Local backlash halts a $6B AI campus

Voters in Festus, Missouri, removed four incumbent city council members one week after the council approved a $6 billion data center deal. (politico.com) The April 7 municipal election wiped out every incumbent who was on the ballot in the St. Louis-area city of about 14,000 people. The new members are set to be sworn in after a campaign dominated by the project. (stlpr.org) The fight centered on a March 30 vote to approve an infrastructure development and funding agreement for a proposed hyperscale data center on roughly 360 acres north of U.S. Highway 67. The council passed that ordinance 6-2 after a special meeting at Festus High School. (stlpr.org) Developer CRG, the data center arm of Clayco, is behind the project, which city officials valued at about $6 billion. Residents said the city moved too fast and disclosed too little about traffic, water, power demand and the end user that would operate the campus. (ksdk.com) A data center is a warehouse-sized building filled with servers, the computers that store data and run online services. A hyperscale site is a much larger version built to handle cloud computing and artificial intelligence workloads, which consume heavy amounts of electricity and cooling water. (stlpr.org) That made a local zoning vote in Festus part of a wider buildout. Utilities, developers and local governments across Missouri have been pitching data centers as tax-base projects, while residents in Festus and Independence have organized against land use changes and large public incentives. (kcur.org) In Festus, opponents turned the election into a referendum on process as much as on the project itself. Dan Moore, who defeated Ward 3 incumbent Bobby Benz, told St. Louis Public Radio the fight had “ignited a community-driven effort” in the city. (stlpr.org) The vote margins were not close in several wards. Local results reported by My Mo Info showed Carl Weekly beat Jimmy Collier 208-112 in Ward 1, Allen Joseph McCarthy beat Brian Wehner 312-90 in Ward 2, and Rick Belleville beat Jim Tinnin 320-143 in Ward 4. (mymoinfo.com) Mayor Sam Richards said the city lost experience but welcomed the incoming council. Residents have also filed a lawsuit seeking to void the zoning decisions and development agreement tied to the project. (spectrumlocalnews.com, ksdk.com) Festus still has not publicly identified the company that would ultimately run the site. In a town where four council seats changed hands in one night, that unanswered question is now hanging over whatever comes next. (newser.com)