Rendering of Beltline Energy Proposed data center in Pacific.
By Pauline Masson –
BLE Landholdings, LLC (Beltline) has notified the City that it is withdrawing its zone change application to legalize land use for a data center on the McLaren property south of the city.
The application and plans for a required public hearing have been tabled on the planning and zoning (P&Z) commission meeting agenda since January.
At the August 4 board of aldermen (BOA) meeting aldermen passed a motion to advertise and move forward with the public hearing, with or without Beltline. This notice should end any need for a public hearing on the issue.
‘’BLE Landholdings, LLC (Beltline) has officially provided notice to withdraw and terminate its pending Zoning Change Application requesting M-1 zoning with a Planned Unit Development (PUD) overlay,” the news release said.
The requested change pertained to the McLaren property located at Highway O and Phelan Road (684 Phelan), as well as the Alt Property on Denton Road, the press release said.
‘’Pursuant to this withdrawal, BLE Landholdings has requested that the Planning & Zoning Commission and the Board of Aldermen remove any and all related submittals and requests from all current and future municipal meeting agendas, effective August 7, 2026,’’ the news release said.
Mayor Debbie Kelley said she issued the news release after receiving an email message from Ryan Sanders, Belline Energy partner.
“The public has to be kept aware of any action and any Beltline proposals on the possible data center,” she said.
“Even though the request to build in our city is withdrawn, I wanted the public to know what Beltline plans to pursue,” She said. “The board of aldermen will have to determine what is best for the city if this moves forward.”
According to Mr. Sanders email message, Beltline intends to pursue County rezoning and hopes to construct the data center.
“I wanted to provide an update. Beltline continues to pursue our rezoning request in Franklin County and an energy commitment with Ameren in support of our data campus. With that direction set, we are formally withdrawing our PUD application in Pacific. A termination letter is attached, and we would ask that the application be removed from the Board’s agendas,” Mr. Sanders’ email said.
Beltline still hopes to partner with the city with relation to the city’s waster water, Mr. Sanders said.
‘In the interest of collaboration and potentially a future partnership, also attached is a letter from Beltline Energy along with a compliance summary our engineer, Cochran Engineering, prepared on the City’s wastewater treatment facility and its discharge to the Meramec River. We wanted the City to have the same engineering information we have as it weighs decisions about the facility,” he added.
He also included a brief statement of what Beltline could to that would benefit the city.
“The short version: the facility’s March 2026 sampling showed ammonia well above the final permit limits that took effect July 1, and the summary lays out the upgrade options and their general costs,” he said. “Beltline remains willing to fund the improvements through a sewer and water agreement no matter where our project ends up, and we would prefer the comprehensive fix that solves the problem for good. That path is better for the City, better for the project, and better for the river.’
”At the very least, we want to be good neighbors. If there is a path to working together on water, we would like to find it,” he concluded.
Beltline should be warned to not trust any information they receive from Cohran they have disappointed the City many times.
This is strange and odd to read. On its face it appears that Beltline is saying we’re going to build this facility and will partner with the City to maintain a safe level of your sewer system which we will use to cover our discharge into the Meramec River. It sounds like they are saying we know Franklin County is going to approve our request so either take our offer now to help you with your antiquated sewer system or deal with the consequences of not accepting it later. This isn’t a partnership this is outright blackmail. Pathetic is what I call it!
Anything Beltline does to use or impact the Meramec is a non-starter with me, and has been since they refused to hire a Missouri hydrologist to scope out their previous proposal. I would not trust that company with the time of day– neither standard nor daylight savings time.
The city needs to not trust something from Beltline or anyone they hired.. If they are even thinking about considering letting them do this they need their own company to analyze this