By Pauline Masson –
Speakers at the May 5 board of aldermen (BOA) meeting show that the proposed data center on the Cooked Creek farm near pacific is still in the works – even though Franklin County denied a rezoning request for the project.
Three speakers, Corbett Shannon, Jessica Nicodimo and Dana Bowers pleaded with aldermen Tuesday evening to find a way to shut the proposed data center down once and for all.
But officials pointed out it is not that simple.
City attorney Stephanie Karr said the city has a few options – only a few.
Any entity can petition government for use of their property, the attorney said, and Beltline has made an application to Pacific. The BOA must act on that application.
The application had been set for a February 25, public hearing before the planning and zoning commission (P&Z). Beltline asked to table the public hearing because they had not been able to finalize a funding agreement that the city wanted to pay experts to evaluate the impact of the project on the community. The city was asking for $20,000 to pay experts in various fields.
The data center developer turned instead to Franklin County to rezone the property for approval as a county development. Franklin County P&Z voted to deny the request. The County commission could vote to deny the P&Z recommendation, but don’t count on it.
The commission is slowing the approval process on the controversial data centers that county P&Z recommended to approve. The Commission has scheduled public hearings
Now, Mr. Shannon, Ms Nicodimo and Ms Bowers say the public needs to know where this stands. They were unanimous in wanting the data center denied in Pacific.
Mayor Debbie Kelley said Beltline has not been in contact with Pacific officials since it withdrew from the February 25 public hearing and turned to Franklin County for help.
But the application is still in the works, the city attorney stressed, and the applicant must be heard, and their request voted up or down.
According to the description by Beltline spokesman Ryan Sanders, the firm wants to construct the Meramec Valley Technology Park, a sixteen building complex that would put on 200 megawatts of low generation large load every year. Once fully operation, he said, the center would employ 30 to 40 people in jobs paying an average of $120,000 a year.
He also noted the center would use City of Pacific waste water to cool the computers and would pay to improve the city’s sewage lagoon and system. No details were included on what work would be done at the lagoon or what the cost would be.
The project was scheduled for the public hearing before P&Z. But after the public loudly voiced concerns about air and sound pollution, Meramec River safety, water usage, and affect on private electric bills aldermen said they needed outside experts to review the project before approving it. They asked Beltline to pay $20.000 for a list of experts to evaluate the project.
Beltline opted to skip the public hearing and go to Franklin County.
Now, if they choose to continue with the project the must come back to Pacific, first to P&Z and then the BOA. Both would hold public hearings.
At the May 5 meeting, aldermen said they were baffled by Beltline’s lack of communication about the firm’s wishes for the future of the data center. They said Beltline needed to move forward or withdraw from the project within a reasonable time.
Aldermen asked the city administrator to contact the developer and notify them that they need to reschedule the P&Z public hearing within 90 days. And the city still requires the $20,000 for expert review of the project.
Mr. Litterell sent the following communication to Beltline.
I am reaching out regarding your two applications for rezoning for purposes of two separate Planned Unit Developments (PUD). These matters were set for public hearing and consideration at a February 25 special meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission but were tabled at that meeting at your request. The Pacific Board of Alderman have directed to me to reach out and inquire about your plans for pursuing these applications given that the city has not received any updates or a request to reschedule your hearing.
If you want to withdraw the applications, please let us know in writing and reference both the McLaren application and the Alt application.
If you plan to pursue these applications, please confirm and I will coordinate a date for public hearing and consideration by the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Please note the following requirements and the timelines associated with removing the applications from the table, public hearing, and consideration by the Commission:
• Public hearing at planning and zoning will require 15 days’ notice in the local paper and letters (at the cost of the application) will need to be resent to all owners of property within 250′ feet of the subject properties in addition to posting of notice on the subject property
• Once planning and zoning votes on a recommendation, the application will then go to the Board of Aldermen for two readings and another public hearing (the same notice requirements will apply and the applicant is responsible for the costs of such notice)
This total process can take 60+ days. The Board believes that the Planning and Zoning Commission process should be accomplished within the next 90 days with Board review occurring shortly thereafter.
We would appreciate an update at your earliest convenience.
Now we wait for Beltline to signal their next step.
Well written and informative; thank you. Now we wait to see if Beltline will be as accommodating.
The county proposal had not yet been voter on by the Commission. Hence the holding pattern as of May 8.
You mentioned twice that the county has voted the proposal down. However that is not true. The county P&Z has only recommended to deny the proposal. It still needs to go before the county commissioners to be voted on.
Are the data centers really bad for the community? What proof has been given that shows that the centers are a detriment? If so, what are they? Water? Centers are now being erected that use recycled water. We are selling such equipment across the country with much success. Noise? There is sound-proofing panels that can eliminate noise levels below 50 dba. Highway noise is louder than that. Excess power? Ameren has the capability to supply the power required and the data centers should pay for that power. Why do the citizens think their electric bills will go up? Ameren is a regulated company and needs approval to increase rates. Benefits to the community? Beltline should be required to prove the benefits to the community and put it in writing. Objections? To object without details as to why is foolish. Objections should be documented, not just heresy.
If the lagoon water is used for cooling and returned to the lagoon, expect algae bloom. I’m not certain what maintenance issues increased algae would cause, but it probably is not zero.
As far as power goes, nothing comes for free. True that Ameren would need to seek approval for rate increases, but 200MW is not a trivial amount of power usage, and improvements to the electrical infrastructure would need to be made to support this load. These would be considered improvements to the system and if approved by the regulatory commission, would be shared by all customers, unless and until a new rate class for large-load users is established. Additionally, if the data center actually uses 200MW continuously, that is expressed as heat. 200 million watts is a lot of heat. Imagine 2 million 100-watt bulbs running all the time. That’s also 200000000 joule-seconds, enough to raise the temperature of about 47,800 gallons of water by 1 degree Celsius every second, assuming perfect mixing and no losses. A lot of heat.
The nearest power provider, Labadie power plant (coal burning) can produce about 2380MW. So this data center will consume 11% of a coal-burning plant’s capacity.
https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-center-power-demands-are-contributing-to-higher-energy-bills
Regarding your comment on sound proofing panels, attenuation effectiveness of panels is a function of frequency. Lower-frequency audio content will not be effectively mitigated by panels. I suspect that cooling systems and pumps generate lots of low-frequency audio emissions.