Members of the Kansas City Plan Commission voted 6-0 on Thursday to deny Miami-based developer Revitalization Unlimited’s proposal for a high-rise data center, citing concerns about its location and minimal benefits to the city.
Public resistance against the proposal was relentless and blatant, with nearly two hours of public testimony.
55 people spoke at the Wednesday meeting, expressing concerns over environmental risks, noise pollution, demolition of a historic building, and impact on quality of life.
“It will not house, feed, or clothe residents. It will not increase civic pride or public trust. What it will do is be an eyesore, a leech on our resources, and a stain on our city's public record,” said Kansas City resident Megan Haave.
Ethan Starr, executive director of the nonprofit organization Historic Kansas City, also noted inconsistencies by the Miami-based developer, which placed a historic preservation easement on the building protecting it from demolition — and later proposing its demolition in March.
“The Western Newspaper Union's building acquisition was presented as a preservation-oriented investment, accompanied by the recording of a preservation easement December 31st, intended to permanently protect the building,” Starr said. “Now, instead, the city is being asked to approve demolition for a 384-foot-tall data center. That dramatic disparity deserves careful scrutiny.”
Commissioners said 475 letters were sent to the City Plan Commission opposing the project. They said there were zero letters in support.
Revitalization Unlimited Partner Chris Miller asked for a continuance to conduct an independent impact study for the city and public to review.
“We've received notification of the public opposition to the project, and we believe that a lot of those opinions are not founded in fact,” Miller said.
Commissioners concluded that the project’s merits were already clear.
“It's not a productive use of downtown space,” said Commissioner Matt Hasek. “And I find it ironic, too, that the historic building that you're wanting to tear down has more productive capacity than what you're offering, almost twice as much as the 20-story building.”
Commissioner Tyler Enders added that he doesn’t feel that “in this moment, it's a project that makes sense.”
‘Currently considering our next steps’
The developers can choose to take their proposal to the City Council to request the council override the City Plan Commission’s rejection, but CEO Steve Austin of Revitalization Unlimited said no final decisions have been made.
“We are disappointed by the outcome but respect the decision made at yesterday’s City Plan Commission meeting. We heard the concerns raised by the community loud and clear and are currently considering our next steps. No final decisions have been made at this time,” Austin wrote in an email to KCUR. He was not present at the Aug. 5 meeting.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said he supported Wednesday’s outcome in a statement shared on social media.
“The Kansas City City Planning Commission has voted to deny the application for a proposed downtown high-rise data center. The applicant can ask City Council to override the recommendation, but a reversal is highly unlikely and would not have my support or, I presume, most of Council’s,” Lucas wrote.
‘Developers will continue to propose them’
Local grassroots groups, like Sunrise Movement KC and KC Data Center Watchdog, viewed the vote as a “major win.” But in a joint Instagram post, they said the push against data centers in Kansas City isn’t over.
The metro area has several existing data centers, including Netrality Data Centers at 1102 Grand Boulevard and Nebius at 1601 McGee Street., both downtown Kansas City, Missouri, sites.
And while the Jackson County legislature recently passed a 6-month moratorium on future data centers, that ban expires in December.
The City Council’s Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee will soon hear an ordinance to establish a Data Center Transparency Task Force that would recommend ways the city can better regulate, plan, and operate data centers.
But Sunrise Movement KC and the KC Data Center Watchdog are calling for a total ban on data centers in Kansas City. They say that the task force would improve public transparency on data center projects but leaves enough room for new ones in the future.
“As the ordinance is written, we do not believe this task force will meaningfully protect Kansas Citians from data center harms. We fear the task force will be used as an excuse for elected leaders to delay real data center protections,” said Brooke Bowlin of Sunrise Movement KC. “As long as we don’t have a full ban on data centers, developers will continue to propose them.”
The Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee meeting is scheduled to be held at City Hall, on Aug. 11 at 1:30 p.m.
