In Kansas City, a coalition of organizations (including us!) are flexing our collective economic power to win:

• Workers over billionaires

• End ICE terror and keep families together

• A democracy that works for ALL of us

Data centers are a key example of how our current system fails us—tech billionaires win, while we lose. Our health, our homes, our cost of living, our labor are all being risked and harmed by corporations building these resource-intensive developments that we don’t see any benefit from.

If we want to take our communities back, we're going to have to come together, use our strength in numbers, and take bold action to get things done together that we can't get done on our own.

Anti-Data Center Rally on May 1st

Corporations are profiting from data centers while ignoring the harms caused to our communities. So this May Day, we are bringing the harms to the doorstep of the corporations responsible.

Join us for an anti-data center rally and noise demonstration on Friday, May 1st at 4:30pm at 1123 Walnut St. Bring your own noisemakers (pots & pans, whistles, drums, etc.) and ear protection – things are going to get LOUD!

RSVP

Share the RSVP link with bit.ly/noise-5-1

Research shows that for every 10 decibel increase of chronic noise exposure, heart disease increases by 8%. Data centers are incredibly loud, 24/7, which means that large corporations are literally sacrificing communities to line their own pockets.

We need to show our elected leaders that Kansas City residents do not want AI data centers getting built in our community, and we don’t want new methane gas power plants getting built to power them (and driving up our utility rates in the process).

After the rally and noise demonstration, we will migrate to Washington Square Park for the coalition-led May Day rally at 5:30pm.

See you there!

Jackson County Data Center Moratorium Town Hall

You may also be interested in this event — happening tonight! Tonight in Independence, there will be a town hall and an opportunity to advocate for a data center moratorium in Jackson County.

This event will take place on the street where a large hyperscale AI data center is planned.

Please come out and help us ask the legislature to pause future data center projects.

Grace Bible Church

900 N Bly Rd., Independence, MO 64056

RSVP here: Jackson County Legislature Town Hall

Nebius, a Dutch tech firm specializing in AI infrastructure, purchased almost 400 acres in Independence’s Eastgate Commerce Center to build a 2.25 million square foot data center campus—potentially the biggest in the KC metro area to date.

The proposed facility will be used for large-scale AI training and expansion and builds upon Nebius’ existing Kansas City presence through their partnership with Patmos in the former KC Star building.

Construction has already begun on the site with a full build-out by 2030 or 2031.

The tech company purchased the Independence land from NorthPoint, a private real estate company that specializes in data centers. The Eastgate Commerce Center is zoned for industrial use, and data centers don’t require any additional restrictions or approval under this zoning in Independence. In other words, this location was targeted because it wouldn’t undergo as much scrutiny.

What’s at stake

This data center is being built for a capacity of 1.2 GW of power with a daily demand of up to 3,200 gallons of water at full buildout. Once completed, this single data center would use 8 times as much energy per year as the entire city of Independence. The data center’s massive energy demand will be supplied by a new privately-financed natural gas power plant being built at the retired Blue Valley Power Plant site. Yet, during the time this plant is being recommissioned, the developers plan to buy their power from Evergy.

Rebuilding a power plant at a formerly retired site is a testament to how regressive data center development is. At a time when we need to be urgently phasing out fossil fuels, data centers are expanding fossil fuel use and reliance.

Besides the typical environmental concerns (energy, water, pollution) around data center development, this project poses a threat to a bald eagle sanctuary in the area. Bald eagles are a formerly endangered species that have rebounded thanks to conservation efforts. They are still a vulnerable and protected species. The data center will also be built near the Little Blue Trace Trail and Little Blue River—some of the few natural areas left in Independence, which will now be flooded with noise and light pollution.

Additionally, there’s no signs the community will see much benefit from the development. The facility won’t require many full-time jobs once built and Nebius hasn’t made any explicit plans to prioritize local labor.

This hyperscale data center with a massive energy demand threatens the community with noise pollution, green space degradation, jeopardized wildlife, multi-year construction, recommissioning a retired power plant, and resource drain that risks higher utility rates. In other words, residents of Independence and the surrounding area face a serious decrease in their quality of life with little to no upside! To make matters worse, Independence leaders want to exempt the data center from paying their fair share in taxes.

The state of Missouri already offers data centers sales tax exemption. Independence is currently looking at giving Nebius a tax abatement of upwards of $6 billion that comes from a 90% tax break on personal property taxes. The city will hold a bond on the data center’s title, and Nebius will make PILOT payments, or Payments in Lieu of Taxes, to the city to pay off the bond. These payments will earn a projected $640 million for the city by the end of the 20-year PILOT term, compared to the over $6 billion in tax revenue that Independence will miss out on because Nebius won’t be paying their fair share of taxes like the rest of the residents and property owners.

The people are fighting back!

Independence residents from diverse backgrounds and perspectives are coming together to resist this data center. The group Stop the AI Data Center in Independence has over 2,400 members on Facebook and has gathered several hundred residents at local meetings to fight this data center. This fight has even gotten the attention of international news outlets. Overwhelmingly, residents don’t want big data centers like this in their backyards. And we can do something about it!

No Tax Abatements = No Data Center

We have a real chance to stop this data center from being built, and this chance comes by preventing the city from giving Nebius tax breaks by demanding Independence City Council votes No on Chapter 100.

On March 2, the city of Independence will vote on a Chapter 100 charter for Nebius, which would surrender around $6 billion in tax revenue based on the 90% tax abatement in the Chapter 100. In an Independence public meeting on February 23rd, Nebius’ local counsel Mark Coulter said this when asked about the potential of the project without the tax breaks:

“Projects of this size are often highly collateralized, meaning the capital deployed is leveraged against anticipated future earnings. As such, they are not ‘capital rich,’ regardless of capital expenditures made, and taxes cannot be financed. The current tax code does not contemplate such a large concentration of high-value property, and there are no other entities which would be taxed at such a rate. If abatements are not received, it is unlikely the project would proceed at the same level of investment, if at all.”

If we can get Independence City Council to reject the Chapter 100 charter, there’s a good chance that Nebius will back out of this development.

That’s where you come in!

Take Action

Tell Independence City Council to vote No on Chapter 100 charter for the Nebius data center before March 2nd.

Send an email using our template here. Share the email campaign with this link: bit.ly/nonebiusdatacenter

Show up in-person to the Independence City Council meeting and pack the house!

Monday, March 2nd at Independence City Hall, 111 E Maple Ave, Independence, MO

Plan to arrive at 5:15pm to sign up for public comment before the meeting begins at 6pm.

This is everyone’s fight!

Even if you don’t live in Independence, you are still impacted by this data center. While building its power plant, the data center plans to buy power from Evergy which supplies Kansas City and its surrounds.

Send an email and show up on Monday because we need our leaders across the metro to know that we don’t want data centers in our backyards! Local leaders like the ones in Independence are being wooed by these corporations and the promise of revenues unlikely to be realized. Step up and demand that leadership prioritize their residents’ concerns and health over the greed of these companies.

Send an Email

Follow Stop the AI Data Center in Independence on Facebook and share this post on Instagram to amplify this effort.

Let’s review how we got here.

Data Center Zoning in the Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee

Our organizing up until this point has focused on pressuring KC city council to adopt a stricter zoning code for data centers. These efforts began in the Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee (NPD), as this is the subset of the council that deals with zoning.

In December, the topic of how to zone data centers went before NPD for the first time. As it stood, data centers fell within an outdated “communications service” category (i.e. radio, TV station) and were often lumped in with Large Format Uses due to their scale. Without specific zoning requirements, data centers got approved without proper scrutiny to their unique, outsized harms.

As KCUR's Savannah Hawley-Bates put it,

“Developers could build ‘by right,’ meaning that any project could proceed without any special permits or discretionary reviews, as long as it met the established standards.

But the city didn’t have any zoning that specifically applied to data centers, so they could essentially get built in most parts of the city without public feedback or approval from the city council.”

And now we have about 30 data centers in the metro area. Because this was one of the first public forums that mentioned data centers, we knew we needed to find a way to show Kansas City leaders how concerned our community is about these developments.

We’ve been attending and testifying at their meetings, sending emails, and talking with council and community members to land on a zoning code that will restrict data center development here.

For their January 6th NPD meeting, committee members asked Evergy, the water department, and the Office of Environmental Quality to present about data center impacts and respond to the community’s concerns. The representative from the environmental office confirmed that if we continue to allow data centers to be built here, we will lose and reverse all progress that’s been made around carbon emissions reduction in KC — a goal set in the 2022 Climate Protection & Resiliency Plan. Data centers and their huge energy demand double down on fossil fuel reliance, as we’ve already seen in KC with Evergy building more gas plants to meet demand created by data centers.

On January 13th, the NPD committee met to finalize their zoning code based on these presentations, past discussion, and community feedback. Prior to this meeting, we rallied community members to send emails to demand Special Use Permits for all data centers. This was a narrowing in focus from our December demands (data centers should have their own zoning code, require special use permits, include environmental impact studies, include environmental protections, require utility demand disclosure, and require ample distance from residential neighborhoods).

The advantage of special use permits is that each individual data center development will have to go through an approval process rather than being broadly allowed under the code. This will give the public the opportunity to weigh in on each possible data center and force the city to listen to the people! By requiring special use permits for data centers, each proposed development can be evaluated according to the direct impact it’ll have on Kansas Citians.

At this meeting, the proposed ordinance reflected the demands of the community. Per the proposal, data centers would get their own code, be restricted to fewer districts, and each go through a public hearing and permitting process either through city council or the Board of Zoning Adjustment.

The NPD committee approved this proposal and sent it to the full city council to be voted on this week.

Zoning Ordinance Passes in City Council

On January 15th, city council heard the ordinance and passed it unanimously. Council members reported receiving thousands of emails from community members on this topic.

KCUR reported on the new zoning code, saying,

“Development plans for data centers will need public feedback, and the final approval for most data centers will come from the city council. The code change also adds a new requirement that water, energy and other public utility providers need to submit a letter saying that they have the capacity to meet the proposed demand for the data centers.”

Both city council members and community members would like to see even stricter restrictions put on data centers, but these changes will likely have to happen outside of zoning.

As it stands, getting this zoning code is a big win for Kansas City! Thanks to the community rallying together, we just made it harder to build data centers here! And it’s only the first step of our organizing as KC Data Center Watchdog.

What’s Next?

We are determining our next steps, but here’s what we are looking at:

• Stopping Independence’s potential massive Nebius data center

• Exploring additional ordinances and policy to further limit data center development and prevent their environmental and community harms

• Curtailing the influence of PortKC and their ability to give enormous tax breaks to data center developers

You’re in the right place to follow along as we explore these potential avenues to continue fighting data centers here. Thanks for your support!

KC Data Centers in the Press This Week

• KCUR - Kansas City just changed its zoning to make data centers harder to build (ft. some of our organizers)

• KC Star Op-Ed - Listen to Kansas Citians before raising our utility rates for data centers

• KC Star - A massive $6.6 billion data center could be coming to Independence. What we know

Who are we?

KC Data Center Watchdog is a group of community members and organizers working to protect our neighbors from the harms of data centers and oligarchal forces that seek their own self-interests over the community.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and share this newsletter!

Data centers are massively disruptive to the region’s energy consumption and access to water, not only driving up utility costs for all of us but continuing to double down on fossil fuel reliance in the face of the climate crisis.

And out-of-town billionaires are building them in our backyards.

Data centers are already being built here without our say.

There are over 20 data centers in various stages of production or operation in the Kansas City area. Yet, Kansas City leaders have not done their due diligence on what type of environmental, economic, and health impacts these developments will have.

Data center projects underway, to name a few:

• Google’s Project Mica, located off of I-435 and 169 highway near Smithville

• Meta’s Golden Plains, located off of I-435 and 169 highway near Smithville

• Project Kestrel, planned near the Kansas City International airport

• Red Wolf, planned in KCK near the Legends

• Lambda, planned in an existing building near the KC International airport

Data centers are known for their negative community impacts:

• Water consumption

• Energy usage and grid strain

• Utility rate spikes

• Noise pollution (impacting human neighbors and wildlife)

• Very little job creation while bolstering AI

• Large land use

• Tax abatements that redirect funds from community services such as education

Data centers are massive polluters, reinforce fossil fuel reliance, and will negatively impact Kansas Citian’s quality of life in the form of energy rate hikes, neighborhood degradation, and the exploitation of our resources with no tangible gain for us. To make matters worse, billionaire-owned tech companies get tax abatements to build these data centers, robbing our communities of funding to public services like education.

Kansas City has not held any public meetings around data centers, and our city leadership needs to hear the concerns of Kansas Citians around such threatening development.

Kansas City cannot continue to build these data centers with our resources without our say!

How we’ve been taking action

In December, the topic of how to zone data centers went before the City Council’s Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee. As it stands, data centers are lumped in with Large Format Uses. Without specific zoning requirements, data centers get approved without proper scrutiny to their unique, outsized harms. Because this was one of the first public forums that even tangentially mentioned data centers, we knew we needed to find a way to show Kansas City leaders how concerned our community is about these developments.

For the December 9th NPD meeting, we rallied the community to send emails to the committee and to show up to give testimony at City Hall.

These were our demands. The data center zoning code should:

1. Be its own zoning code rather than lumped in with Large Format Uses.

2. Require special-use permits for data centers that are voted on and approved by the city council.

3. Include environmental impact studies.

4. Include environmental protections such as limiting water usage/cooling requirements and limiting fossil-fuel generators (including back-ups).

5. Require utility demand disclosure.

6. Require ample distance from residential neighborhoods.

Councilmembers reported receiving thousands of emails and read our demands during the meeting. There’s no doubt they’re feeling the heat! For their January 6th NPD meeting, they asked Evergy, the water department, and the Office of Environmental Quality to present about data center impacts and respond to the communities concerns. You can watch the presentations here.

After more research, we are focusing our next demand to the committee to center around requiring special use permits for all data centers.

Special use permits require:

1. nearby residents to be notified of potential data center development

2. a city council hearing in which the public can hear more and give comment, and

3. a city council vote.

These permits will mean that each individual data center development will have to go through an approval process rather than being broadly allowed under the code. This will give the public the opportunity to weigh in on each possible data center and force the city to listen to the people! By requiring special use permits for ALL data centers, each proposed development can be evaluated according to the direct impact it’ll have on Kansas Citians.

Want to take action?

We’ve put together an email to send to the council members on the Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee. Please send public comment ahead of the upcoming NPD meeting on January 13 at 1:30pm, which you can attend online or in person at City Hall.

KC Data Center Watchdog has also launched an Instagram account and Facebook page, where we will be sharing updates on data center news. You can follow us along there and share our recent Instagram post about the Jan. 13 meeting.

Email City Council

Share the email tool with this short link: bit.ly/datacenterzoning

Who are we?

KC Data Center Watchdog is a group of community members and organizers working to protect our neighbors from the harms of data centers and oligarchal forces that seek their own self-interests over the community.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and share this newsletter!