A hyperscale data center wants to move into Leavenworth County, but pushback from neighbors leaves its future uncertain.
In May, county commissioners put a 90-day moratorium on data center development. It expired this week.
On Wednesday, around 100 people opposed to the proposed data center filled the county planning meeting room. They took every seat, leaned against walls and filtered out into the hallway and overflow room of the small-town courthouse.
But data center permits — including for Project Bluestem, which on more than 1,000 acres is about half the size of Kansas City’s Swope Park — weren’t on the agenda. In fact, despite Project Bluestem’s contracted land just south of Tonganoxie confirmed to KCUR, no companies have requested a permit for a data center.
Yet.
“The people of Leavenworth County are smart,” Leavenworth resident John Wickey said. ”They realize, understand and appreciate that you have immense power to write the rules, to write the rules in such a way that protects them, our communities, and our way of life.”
The county planning commission took up a vote earlier this week on regulation language for data centers, what some planning commissioners see as a filtering mechanism to regulate them.
Many residents who showed up at the meeting said they had concerns over the language of the regulation. They wanted stricter regulations for noise, water usage and health concerns.
Mark Elstos’s property neighbors where the data center would be. The property has been in his family for generations — his children and grandchildren live there. He said data centers are necessary, but he doesn’t want to live next to one.
“We heard you,” planning commissioner Marcus Majure told the crowd before voting with the majority, 8-1, to take a second look at the regulations.
The sole vote against the revisit came from Andrew Gribble. He said that if no code was enacted that night, with no moratorium, someone could submit an application and it would go through the special use process.
“We could table the (special use permit) till we get these in order, too,” chairman Jeff Spink said.
Who has the final say?
When a data center application comes in, it’s not the planning commission who has the final say. It’s the five-person, elected county commission.
Former Republican Kansas House member Jim Karleskint said the planning commission’s vote this week isn’t indicative of how they might vote on a use permit for data centers.
“The sad part of it is, whatever (the planning commission’s) recommendation is, it’s not binding to the county commission,” he said. “Because the commission could say, ‘To heck with you guys.’ ”
The Tongie Data Center WatchDog Group had posted a call to “pack the courthouse” for the planning meeting.
Under that post, planning commissioner Steve Skeet commented: “MOST if not ALL of us on Planning and Zoning are against the data center.” He named county commissioner Vanessa Reid and said she was trying to “side step her duties.”
Around 9 p.m. Wednesday, after neighbors opposed to the data center had been testifying for over an hour, Reid testified herself.
“I don’t know if you guys are OK with one individual speaking for all of you, but that’s what happened on social media,” Reid told the planning commission at the meeting. “When you guys potentially might have an application coming before you, I think that sets the county up for a lawsuit.”
Skeet told KCUR he plans to listen to everyone, regardless of his opinion.
Do they have the votes?
The county commission needs a simple majority to pass anything.
Richard Paz, a Democrat running to represent Leavenworth County in the statehouse, said commissioner Jeff Culbertson is the swing vote.
Culbertson voted to let the moratorium expire, but he also voted in favor of discussing a new moratorium at a future meeting. Culbertson did not respond to KCUR’s requests for comment.
There’s also a chance that the data center would need a supermajority — or four of five county commission votes — to pass.
If residents can successfully get the owners of 20% of the neighboring land of the proposed data center to sign on to a protest petition, the special use permit would not be approved unless three-fourths of the board of county commissioners approve it.
In Wisconsin, the same developer of Project Bluestem gave up after not receiving enough support from the community or local government.
The developers of the data center did not respond to KCUR’s request for comment.
State-level influence
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly wants to give the ultimate decision on data centers to local governments. That’s the model that put Leavenworth County in its current position.
Gubernatorial candidates and state Sens. Ty Masterson, who is backed by President Donald Trump, and Cindy Holscher both voted with the governor in support of Senate Bill 98, which incentivized hyperscale data centers like Project Bluestem to come to Kansas.
But Holscher walked that vote back. She now says she’d call for a statewide pause on data centers, and would push for more guardrails.
When KCUR asked if Holscher would repeal SB 98, her campaign did not give a clear answer, saying Kansas would “need stronger guardrails before we permit any additional large-scale data center development.”
Masterson has stood by his vote on SB 98. He said that while Topeka should outline guardrails for data centers, the ultimate decision to welcome them should be left to local control.
Masterson’s campaign told KSHB 41 that SB 98 is one of the “most restrictive data center bills in the country.”
In the Kansas City area, more large-scale data centers are planning on operating in Missouri. Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe has been actively courting them.
