KSHB 41 reporter Isabella Ledonne reports on stories in Overland Park, Johnson County and topics about government accountability. She's been covering data centers since 2024, reporting extensively on the various projects in the metro in the ongoing series, Data, Dollars and Demand. Share your story idea with Isabella.
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Neighbors around the Kansas City metro area are making their voices heard on hyperscale data center projects and calling for elected officials to look at the impacts of the massive facilities.
Jackson County legislator Sean Smith proposed a temporary pause in data center development following the backlash over Independence's approval of a hyperscale AI data center.
Legislator Smith, along with fellow Jackson County legislators Manny Abarca and Jalen Anderson, participated in a town hall Tuesday night.
They listened to the concerns of Jackson County residents about data center development.
"Start holding people accountable if they want your vote," one neighbor said.
Jackson County residents expressed their main concerns about data centers are the long-term impacts they could have and how quickly they can be approved with little public input.
"We just want to start talking about what responsible development looks like, because [the Independence data center] is not it," another neighbor said.
The public outcry against data centers is why Smith introduced an ordinance to put the brakes on data center proposals for 120 days while Jackson County sets some ground rules.
"It made a lot of sense to say we're not going to take any applications for a while, because if [companies] apply under nonexistent rules, that just gets kind of confusing," Smith said.
The 120-day moratorium isn't a permanent ban.
Smith explained it's to make data center projects more transparent and give neighbors a bigger say in the process.
"If you have rules of the road laid out, you notify people and let people know your decision," Smith said. "I think you can mitigate a lot of that anger and frustration that we saw in the [Independence] situation."
But the Nebius data center in Independence left a sour taste among many neighbors. Some are calling for a year-long moratorium and mandatory impact studies with proposed projects.
"They're popping up very quickly, and we haven't fully researched the full potential impacts, especially the hyperscale, massive data center projects," said Rachel Gonzalez, a town hall organizer and leading opponent of the Independence data center.
The metro has at least nine hyperscale data center proposals from Kansas City, Independence, KCK, De Soto, and Tonganoxie. Some of those projects, like Google's and Meta's in KC's Northland, are already up and running.
Jackson County's proposed moratorium would only apply to unincorporated areas and not any existing proposals.
"A pause or delay on data center projects would give the community more time to really research what data center projects can do," Gonzalez said.
Legislator Smith told KSHB 41 News reporter Isabella Ledonne that there aren't any current proposals, and a moratorium won't mean a ban. He hopes the ordinance will help improve the community's trust moving forward.
"[My hope is to] just not put us in a position where it's just this war of economic progress versus residents seeing their quality of life deteriorate," Smith said. "I think both can be balanced better by setting up the right regulatory framework."
The ordinance has not been fully approved by the legislature, but is making its way through the process. Smith told KSHB 41 News reporter Isabella Ledonne he expects it to receive the legislature's support.
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