Groups opposed to data centers from across the state gathered Sept 16 at the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City to call on legislators to enact a moratorium on such projects.
About 15 people from Festus who are involved in fighting a proposed data center development project in town participated in the rally.
The rally, called “People’s Hearing on A.I. Data Centers,” was organized by the Missouri Rural Crisis Center and the Missouri Workers Center, said Gabe Cotton, a member of the Festus group who spoke at the rally.
He said about 400 people attended the rally.
“The event drew people from all over Missouri,” he said on Sept. 17. “We did not meet with legislators. That wasn’t the point. It was the start of a push to get the attention of our legislators.”
Cotton said he thought the rally accomplished what organizers had sought to do.
“It was energizing,” he said. “The goal is to protect Missouri residents.”
In late 2025, CRG announced its plan to develop a hyperscale data center on 361 acres north of Hwy. 67 and west of Hwy. CC. CRG, which is the St. Louis-based data center development arm for Clayco, has estimated the cost of developing the facility at $6 billion. In the Festus project, CRG would develop the property, and then a data center company would operate it, although no operator has yet been identified.
At the Capitol rally, Cotton shared with the crowd his view of how the data center development project has progressed in Festus.
“When this nightmare started, my wife and I went to City Council meetings where residents were speaking out against the project to our mayor and City Council members,” he said. “Time after time, with the town opposition growing, the city government continued to move forward in the process.”
Cotton said he spoke of concerns shared by many data center opponents, including people like himself who have regularly attended Festus City Council meetings to voice their opposition to the Festus project.
“The noise will be excessive and will overwhelm the peacefulness of our town,” Cotton told the Capitol crowd. “The impacts on our utilities will turn what is a relatively affordable place to live into a place that is too expensive for many. They will be drilling wells on-site that go into the same aquifer that so many residents get water from.
“With dropping property values and rising interest rates, everyone who lives in Festus will have no options to leave. And this facility will provide nothing positive for us: no long-term jobs, no economic development, no services that we can use or enjoy. Just noise, utility costs, loss of investments and resources and pollution.”
CRG representatives have disputed those assertions raised by Cotton and other opponents of the development in previous statements.
Many of the citizens who have spoken at Festus meetings have requested a moratorium on the CRG project or at least for the City Council to slow down the process.
Cotton in his speech also called for a data center moratorium.
“We need a moratorium now,” he said. “We need to protect Missouri towns, and we need to ensure residents have a genuine democratic voice in the process.”
The CRG project has been a source of controversy in Festus since it came to the public’s attention in the fall of 2025, leading to four council members who helped it progress losing their seats in the April 2026 election. A fifth council member resigned from her seat shortly after that election.
Festus residents then began petition drives to recall Mayor Sam Richards and the remaining council members whose seats were not up for election in April. The recall election petitions were certified by the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office, but Richards and council members Dave Boyer of Ward 1, Kevin Dennis of Ward 3 and Mike Cook of Ward 4 (all incumbents with one year left on their terms), along with newly elected Councilman Alan McCarthy of Ward 2, voted against holding the recall elections.
A lawsuit seeking to stop the project – Wake Up Jeffco LLC, Sherman Doyle, Vernon Valish, Sharon Valish and Rozilyn Daniels v. City of Festus, Missouri and CRG Acquisition LLC – was filed on April 8 in St. Louis County Circuit Court. The individuals listed as plaintiffs with Wake Up Jeffco are property owners who live on Glenkee Court near the project site. Attorney Steve Jeffery filed the lawsuit seeking to stop the project, and the lawsuit is ongoing.
In July, council members Karl Weekley of Ward 1, Dan Moore of Ward 3 and Rick Belleville of Ward 4 (all new members elected in April) said they wanted a discussion on a possible data center moratorium placed on a council meeting agenda. But Richards has not yet placed the matter on a council meeting agenda, saying the matter needed to be researched.