Pacific residents press commission to act on BeltLine data-center proposals, seek moratorium and deadlines

Pacific, Missouri — Residents filled the Planning & Zoning meeting on May 20 to press commissioners to stop or pause proposed data centers and to demand clearer timelines and accountability from a developer known in testimony as BeltLine.

Public commenters described a range of concerns: potential well depletion, farmland damage, increased taxes and energy costs, and lack of meaningful public engagement. "We're now seeing videos of people's wells going dry," said Janine Bridal, who gave her address and handed commissioners a copy of a letter she sent to U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley. "The taxpayer dollars that these big companies ... get tax breaks and our real estate taxes go up."

Twila Ashworth told the commission she attended Franklin County's May 18 hearing and a Pacific Board of Aldermen meeting May 19 and described statements she said BeltLine made about working with Pacific on wastewater and water access. "At the public hearing on May 18, BeltLine publicly stated, 'we look forward to working with Pacific and working to have access to their water treatment plant,'" Ashworth said. She also told the commission she believed BeltLine had contacted Pacific's city administrator and engineer and that, to her knowledge, BeltLine had not paid a Pacific application fee.

City staff told the commission the city had not received a substantive response to a letter sent weeks earlier and that staff had no record of BeltLine presenting a plan for use of the city's wastewater facilities. City staff identified an outside engineer, Jeff Meadows of Archer Elgin (HR Green), as the engineering contact they believed BeltLine had tried to reach. "We haven't heard anything," staff said.

Speakers called for concrete steps. One resident urged an urgency ordinance or zoning text amendment to impose a two-year moratorium on new data-center applicants; another urged the commission to set a deadline for BeltLine to respond or to withdraw the application. The commission discussed procedural options — a text amendment must start with Planning & Zoning, staff can draft language and any single commissioner can initiate a text amendment — and agreed to consult the city attorney about whether the city can administratively dissolve or otherwise impose a deadline if applicants have not met fee or document requirements.

Commissioners debated whether to resume a contested hearing in a large venue or to hold a sequence of shorter, time‑slot hearings in City Hall to limit long, multi-hour sessions. Some commissioners favored waiting for Franklin County's decision to avoid duplicating effort; others warned that BeltLine's stated intent to "work with Pacific" on water arrangements could proceed even if Franklin County acts elsewhere.

The commission did not adopt a moratorium or change zoning at the meeting. Instead it voted to seek guidance from the city attorney on options to set deadlines or otherwise resolve the outstanding application and indicated it would likely await the outcome from Franklin County before taking final local action. That direction was framed as an effort to avoid repeating hearings and incurring further city costs if the developer pursues approvals at the county level first.

What happens next: the commission asked staff to consult the city attorney about administrative options tied to unpaid fees and the application process and said it would revisit timing and potential text amendments after receiving legal advice. If BeltLine returns with a presentation or paid fees, commissioners said they would then need to consider whether to resume a larger public hearing and to require appropriate environmental or water‑use analyses.