A lawsuit against the proposed Festus data center project seeks to stop the project by invalidating Festus City Council actions, among other points in the suit.
Steve Jeffery, attorney for the data center opposition group Wake Up Jeffco, filed the lawsuit April 8 in St. Louis County Circuit Court.
He filed the suit of Wake Up Jeffco LLC, Sherman Doyle, Vernon Valish, Sharon Valish and Rozilyn Daniels v. City of Festus, Missouri and CRG Acquisition LLC. The individuals listed as plaintiffs with Wake Up Jeffco are property owners who live on Glenkee Court near the project site.
CRG of St. Louis plans to develop a data center on property north of Hwy. 67 and west of Hwy. CC in Festus.
Opponents of the data center project have questioned, among other things, the way Festus officials dealt with CRG during the process to bring about the project prior to the development plans being brought up at official city meetings, saying city officials acted in a way to skirt the state’s Sunshine Law.
CRG is the St. Louis-based data center development arm for Clayco. 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.
Clayco is the same company that in August 2025 withdrew its plans to develop a 440-acre data center in St. Charles following a public outcry against it.
The newest suit, among other points, seeks to:
-- Invalidate the March 30, 2026, Festus City Council decision to approve an infrastructure development agreement in a 6-2 vote of the council.
-- Invalidate the Festus City Council’s vote of Nov. 27, 2025, to rezone property intended to be part of the data center development project.
-- Impose a fine of $5,000 on the city for every one of its actions found to be in violation of the Missouri Open Records Law.
Court records indicate no hearings or trials on the suit have as yet been scheduled, but the case has been assigned to Judge Ellen W. Dunne.