Town ousts council over $6B AI data center

Voters in Festus, Missouri, threw out all four City Council incumbents on the April 7 ballot, one week after the council backed a $6 billion data center plan. (stlpr.org) The March 30 vote approved a development framework for a CRG project on about 360 acres north of Highway 67. The council passed it 6-2 after two hours of public comment dominated by residents asking officials to reject or delay it. (fox2now.com) Festus has about 12,000 to 14,000 residents and sits roughly 35 miles south of St. Louis in Jefferson County. The four defeated incumbents were Jimmy Collier in Ward 1, Brian Wehner in Ward 2, Bobby Venz in Ward 3, and Jim Tinnin in Ward 4. (politico.com, spectrumlocalnews.com) A data center is a warehouse of computers that stores data and runs software for cloud services and artificial intelligence systems. Projects on that scale need large amounts of land, electricity and water, which turned zoning and utility questions into the center of a local election in Festus. (ksdk.com, stlpr.org) Residents opposing the project said city leaders moved too fast and shared too little information before annexing and rezoning land for the site. Yard signs reading “No Data Center” spread near the proposed development, and turnout in Festus ran higher than in other parts of Jefferson County, according to local election officials cited by Fox 2. (spectrumlocalnews.com, fox2now.com) Developer CRG and Mayor Sam Richards said the city had been transparent and argued the project could bring major tax revenue and jobs. Richards told Spectrum News after the election that he welcomed the new council, while developer Bob Clark later told Fox 2 that the project was “still on.” (spectrumlocalnews.com, spectrumlocalnews.com, fox2now.com) The election did not kill the proposal on its own, because the March 30 ordinance had already passed before the new members took office. Four new council members were sworn in on April 13, and the project now faces both political resistance and a court fight. (fox2now.com, stlpr.org) On April 10, Wake Up JeffCo and four property owners sued Festus and CRG in St. Louis County, seeking to undo the rezoning and the development agreement. The suit says city officials concealed key details and mishandled the approval process; the city and developer have defended the project publicly. (stlpr.org, spectrumlocalnews.com) In Festus, the immediate result was simple: a land-use vote on March 30 turned into a four-seat political wipeout on April 7, and the fight moved from the council chamber to the courthouse. (stlpr.org, stlpr.org)