KSHB 41 reporter Isabella Ledonne covers issues surrounding government accountability and solutions. Share your story with Isabella.
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City leaders in Peculiar, Missouri, listened to its citizens on Monday night and blocked a major data center from coming into the small community.
The data center would have spanned across 500 acres with multiple buildings right next to several homes and businesses.
One Peculiar alderman explained city staff misinformed the board about what the data center would be.
"Staff misleading compared [data centers] to software computer equipment manufacturing," Alderman Robert Wells said. "There was nothing really to go by."
Peculiar originally approved the zoning for it by adding a "data center" definition into the existing light industrial zoning code.
The Board of Alderman reversed that decision on Monday by removing the definition from the ordinance.
The decision came after hundreds of people in the small communities of Peculiar and Raymore in Cass County called on local leaders to amend their decision.
Their opposition to the project can be seen all over Peculiar with signs that read "No Hyperscale Data Centers."
Dozens of residents packed the room at Monday night's Board of Alderman meeting, making it standing room only.
The only item of business was to remove the definition of the data center from the current zoning ordinance.
Resident Chad Buck has been actively raising awareness in a Facebook group of nearly 1,000 people who oppose the project — that's about 1/6 of the entire Peculiar population.
"Big tech is preying on small communities all over this country, and they're using our loose zoning laws," Buck said. "Our community just feels like they're not being heard."
For four months, residents from the quiet, rural community have voiced their opposition to city leaders with how quickly the city moved forward with amending the zoning codes to allow for data center.
"Staff was so desperate to spoon feed you just enough information so you would quickly vote this in before it was exposed how grossly they were undermining you," resident Patti DiPardo said.
Buck explained the community is not opposed to the idea of data centers, as long as the government connects with the community on the process of bringing major developments into the neighborhood.
"At the end of the day, we're not against growth, we're not against business, economic development, we're probably not even against data centers, if they're done correctly," Buck said.
In the midst of the back and forth conversations regarding the proposed data center's approval, Peculiar Mayor Doug Stark posted a response on Facebook.
"The Alderman felt the pressure from this boisterous and ill-informed group and requested to remove data centers as an allowable use in the light industrial zoning class, essentially killing this project," Mayor Stark wrote in part.
Mayor Stark did not respond to KSHB 41 New's request for comment on Monday.
"It's very unfortunate that a mayor would talk to [his] citizens that way," Buck said. "Currently in Peculiar, I think that the trust bond with the government has been broken."
The Board of Alderman restored a little bit of that trust on Monday night by unanimously removing the possibility of a data center in the current zoning ordinances.
"Small rural communities aren't ready for this and they need to get their zoning stuff in place first," Buck said.
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