Rural Kansas cities will vote on data center bans. Why some want the same in JoCo
Residents in De Soto, Kansas, and other rural communities are actively petitioning for data center bans, citing concerns about water usage and environmental impact. Several of these efforts have led to lawsuits and ballot initiatives, with judges in Emporia, El Dorado, and Ottawa ruling that the bans can go before voters in November, though some legal effects remain pending.
De Soto, Kansas, resident Sara VanDeCreek, a member of the Neighbors United Coalition of De Soto, Kansas, is leading efforts to collect signatures for a proposed ordinance that would ban data center development in the city. Her advocacy stems from concerns about high water usage, potential contamination, and health impacts associated with energy-intensive data center operations, as the western Johnson County city faces an ongoing wave of industrial development including at least two new data center projects.
Similar community-led efforts to ban data centers are underway across other rural Kansas towns, including Emporia, El Dorado, Ottawa, Osawatomie, and Edgerton. These initiatives have frequently resulted in litigation, with judges in Emporia, El Dorado, and Ottawa ruling that the proposed bans can proceed to a November ballot. However, in Emporia and Ottawa, the legal implications of these ordinances will remain pending until final judicial rulings are issued.
Specific cases highlight ongoing legal battles: Osawatomie residents sued their city after it declined to act on a petition to ban large-scale data centers, despite meeting state-required thresholds. In Edgerton, resident Eric Twente filed a lawsuit against City Clerk Dusti Callahan for refusing to enact or ballot a petition, even after the Johnson County election commissioner deemed it valid. This follows an earlier legal challenge by the city against petition circulators Kimberly Twente and Carrie Schmidt regarding a proposed $860 million project by Dubai-based developer DAMAC Digital.
UMKC law professor Steve Leben notes that cases without active data center proposals tend to have stronger legal arguments for bans, drawing parallels to a successful ban on commercial windfarm development in Wabaunsee County. He also emphasized that district court rulings do not establish precedent for other courts in the state, meaning outcomes can vary between communities even within the same county.