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Data Center in St. Joseph Town Hall in July

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — The City of St. Joseph will host a public town hall meeting next month to address mounting questions and public push-back regarding a proposed data center campus on Pickett Road.

The informational session is scheduled for Thursday, July 16, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. at the historic Missouri Theater, located at 717 Edmond Street.

City officials requested the meeting to provide a platform for project developers, legal representatives, and regional utility partners to present their vision directly to the community. According to a city statement, the forum aims to establish transparency, address widespread public concerns, and clarify how the large-scale technology infrastructure might impact local resources.

Public Concerns Fuel the Demand for Information

The decision to hold the town hall follows visible community frustration. During recent City Council sessions, including a meeting on June 22, local residents gathered outside City Hall with protest signs and voiced strict opposition during public comment periods. Many neighbors have expressed deep concern regarding the lack of concrete technical information currently available to the public.

Specific anxieties center on the project’s long-term environmental and infrastructure footprint. Residents have raised questions about potential noise pollution from cooling systems, the visual impact on the surrounding area, water consumption quality, and whether the massive power demands of a data center could ultimately spike local electricity rates.

City Manager Mike Schumacher noted that the city is currently waiting on the developer to deliver finalized blueprints and engineering assessments. He emphasized that data center designs vary drastically, which directly influences their community impact.

“If this is what I call a first-generation data center that has these huge cooling towers on top of it and it emits all kinds of light, then it can certainly impact [neighbors],” Schumacher said during a recent broadcast on KFEQ. “If it looks like an office building when you drive by and you have no idea what’s going on inside of it, and there’s no noise… then I would think it’s less impact. But once again, we have no idea.”

Annexation and Zoning Timelines

The project hinges on a voluntary annexation petition submitted in early April by a landowner seeking to bring approximately 130 acres of property at 6321 SE Pickett Road into the St. Joseph city limits. While the initial public hearing for the annexation took place on May 26, municipal code requires the zoning classification to be handled concurrently.

The developer has submitted a request to rezone the land into a manufacturing district. To allow time for the July town hall and further review, the Planning Commission postponed the rezoning review to its July 23 meeting.

Municipal officials clarified that the upcoming July 16 town hall is strictly informational. No official City Council votes, work sessions, or binding business will be conducted during the event.

Instead, the formal legislative process is scheduled to begin the following month. The first readings for both the annexation and rezoning ordinances are tentatively slated for the August 17 City Council meeting, which will also host an official public hearing regarding the zoning change. Final votes on the ordinances are currently projected for August 31.

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