scarborough Lane Development under their subsidiary company, Franklin Mountain San Marcos I, LP.

The land area is roughly 50% larger than Martindale and 9% the size of San Marcos. On Aug. 5, the San Marcos City Council will vote on agenda item AN-24-03, a request from the developer to annex additional land into city limits. Their intention is to build a 120-foot right-of-way road that will serve as a spine road for heavy truck traffic the heavy industrial complex will attract.

In 2023, citizens of Caldwell County (Reedville, Maxwell, Martindale) and San Marcos united and rallied against the expansion of the AXIS Logistics Park from 735 acres to 2000+/-. The community felt uncertain about the massive amount of land being zoned to Heavy Industrial because the developer did not provide any build-out plans or potential investors. The development agreement that the San Marcos City Council approved in January 2023 allows the developer to conduct an environmental impact analysis, traffic analysis, etc., during development rather than before.

Community concerns regarding light, air, noise, and environmental disturbance and pollution, flooding, heavy traffic, potential disturbance of buried military chemical waste, and contamination of the drinking water/the San Marcos River were not adequately addressed during eight months of meetings, community gatherings, and discussions with the developers, and both Martindale and San Marcos city councils.

On June 23, 2023, Scarborough Lane Development withdrew their annexation request for 589 acres into San Marcos City Limits. In their last-minute withdrawal, they stated “they were not interested in annexing any land at this time.” There are many arguments as to why the property should or should not be annexed, but the bottom line is that if any further annexation passes, the future of the greater San Marcos area will change.

From I-35, drivers will see rail-car shipping containers stacked over the trees. San Marcos taxpayers will be paying to maintain the developer’s internal roads, among additional infrastructure, and two fire stations costing up to $17.5 million each – one of which is located within the Martindale ETJ. All residents in the area paying water and electric bills will be funding infrastructure to connect the development to the grid. This development will generate property tax revenue for the San Marcos Independent School District, but those funds will have to be given back to the state due to the Robin Hood Plan (Texas SB7, or “recapture”).

Long-term residents and businesses in Reedville and Maxwell will be forced out due to noise nuisances related to construction and heavy industrial processes, heavy truck traffic, pollution, potential flooding, and other disturbances. Martindale’s Dark Skies ordinance, small-town environment, and river parks will face pollution from heavy industry. The developer is proposing annexation of the right of way because they cannot develop the road easily outside of city limits. They are doing this to make it cheaper, and to also avoid any type of planning.

Join the community in telling the City Council of San Marcos that heavy industry is not right for the area and to vote no on agenda item AN-24-03 by calling or emailing the San Marcos City Council members. Please attend the Aug. 5 meeting at San Marcos City Hall, 630 E. Hopkins St., starting at 6 p.m.

It doesn’t matter if you aren’t a resident of the City of San Marcos. This Heavy Industrial Development affects everyone from San Marcos to Martindale to Lockhart.

For more information, visit https://linktr.ee/casa.smtx.

07/16/2024

Join your neighbors in asking SMTX City Council to vote NO on Public Hearing Agenda item AN-24-03.
https://sanmarcostx.gov/civicalerts.aspx?AID=2320

If approved, the annexation will allow the SMART / AXIS Terminal to build a road within city limits that only benefits THEM and SEMI-TRUCKS. They want taxpayers to pay to maintain their roads so they don't have to. They want to build within city limits because they don't want to have to plan ahead with traffic and environmental impact analyses before breaking ground. Building this road will also FORCE OUT local residents and businesses that have lived in the area for over 30 years.

Approval of AN-24-03 will bring MORE TRAFFIC and MORE SEMIS to San Marcos, causing MORE WRECKS and ROAD CONGESTION on our local roads and I-35.

Tell SMTX City Council to VOTE NO on AN-24-03 on MONDAY, August 5th at 6 PM! Like and Share this post and Invite your neighbors and friends to the city council meeting on August 5th.

CLICK BELOW TO SIGN UP FOR THE PUBLIC HEARING ON 8/5/24
http://www.sanmarcostx.gov/citizencommentsignup

05/19/2024

The Caldwell CAD updated this past week and shows that the developer created another subsidiary company to purchase the MAXWELL ACRES CO land. It sold around 4/17/2024. Our suspicions were correct in that the developer is inching their way to buy more land to increase the size of their property.

We suspect they might be trying to compare or beat the 8,000+ acre Great Southwest Industrial Park in Arlington / Grand Prairie. This adds 75 acres to their total over 2,000 acres of land that they now own.

Below is a screenshot of where the land is located that was purchased. Here is the link to the Caldwell CAD Property and sale information.

Links

Great Southwest Industrial Park: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Southwest_Industrial_District

Caldwell CAD: https://esearch.caldwellcad.org/Property/View/28052

At 1/4 the size, does this look like it might be trying to rival the Great SW Industrial Park to you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Help us spread awareness about this project by liking this post and sharing with your friends.

03/25/2024

Franklin Mountain / Scarborough Lane Development, the developer, put in an annexation request on 3/20 to Annex 7.331+/- acres of land to build a ROW (right-of-way) to connect 2-lane FM-110 and 2-lane FM-1984. The proposed roadway is 120 feet wide and will be 4-lanes intended for truck traffic. The proposed name is Energy Parkway.

We created a google map that provides a general idea of where the land/road is: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/edit?mid=162wQfrbjgd2PrBPdB1s5ovUQ2CtyRgw&ll=29.873390235420743%2C-97.86789395&z=16

From what we can tell based off the maps provided by the developer in the annexation packet (link below), the proposed roadway connecting to FM1984 does not intersect with land that the developer owns. The road ends adjacent to the Foster's land (Foster Septic Cleaning and Inspections company) and another landowner Maxwell Acres Co. In maps from last year, the proposed roadway lined up with land the developer owns (closer to Reedville) and it isn't clear why the change was made. The change is concerning to our community, however, because it butts up to a small community of homes.

The First Reading where SMTX City Council will discuss the proposal is coming up soon on May 21st at 6pm. There will be a Public Hearing on June 4th, with the 2nd Reading on July 2nd.

SMTX News Flash Article: https://sanmarcostx.gov/civicalerts.aspx?AID=2320

AN-24-03 packet (annexation application): http://permitdetails.s3-website.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/?PermitID=12651852

07/05/2023

The application for Axis Logistics Park also had asked the city to rezone about 600 acres...

07/02/2023

📣 Join us TODAY at the San Marcos Public Library room A at 3pm.

✨The developer STILL owns 2000+ acres of land and is STILL advertising one of the BIGGEST heavy industrial parks here in San Marcos on their website.

🔥 Just because an application was pulled doesn’t mean its over. A city council election is coming up and neither the developer nor the city have been able to provide updates to the public.

🌕 Hope to see you at the library!

06/20/2023

🚚 Artist rendition of what the future of the San Marcos area may look like if 2000 acres of land are zoned Heavy Industrial.

🚛 More truck traffic, pollutants flowing into the San Marcos River, air smog and pollution, and extinction of the endangered species that only live in this area. These are just a few things that endanger our community, ways of life, recreation, environment, and flora and fauna.

🚚 We are a little under 2 weeks away from the July 3rd San Marcos City Council meeting. It is so important for everyone to call and email the council members and tell them to VOTE NO on Heavy Industrial zoning and expansion of the SMART Terminal / AXIS Logistics Park.

🚛 Mark your calendars to JOIN US on July 2nd @ 3pm for the 2nd community town hall to learn more about this AND MONDAY July 3rd at City Hall @ 6pm for the Council Meeting vote.

✨ Your voice and our future matter!

👉 For more information and to get involved, go to our bio and click the link. Let us know in the comments if you’ve reached out to city council.