Emporia Planning Commission Delays Gigawatt-Scale Data-Center Zoning After 6½-Hour Hearing

EMPORIA, Kan. — The Emporia Planning Commission on Tuesday, June 23, postponed action on three zoning proposals tied to a proposed gigawatt-scale data center, declining to make a recommendation after a public hearing that ran more than six hours and packed an estimated 400 to 500 people into the William Lindsay White Civic Auditorium, where more than 50 residents addressed the seven-member board.

The commission, which forwards recommendations to the City Commission, voted unanimously to table all three items — a "digital infrastructure overlay district" text amendment, a rezoning of the roughly 1,000-acre site west of the city, and the overlay's application to that land — until a special meeting set for 6 p.m. June 30 at the same auditorium. The delay pushes any city action past an earlier mid-July target. The project, known as the Flint Hills Digital Campus, is tied to a developer listed in filings as Kanza Park Place LLC, whose identity had been kept confidential — a sticking point for opponents.

The overlay would create special rules requiring studies, mitigation and a city-approved development agreement before any data center could be built. City planning staff recommended approval of all three measures, with the city's planning and zoning administrator, Justin Givens, describing the tracts as a natural extension of existing industrial zoning. A representative of Kanza Park Place LLC told the board the rezoning was a routine map amendment that should be judged on its reasonableness under state law, not as approval of any specific project, and said no end user, site plan or utility agreements were before the commission.

Supporters were concentrated among the city's economic-development and business organizations, which framed the data center as a rare chance to rebuild a battered job base. Emporia Chamber of Commerce interim president Mike Law, officials from the Regional Development Association and Emporia Main Street, and a representative of IBEW Local 226 argued the project would broaden the tax base and create construction and skilled-trades work. They cited the economic hit from the shutdown of Tyson's beef plant and a string of other manufacturing losses, with one development official saying the area had lost roughly 1,300 jobs in the previous 18 months.

Opponents, who dominated the room, raised a wide range of objections. The most frequent concerned the process itself: speakers said the plan had been developed largely out of public view and rushed forward with too little notice, pointing to the developer's withheld identity. Many warned that a hyperscale data center would strain Emporia's aging water system and drive up electricity costs for households and existing industry, and several argued the proposal conflicted with the city's 2017 comprehensive plan. Others questioned the developer's finances and cited potential effects on property values, noise, chemicals and the environment.

By night's end, the testimony tilted sharply against the project. Of those who spoke, about 71% opposed the data center, roughly 18% supported it and about 11% were mixed or neutral. Among all speakers, close to 40% criticized the speed and secrecy of the process, about a third raised water, and roughly a quarter each pointed to electricity costs and conflicts with the comprehensive plan; about one in five cited the developer's track record or environmental and health risks.

Commissioners voiced their own doubts, pressing staff over the absence of decibel limits, the need for a wider buffer between the site and homes, e-waste handling and a waiver clause that concentrated authority in a single administrator. After the city attorney drafted revised language during the meeting, the board chose to wait for a clean rewrite. "I have to teach a class in eight hours," one commissioner said near midnight while moving to table the rezoning. "I'm tired."

Separately, City Manager Trey Cocking has said the city is drafting rules for large water users to protect existing customers, and the commission is scheduled to take the proposals up again June 30.

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