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Shawnee County approves RFQ for engineering review of proposed data center after heavy public comment
Summary
County commissioners voted to issue an RFQ for a third-party engineering firm to evaluate technical aspects of a proposed Compass hyperscale data center after hours of public comment on transparency, noise, water and decommissioning. County staff said the applicant will pay consulting costs and warned ex parte rules started when the application was filed July 24.
The Shawnee County Board of County Commissioners voted to issue a request for qualifications for an engineering firm to evaluate technical issues tied to a proposed hyperscale data center after more than an hour of public comment.
County Counselor Rich Eckard, who introduced the RFQ, said the engineering firm will help answer technical questions about noise, light, water and code compliance and will act as the county’s technical advisor. “As of the time that the data center application was filed, it changed a lot of things,” Eckard said, telling commissioners the county now sits quasi-judicially and must document ex parte communications.
Joanie Thadani, director of Land Use and Development, told the board the application was filed on July 24 and that staff are still evaluating it for completeness. “It was filed on Friday, July 24,” Thadani said, and documents are posted on the county’s land-use web page pending completeness review.
Residents who opposed the project urged caution. “If they are not being open and transparent, the question is, why should we believe anything they’re actually saying?” said Mike Bradley, a Monterra resident who criticized the applicant’s open house format and called for third-party verification of environmental claims.
Speakers raised a range of concerns — from so-called “infra-noise” to heat-island effects, water-disposal questions and the long-term fate of large, specialized buildings if the data center leaves. Eckard reiterated that the engineering consultant would be paid by the applicant as part of the application-processing fees and that the RFQ will bar firms with current data-center clients to reduce conflicts of interest.
After public comment, Commissioner Kevin Cook moved to issue the RFQ and Commissioner Bill Rippon seconded; the motion carried. County staff said the RFQ will require long-term monitoring capability by the chosen engineering firm and that any ongoing inspection costs would be borne by the applicant.
