Jefferson County Council members will discuss possible new ordinances related to the development of data centers early next month.
The council’s Economic Development Objectives Committee will meet from 3-5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3, at the Ken Waller Memorial Building, formerly called the Administrative Office, 729 Maple St., in Hillsboro. The public is invited and will be allowed to comment on the topic.
Councilman Billy Crow (District 2, Arnold) said the council likely will hold a series of meetings about data centers, with the first meeting covering possible light, noise and water ordinances. He said the county will invite experts to speak on the possible benefits and drawbacks of data centers.
A data center is a building or group of buildings that houses equipment necessary for computing, such as routers, servers, switches, firewalls and storage systems. These centers can be large, like Microsoft’s “hyperscale” data center in West Des Moines, Iowa. That tech company has built a 3.6 million-square-foot center there on 650 acres and plans to add another 2 million square feet, according to Business Record, a Des Moines-based publication.
A hyperscale data center uses thousands of servers and advanced networking to process enormous amounts of data. The system relies on high-speed networks, a powerful cooling system to manage heat output and automated software to continually run the system, according to Fortinet, a global cybersecurity company.
The city of Festus recently annexed 240 acres of land north of Hwy. 67 and west of Hwy. CC where CRG is interested in developing a data center. CRG is the St. Louis-based data center development arm for Clayco, which in August withdrew its plans to develop a 440-acre data center in St. Charles following a public outcry against it. Another proposed data center in St. Louis also met with public opposition. Those who opposed the development centers say they could lead to energy rate hikes, extensive water usage and pollution.
Crow said those looking to comment about data centers and the legislation they’d like to see adopted to regulate data centers in Jefferson County may email Cherlynn Boyer, executive assistant to the County Council, at cboyer@jeffcomo.org. He said the council, along with staff, will review the emails.
County staff will also research ordinances from around the country regarding data centers, Crow said.
“We can even look at what Festus has on this,” Crow said at the Nov. 13 Economic Development Objectives meeting. “That’s a model that our community has decided is OK for them.”
The Festus Planning and Zoning OK’d revisions to the city’s ordinances on Oct. 16, and the City Council approved it on Oct. 27. The revised ordinance puts into place restrictions on the amount of noise and light that data centers are allowed to emit, along with information on how developers should notify residents that a data center is coming to their area.
At the Nov. 13 meeting, County Executive Dennis Gannon said data centers should be embraced, adding that the centers are a crucial, everyday part of most people’s lives without realizing it.
“Has anybody picked up their phone and Googled anything today? If you have, you just used a data center somewhere,” Gannon said. “I’ve been on the record supporting data centers because they’re going to be here. You’re going to have to either lock them out or embrace them. Let’s make sure we build in these guardrails so we don’t have problems.”
Councilman Bob Tullock (District 7, House Springs) said he and two other council members recently met with officials from Clayco, which has offices in St. Louis, Chicago, Atlanta and Phoenix, among other cities. The development company is currently involved in the construction of 57 data centers nationwide, according to its website.
Following the meeting, Tullock said his biggest concern is identifying the possible benefits of data centers for county residents.
“You’re going to have an increased (energy) consumption that generates additional local utility tax revenue,” Tullock said. “That’s what’s going to be probably most important to the county, where we’re going to benefit the most. Where is that money going to go? One of the suggestions that came up was, maybe we can reduce our personal property tax or put part of that toward a new jail and courthouse that has been needed for a long time.”
Councilman Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge) said that instead of enacting policies that may ward off data center developers, the county should add incentives to attract larger businesses. He said the county is already behind on data center development, with about 27 centers already in operation in the Kansas City area, and at least one each in Columbia and Springfield.
“I know everybody likes to do ordinances and policies,” Haskins said. “I don’t. We haven’t had a good track record of bringing these big companies to Jefferson County, unlike our neighbors. We haven’t had anything in place to bring the sizzle to get the very first one, while our competitors are 20 data centers ahead of us.”