> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.citizenjournal.us/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # McPherson County Board of Planning Zoning and Appeals Summary - URL: https://www.citizenjournal.us/mcpherson-city-commission-summary-14/ - Published: 2026-08-11T13:32:21.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-11T13:32:21.000Z - Description: August 10, 2026 - Author: Greg Loving - Tags: mcj, #summary # County board hears packed-room opposition to data centers # Resident submits 94-signature petition to ban county data centers # BPU general manager details $900,000-per-megawatt data center surety requirement # State law forces county to streamline accessory dwelling unit approvals # County considers shifting all industrial uses to special-use review # Pro-data center speaker urges tiered megawatt zoning framework --- ### County Board Hears Packed-Room Opposition to Data Centers MCPHERSON COUNTY, Kan. — Residents crowded McPherson County's planning chamber and a fifth-floor overflow room Aug. 10 to oppose proposed zoning amendments that could allow data centers, battery energy storage systems and hydrogen transfer facilities in the unincorporated county. The board, which placed a moratorium on those uses roughly a year ago at the direction of county commissioners, held the session to gather public comment before making a formal recommendation. Zoning Administrator Jon Kinsey told attendees the board's role was to assess land-use compatibility, public health, safety and welfare — not to render a general verdict on the technologies. Speaker after speaker voiced opposition, citing concerns about water consumption, electric-grid strain, noise and broken corporate promises in other communities, while one McPherson resident was among the few to urge the board to craft performance-based zoning rather than a ban. The chair asked opponents to stand at the close of public comment, and a substantial portion of those present rose. The board said it would reconvene Monday, Aug. 17, at 6:30 p.m., contingent on proper public notice, to deliberate and form a recommendation for county commissioners. --- ### Resident Petition Asks County to Ban Data Centers MCPHERSON COUNTY, Kan. — A McPherson resident presented the county planning board Aug. 10 with a petition bearing 94 signatures calling on the county to keep McPherson County rural and ban data centers from unincorporated county land. The resident said she and others collected signatures downstairs before the hearing and ran out of paper before the process was complete. She urged residents to drive to First and Cedar streets in the city of McPherson and roll down their windows to hear what she called the intolerable noise of an existing small data center, saying, "if you don't want to step in front of a train after about five minutes, you're a better person than I am." She asked that the petition be made part of the public record, noting that not everybody had an opportunity to write a long letter. --- ### BPU General Manager Details $900,000-Per-Megawatt Data Center Surety Requirement MCPHERSON COUNTY, Kan. — McPherson Board of Public Utilities General Manager Josh Bedel told the planning board Aug. 10 that the utility requires computational load customers — including data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations — to post roughly $900,000 per megawatt in upfront financial sureties before connecting to BPU's electric system. Bedel said those sureties include 18 months of capacity and transmission charges, seven years of demand charges to fund system infrastructure and seven years of generation charges to cover generation infrastructure. He said BPU adopted its first computational load policy in January 2022, ahead of many utilities that did not act until late 2025 or 2026\. On water, Bedel said BPU invested $33.6 million in its South Wellfield project to draw from the High Plains aquifer and would require any computational load customer's cooling system to be closed-loop or fully air-cooled before evaluating service. Bedel said BPU is one of eight retail electric providers and one of 17 water providers in the county, meaning its policies govern only potential customers seeking to connect to BPU systems. --- ### State Law Requires County to Streamline Accessory Dwelling Unit Approvals MCPHERSON COUNTY, Kan. — Kansas Senate Bill 418, which took effect July 1, requires McPherson County to approve accessory dwelling units administratively rather than through a conditional-use hearing before the planning board, Zoning Administrator Jon Kinsey told the board Aug. 10\. Kinsey said the county would rename its existing "second residential unit" classification to "accessory dwelling unit" to align with the new state terminology and would process applications at the staff level, provided water and sanitation requirements are satisfied. He said landowners on a single well would still need a separate well connection for a second dwelling, since attaching two homes to one well creates a semi-public well subject to state testing requirements, and rural water district customers would need to purchase a second service unit. Kinsey also said the county would not allow a property owner to later subdivide and sell off a lot on which an accessory dwelling unit was built by right under the new law. The regulatory change is part of a broader package of zoning amendments under review by the board. --- ### County Considers Shifting All Industrial Uses to Special-Use Review MCPHERSON COUNTY, Kan. — Zoning Administrator Jon Kinsey told the planning board Aug. 10 that a proposed zoning amendment would eliminate all permitted-by-right uses from the county's M-1 light industrial and M-2 heavy industrial zones, requiring any new operation in those districts to obtain a special-use approval from the planning board and county commissioners. Kinsey said the change would tie each approved use to a specific property owner and purpose by resolution attached to the title, so that if a property changed hands or the operator sought to change uses, the new owner or operator would have to return before the board. He said the board discussed the concept during a July work session and is bringing it forward as one of several amendments in the current public-comment cycle. A former city planning commissioner made a similar argument regarding data centers specifically, telling the board that treating them as special-use-only — rather than as a permitted industrial use — would ensure a full environmental and infrastructure review each time. The board is also considering allowing shipping containers on residential property by right, subject to setback and floodplain rules. --- ### Pro-data center speaker urges tiered megawatt zoning framework MCPHERSON COUNTY, Kan. — A McPherson resident told the planning board Aug. 10 that the county should craft tiered zoning regulations based on a data center's megawatt draw rather than treating all facilities identically. The speaker, who said he moved to McPherson in 1987 and built four local companies, proposed four size categories: small at 5 to 50 megawatts, medium at 50 to 100 megawatts, large at 100 to 250 megawatts and hyperscale above 250 megawatts, arguing that rules written for large campuses unfairly burden smaller projects. He contended that modern systems use closed-loop or mostly closed-loop cooling that consumes "virtually zero water" and that battery energy storage systems operate on one to three acres near existing substations without water use or emissions. He also said state law bars electric utilities from offering special rate breaks to data centers; Kansas Senate Bill 98, signed in 2025, prohibits public utilities from authorizing discounted economic-development electric rates for data center customers, and provides a 20-year state and local sales tax exemption on construction, equipment and labor costs for qualified data centers that invest at least $250 million and create at least 20 new jobs. The board encouraged all speakers to submit their written statements to the zoning administrator and to the county commissioners. --- Found a mistake? Have a news tip or feedback to share? Contact our newsroom using the button below: [Contact Us](https://www.citizenjournal.us/contact/) --- [![Job Board](https://rosebud-ads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/JOB.png)](https://gregl72.github.io/job/?ref=citizenjournal.us)