Riley County begins planning work session on data centers, flags infrastructure and regulation questions

Riley County’s planning director, Amanda Webb, led an extended work session to introduce data-center issues, regulatory options and community concerns. Webb said the county has a moratorium in place and is gathering information from recent planning summits and peer jurisdictions to craft a measured local approach.

"Data centers, as you all know, are getting a lot more attention," Webb said, explaining that the county is trying to find middle-ground, non‑partisan information amid polarized sources. She reviewed notes from a recent data‑center planning summit, examples from other counties (including special-use permitting and draft regulations) and utility considerations raised by Evergy and the Department of Water Resources. Commissioners and staff discussed core issues: defining what would count as a regulated data center, whether to set thresholds by megawatts or building size, potential water-usage limits or closed-loop cooling requirements, noise and lighting mitigation, and the risk of relying on tax abatements to attract large-load users.

The board asked staff to pursue targeted follow-up: bring utility representatives (Evergy or other power providers), noise experts and neighboring jurisdictions' planners for briefings; review local LDR language for where to insert definitions or thresholds; and prepare draft regulations or permitting paths tailored to Riley County’s infrastructure capacity and land-use priorities. Webb said she would continue attending workshops, gather sample regulations and return with proposed language and experts for the commission to review.