Google and Amazon are building massive data centers this summer on opposite sides of Interstate 70 in Montgomery County, sparking a range of reactions from approval and curiosity to outright hostility.
An army of large excavators and earth moving equipment occupies the former site of Hoette Farms and Nursery along Interstate 70 on June 2 in New Florence. The location is under construction to become a Google data center. Hoette Farms and Nursery, a tree farm, has moved to a new location in Jonesburg.
The data centers together cover 1,900 acres and run along I-70 east of New Florence and west of High Hill. Amazon Web Services’ Project Green is north of the interstate, and Google’s Project Spade is visible to the south from I-70, replacing a tree farm that is moving to Jonesburg.
Large dump trucks traverse the construction site of a Google data center on June 2 in New Florence. The site was previously home to Hoette Farm and Nursery, a large tree farm.
All of the land, called “The Mega Site,” was made “shovel-ready” for industrial projects in 2023, after $5 million in COVID-19 recovery funds was granted to Montgomery County to attract investors.
Data centers like these are increasingly being built to store and process digital data, from websites and email to streaming, cloud storage and more recently, artificial intelligence services. Missouri has 91 active data centers of varying sizes and uses, and at least 14 are currently in development.
Local reactions
Opposition to data centers is not universal, but it is becoming more common in Missouri with mixed results. Although the two in Montgomery County received official approval, a proposal in Festus was met with angry residents who tossed four city council members out of office and started a plan to recall the mayor.
Sylvia Kueny speaks at the Preserve Montgomery County meeting on June 2 at the Montgomery City Public Library in Montgomery City. Kueny is an organizer with the group and resident of Montgomery County.
St. Charles and Camdenton imposed one-year moratoriums on plans for proposed data centers. Columbia recently placed a one-year moratorium on data center applications until a set of agreed-upon regulations could be drafted.
Communities that oppose the centers cite the high consumption of water and power, rising utility rates, loss of open space, noise and light pollution and environmental concerns as downsides.
Data center developers, on the other hand, argue that the projects create jobs and boost local economic development through tax revenue and business opportunities. They also note the need for the centers if the United States is to gain an edge in artificial intelligence.
Residents of Montgomery County join together for the Preserve Montgomery County meeting on June 2 at the Montgomery City Public Library in Montgomery City. The organization is a grassroots effort to oppose and stop two data centers for Google and Amazon Web Services that are currently under construction in Montgomery County.
After the two data projects along I-70 were announced last year, an advocacy group called Preserve Montgomery County organized in protest. Then in February, the group sued the county to halt the Amazon data center.
The lawsuit claimed lack of adequate public notice, violation of Missouri’s Sunshine Law in responding to citizen requests, failure to evaluate proposed tax abatements and inadequate studies ahead of the project.
Project approval
In Montgomery County, the proposal process began in mid-2024 and administrative review was completed in November 2025, according to the director of the Greater Montgomery County Economic Development Council.
A number of site proposals were submitted initially, and each applicant went through a vetting process, including assurance that the area could accommodate the required energy needs.
Judy Batton votes for a measure proposed in the Preserve Montgomery County meeting on June 2 at the Montgomery City Public Library. Batton is a resident of the county and opposes the construction of the two data centers.
Local government officials and stakeholders then traveled to Iowa to see a complex built by Meta east of Des Moines and investigate its impact before deciding to move forward with the Google and Amazon plans.
It was late 2025 when the Amazon project was presented and approved during a December Montgomery County Commission meeting. Construction permits were submitted in February, and ground was broken on April 1.
For the Google project, administrative review was completed in January and construction permits delivered in March. Construction is now underway.
Both projects anticipate generating thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent positions once operation begins.
“We look forward to expanding Google’s investments in Missouri and helping Missourians benefit from the next wave of American innovation,” Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google, was quoted as saying in a message from Gov. Mike Kehoe.
Tax benefits
The way taxes are being handled varies for each site. Amazon has committed to paying 100% of its property taxes, as well as fire and ambulance taxes, throughout the project.
Amazon, which is planning to construct 17 buildings on the site, said tax revenue could range from $401 million to $1.8 billion over the next 25 years.
Excavators remove soil from an area about 2 miles northeast of Interstate 70 and the Missouri 19 junction on June 2 in New Florence. The excavators are part of the construction of an Amazon Web Services data center.
Taxes beyond the designated categories received an abatement from Montgomery County, including breaks in personal property taxes and Chapter 100 bonds.
“It’s common practice for governments to use incentive agreements to encourage job creation and economic development that increases the property tax base,” according to Amazon.
“These agreements are structured as performance-based partnerships — we only receive benefits when we deliver on our commitments for job creation and investment, turning a vacant parcel into a tax-generating productive use.”
Last week, Montgomery County approved a plan for Google to pay 100% of its real estate property taxes in exchange for a 70% abatement on personal property taxes.
“You know, (the tax revenues) are significant. Those are transformative projects for the rural community. That can’t be underscored enough that this will really put the community in a very positive light,” according to the director of the Greater Montgomery County Economic Development Council.
Pushing back
The incentives have not gone over well with those who belong to Preserve Montgomery County.
The organization claims in its lawsuit that Montgomery County and the Missouri Department of Economic Development failed to adequately evaluate the consequences of the tax abatement for Amazon’s data center plan. It says the county did not take into account the potential effects of inflation during the agreed-upon abatement period, 2028 to 2052.
Construction continues on a Google data center at the former site of the Hoette Farm and Nursery, a tree farm, on June 2 in New Florence. Some residents of Montgomery County and the Missouri Crisis Center oppose the new data centers being built by Google and Amazon.
The lawsuit is also built around the claim that community residents were left out of the discussion about the data center proposals.
“When we first heard about (the data center plans), we put a lot of public pressure on the county commissioners,” organization co-founder Tom Westhoff said. “They were not paying attention to us. They basically ignored us. Our only other alternative was to file a lawsuit to try to get the data centers to stop that way.”
Another major concern is water and electricity usage. Opponents of the data centers say inadequate studies were done to anticipate the amount of water needed to cool the servers during usage.
Sabrina Cope, co-founder of the advocacy group, said the study was conducted by Amazon in 2020, before data centers had reached the scale of these projects. In addition, no study has been performed by an independent source.
According to Amazon, water will be used 7% of the time for cooling purposes, alternating with an air-cooling system. The company claims the facility will use less than 0.1% of a nearby aquifer’s annual rainfall refilling volume and will not impact drinking water.
Similarly, Google plans to use air-cooling technology and promises to share water performance data with the public.
Alternative solutions
Brenda Buechele, who is active with Preserve Montgomery County, said she is already seeing impact from the project.
She lives less than 3 miles from the Google site, and although she cannot hear or see the construction, she said she had issues with road conditions until she appealed to the county commission to limit traffic on the road.
“I feel like we win little battles every day, all day long,” Buechele said.
Some residents are channeling their opposition by running for local office to challenge the data center movement.
A large pile of excavated soil lies behind the former remnants of tree rows of the former Hoette Farm and Nursery on June 2 in New Florence. The excavation is part of a large Google data center construction along Interstate 70.
Longtime Montgomery County resident Harry Cope is running this fall for presiding commissioner, hoping to make the processes that led to the data center projects reflect the will of the people. He is running against Ryan Poston, the current presiding commissioner and project supporter.
“It’s scary, the amount of people that are helping me out,” Cope said. “I told somebody, ‘If we can’t do anything, I’m going to feel like the biggest bum in the county.’ ... We’re going to get something done, one way or another.”