Planning commission tables Evergy's Blackbird substation plan, asks to see data-center site details

De Soto City planning commissioners voted to table consideration of Evergy's Blackbird substation site plan after commissioners said they needed the adjacent data-center/customer site plan to understand how the projects would fit together.

Planning staff introduced the proposal for a switching station near Energy Way and Evening Star Road, describing a roughly 9.25-acre pad within a 12-acre property and a 9-foot precast concrete screening wall. "Total is about 9.25 acres," said Jessica Keck, an Evergy representative, during the applicant presentation. Keck also said the applicant plans shrubs and trees for screening and that a short length of barbed wire would be temporary at an adjoining substation until the neighboring site is built.

The commission's staff presentation said much of the long-term landscaping and stormwater detention will be addressed as part of the adjacent data-center site plan rather than in the Evergy filing. The city attorney told the commission the city will propose a text amendment to the city council to allow three-strand barbed wire on top of security fencing in certain commercial and industrial zoning districts, but said any such use would require planning-commission approval for the specific case.

Commissioners pressed the applicant and staff on several points: who pays for the infrastructure; where stormwater detention would be located; the elevation change and where the proposed 9-foot wall would sit relative to existing grades; and whether the substation is being sited primarily to meet a customer's needs. A technical presenter described the facility as a switching station operating at 115 kV with redundant breaker configuration to serve the customer, not a transformer-equipped substation.

Several commissioners objected to placing the facility on a parcel that had been slated for commercial development and said the commission should review the customer/data-center site plan before approving the Evergy site alone. "I don't like it at all personally," the chair said, expressing concern about the location on the development's edge and the length of the screening wall.

After discussion, a motion to table the item until the commission had the customer's site plan passed on a roll-call vote; the chair announced the motion carried. The commission noted the data-center site plan is expected to be available at the April 28 meeting and asked staff and the applicant to return with coordinated drawings. The city attorney said the barbed-wire text amendment will be taken up at the April 2 city-council meeting.

The commission took no final action on the Evergy site plan at the meeting and will revisit the application once the applicant provides the adjacent customer/data-center materials.