Volunteers Sought for Nodaway County Zoning Planning Committee

Volunteers are being sought for a Zoning Planning Committee for Nodaway County, which is looking into zoning as part of its data center moratorium. The committee would be advisory in nature regarding zoning for the county. "We need someone who doesn't have a dog in the fight who can help us with research," said Presiding Commissioner Bill Walker. Interested parties can contact the Nodaway County Commission at nodawaycom@gmail.com.

Along with the proposed data center south of Maryville, there was discussion about the construction in that area. Susie Strauch said that especially with the unmowed side and one lane of traffic at Route 71 and 340th Road, "It's a disaster waiting to happen." "Trucks now have to cut across two lanes of traffic," added Commissioner Scott Walk. There is a similar situation with the interchange between Route 71 south and I-29 south. Motorists have to enter from the left side of the road and cut across two lanes of traffic that is doing 75 mph to get to the right side of the road. While the DOT has lengthened the entry lane, it is still a hazard.

Jeff From said that he went through the representations Scale Microgrids made on the proposed project and the representations made in the permit application for the power generator portion of the project with the Missouri DNR and found 22 discrepancies. "What the developer is saying and what is on the permit application is two different things," said Mr. From. 

Presiding Commissioner Bill Walker, in response to another question, said the commission would seek to talk to the attorney that day about zoning. "This is a large county and we don't need to be covered in data centers," said Rhonda Beatty.

Commissioner Scott Walk, who is on the state board of the Missouri Association of Counties and who was absent Tuesday, August 11th to attend a board meeting, said that data centers were a main topic of conversation both at the state level and at the national level. He invited State Representative Jeff Farnan to come to a commission meeting to hear out constituents. That led Scott Wilson to say, "You don't need Jeff Farnan or [State Senator] Rusty Black's permission to move forward with this. This is your project." Mr. Walk said that the commissioners read everything that people send them, including Mr. From's latest correspondence. 

Holly Caviness asked about monitoring emissions from the facility. Commissioner Walk said that the DNR monitors emissions from such facilities on a daily basis and that they keep records. All documents by public bodies are subject to document requests under the Missouri Sunshine Law. 

Commissioner Walk explained the zoning process and how it works. Zoning would only cover the unincorporated areas of the county. It would not cover, say, Maryville or Ravenwood, which have their own city councils and enforcement. Zoning would cover land use permits such as CAFO's and data centers.