The Oct. 9 status hearing in a lawsuit involving a proposed Festus data center development was short but set the stage for an upcoming hearing on summary judgments filed by both sides.
The status hearing on the Wake Up Jeffco, et. al., v. City of Festus, Missouri and CRG Acquisition LLC lawsuit was held in the St. Louis County Circuit Court.
The summary judgment hearing is set for 10 a.m. Dec. 10 at the St. Louis County Courthouse in Clayton before Judge Ellen W. Dunne. In a summary judgment, a judge decides whether an entire case or a part of a case can be settled without going to trial.
CRG, which is the St. Louis-based data center development arm for Clayco, has proposed development of a data center in Festus. 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 on April 8 to stop the project.
Jeffery’s initial petition included 12 counts. At one point, the case was transferred to federal court due to two of the counts involving collusion and constitutional issues.
When Jeffery asked for and received the court’s consent to drop those counts, the case was remanded back to St. Louis County Circuit Court.
In a decision dated Oct. 2, the judge dismissed another of the counts (Count 8 in an amended petition) that stated Festus officials violated city codes by not investigating more than 300 complaints regarding the data center development project. The count had alleged 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.”
Dunne in her ruling stated she decided to dismiss the count on “lack of subject matter jurisdiction.”
However, Dunne said she does not agree with CRG attorney’s position that the plaintiff would have to wait until the data center is built before subject matter jurisdiction would exist.
“The court does find there are other procedures set forth in the Festus Code Section 405.185, in other code sections relating to site approval and building permits, as well as procedures identified in the development agreement that must occur before the requirements in Section 405.555 are triggered by the complaints of the citizens.”
The initial lawsuit Jeffery filed on behalf of Wake Up Jeffco also alleged:
■ 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 project.
■ The city violated the Missouri Open Records Law regarding public meetings with CRG concerning the project.
■ The city failed to post proper notice of its March 30 special meeting.
■ 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 Council’s approval of the Infrastructure Development Agreement is “arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and unlawful.”