St. Louis County Circuit Judge Ellen W. Dunne today, July 17, denied a motion for a default judgment in a lawsuit filed by Festus data center opponents against the city of Festus and CRG, the developer for a proposed site.
Instead, the judge directed attorneys for both sides of the lawsuit to communicate better with each other. The motion hearing took place at the St. Louis County Courthouse in Clayton.
CRG is the St. Louis-based data center development arm for Clayco behind the proposed development of a data center in Festus. In the project, CRG would develop the property, and then a data center company would operate it, although no operator has yet been identified.
Soon after the project became known to the public, people began protesting.
Attorney Steve Jeffery filed the 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 — 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.
Jeffery represented his clients at Friday’s motion hearing. A contingent of attorneys for CRG, led by John Kingston, and for the city of Festus, led by Blake Hill, represented their clients.
The motion hearing came about after the case had been moved to federal court, then remanded back to St. Louis County Circuit Court from federal court after the plaintiffs dropped counts involving the federal issues of collusion and conspiracy.
During the June 30 motion hearing, Jeffery said the defendants’ attorneys failed to respond in the legally allotted time after the case had been remanded to St. Louis Circuit Court.
The defense attorneys countered that Jeffery had not filed a specific document refiling the case in the St. Louis County Circuit Court after it was remanded.
During the arguments, both sides accused the other of “gaslighting.”
After reading the submissions of each side of the lawsuit, Dunne, the judge, said attorneys for both sides need to “communicate exactly what they mean in the future.”
The lawsuit alleges:
■ The city’s rezoning of the seven parcels intended to be part of the data center development project was “unlawful spot zoning.”
■ The rezoning was unlawful under state statutes.
■ The city violated its own municipal codes regarding public meetings with CRG concerning the data center development project.
■ The city violated the Missouri Open Records Law regarding public meetings with CRG concerning the data center development project.
■ The city failed to post proper notice of its March 30 special meeting under state statutes.
■ The city failed to properly publish public notice of its Nov. 24, 2025, meeting, which had the rezoning of the parcels intended to be part of the data center development project on the agenda. ■ The city’s decision to approve the “Infrastructure Development Agreement” on March 30 was unconstitutional.
■ The city lacks the authority to ban public comments in a special meeting. This count refers to the March 30 special meeting, when the City Council, at the start of the meeting, approved a motion to allow for public comments for two hours, which did not allow for all those citizens who registered to speak to get to the podium before the time limit elapsed.
■ The City Council’s approval of the Infrastructure Development Agreement is “arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and unlawful.”
■ Festus officials violated city codes by not investigating more than 300 complaints regarding the data center development project, alleging that a data center’s use of the property will or is likely to create or otherwise produce “dangerous, injurious and noxious hazards or conditions.”
The next scheduled action in the case before Dunne is 11 a.m. Sept. 18, when a case management conference will take place.