Residents urge De Soto council to pause data-center approvals, request enforceable development agreements

Residents filled the council chamber and spoke during public comment on May 7, urging the De Soto City Council to slow or pause approval of new data-center projects and to require legally enforceable development agreements.

Marie Caldwell, a resident who identified her address to the council, said the developer Beal had a "documented history of being unreliable and inconsistent" and argued that the current proposal represented a larger facility than originally presented. "This is not consistency. This is not fairness. And it's certainly not accountability," she said, and called for a moratorium on data centers so the city can "evaluate the cumulative effects, the environmental and infrastructure cost, the fairness of our development processes, and the long consequences for our community." (public comment)

Other residents cited technical and financial risks. Sarah Vandy Creek, who said she lives on Ravenswood Lane, asked where cooling water would come from and whether residents' utility rates would rise; she recommended the city "slow down" and make sure ordinances and protections are in place. Laura Holloway supplied several national data points and studies she said show utility-rate increases, rising water consumption and potential emissions from backup generators, and questioned claims that facilities "bring their own power." She noted, for example, that utility demand associated with data centers has contributed to higher residential electricity requests in other states.

Rob Daniels, who said he previously served on the council and worked on the original Beal approvals, told the council the project has undergone "drastic material changes" in size and utilities since the development agreement was approved and that the agreement should be revisited because what is proposed today appears to be a different project than the one the council initially approved.

Council members thanked speakers and discussed next steps. One council member proposed beginning a formal discussion about whether De Soto should consider a moratorium or temporary pause on additional data-center development "to fully understand and evaluate long term impacts and how they affect our residents, public services, utilities, and future growth." Another suggested staff research low-frequency (infrasound) noise measurements and potential ordinance changes and place the topic on a future agenda for study.

No moratorium vote was held at the May 7 meeting. The council took no formal action beyond agreeing to add noise and related policy discussions to a future agenda and acknowledging the public's request to study a pause on further approvals.

What's next: Council members said staff will prepare background information and the council will consider adding noise-ordinance discussion and an analysis of development-agreement enforcement to a future meeting; no ordinance or moratorium has been adopted.