White Cloud Township will run a ballot measure implementing zoning for the township on the November ballot. Nodaway County Clerk Melinda Patton confirmed they had submitted the paperwork with the ballot language and Tim Lance of the Township confirmed to the Express that they had passed the measure at the Nodaway County Commission Meeting Tuesday. “People don’t like being surprised like this,” he said. The tentative plan is to zone all of the township as agricultural, with any variances to be granted by the township or a zoning board to be appointed for that purpose. “What are we going to eat, concrete,” asked Mr. Lance. “We’ve got to do what’s best for the future. We all drive by St. Joseph and Kansas City, and there are acres and acres of dilapidated buildings there. Why don’t they buy those up and build there? My answer is because of zoning. They go and they look for places that don’t have zoning. They should not be allowed to go behind peoples’ backs.”
Asked about reports of two smaller data centers seeking to locate in the county, Presiding Commissioner Bill Walker said that as of that morning, they had not contacted the commissioners.
Asked about the J-turn that is going in near where the proposed data center is located, Commissioner Chris Burns said the DOT is not taking it out after all the construction is complete. “They’re putting them in across the state,” he said.
Jeff From told the commissioners that he had submitted a memorandum of actions the developer needed to do. Commissioner Walker said they would go through the list.
Commissioner Walker said that 10-12 people had come forward volunteering to be on a countywide zoning board if the commissioners put it on the ballot and it passed.
Representative Jeff Farnan, who was at the meeting, said there was nothing he could do to stop the current proposed project, and that the commissioners were doing all they could possibly do. But he said he was writing up a bill for next year’s legislative session requiring greater transparency for future data centers seeking to locate in Missouri.
Commissioner Burns said that they had submitted a list of 15 questions that they wanted answered by Scale Microgrids, the developer of the proposed data center. The commissioners submitted the questions to the attorney, who will relay the questions to their attorney. Some of the questions involve where the water source was going to come from, water consumption, training for local emergency services in the event of a fire, and how and where chemicals to put out a lithium fire would be stored. “Some of the answers they don’t know yet,” said Commissioner Scott Walk.
Jeff From said that the biggest issue was the generator side of the project. White Cloud Generating is applying for a permit to operate 12 gas-powered turbines, which would sell power to the grid, and then the data center would buy it back. “You can’t consider these projects in isolation; you have to consider the whole project,” he said. Commissioner Burns said that since there were two businesses, they had to apply for two separate permits. White Cloud Generating will operate the generators under the proposed plan, while White Cloud Acres will operate the data center.
Scott Wilson said that the facilities such as the one being proposed will become obsolete in a few years. “There’s already ways of running data centers that don’t involve the use of water,” he said. The risk is that the facility will close early and that any Chapter 100 loans involved will go unpaid and that there will be a big empty building south of Maryville. “This is a huge problem that you’re going to have to take seriously,” said Mr. Wilson. Commissioner Walker pledged to give out any information that they obtain. “We can extend the moratorium if we need to. It depends on if they answer our questions.”
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