'Just to give us a say': Eastern Jackson County city, residents take proactive steps on data centers

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers eastern Jackson County, including Blue Springs and Grain Valley. Share your story idea with Claire.

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Data centers have been an ongoing topic in Jackson County, prompting the Independence City Council and the Jackson County Legislature to pass 180-day moratoriums on new proposals this summer.

The latest city to add a moratorium is Oak Grove, the furthest east in the county. On Tuesday, the Board of Aldermen voted to enact a one-year delay on data center proposals, giving the city time to amend its development codes and put restrictions in place where needed.

Oak Grove City Administrator Matthew Randall addressed the gap in current regulations.

Claire Bradshaw/KSHB 41

"Right now, the regulations don't address data centers, so it's not clear whether or not they are allowed. So, the concern would be the developer would look at our development code and make an argument that it could go somewhere in our code," Randall said. "We're certainly not trying to recruit or go out and get data centers to come to Oak Grove. This is really about ensuring that if we get a proposal from a data center or data center developer, that we have the codes in place to ensure that that development occurs in the way that the community wants, or the regulations make it so that that development may not want to be built here because we're going to have strict requirements on that."

KSHB 41's Eastern Jackson County reporter Claire Bradshaw received an email Friday night about a data center petition starting in Blue Springs.

"Decisions that drastically affect our community’s infrastructure, energy rates, water supply and neighborhoods shouldn't happen behind closed doors," Quentin Lucas, chair of the Blue Springs Petitioners' Committee, said in part in the email to Bradshaw.

On Saturday, KSHB 41 caught up with the Blue Springs resident. Lucas is calling for any major industrial data center developments to be put directly up for a public vote, starting at the permitting level.

Will Shaw/KSHB 41

"I'm asking just for the city to give us a vote," Lucas said.

Lucas' concerns include grid and power reliability, resource preservation, taxpayer transparency and resident quality of life. He said the petition is not to outright stop a data center, but to give more weight to residents' voices.

Lucas pointed to Independence as a cautionary example. Independence City Council approved the Nebius data center earlier this year, which residents attempted to stop with a citizen-led petition.

RELATED | Data center opponents react to Independence passing 180-day moratorium on new projects

"I understand Independence, they got theirs and they didn't get a say in whether they got the data center or not. It was too late when they got the petition, so they're going on through with it. I just want to be in front of it so we can have that say," Lucas said.

There have not been and are currently no active data center proposals for either Blue Springs or Oak Grove.

Lucas said his group will start collecting petition signatures and asked for residents to stay attentive to community Facebook groups.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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