By MATT PIKE
The St. Joseph City Council is still waiting to learn more facts from developers on a proposal to build a potential data center at 6321 Pickett Road.
City Manager Mike Schumacher says currently the city is waiting to hear more from the developer than what was proposed and the sketch of the data center that was put out.
"We knew when we pushed that out folks were going to have a lot of questions, and we to have those questions, but we don't have any answers to them," Schumacher says on the KFEQmunnity show. "So, right now we're in a holding pattern for two additional weeks, maybe a week and a half now, in hopes of getting detailed development drawings because no two projects are the same."
"We don't know is this good, is it bad, we don't know we don't have any facts, and like every development project, it's our job to get the facts and that's what we continue to wait on."
Schumacher says as the city gets the facts, elected officials are being informed, and residents are being informed to keep transparency on the project, but at this time without facts, not even the impacts of the project are known.
"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 them," Schumacher explains. "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 or at least no more noise than any other office building, then I would think it's less impact, but once again, we have no idea."
"No one does except some engineer or architect somewhere feverishly working away on getting formalized drawings and more information about the overall development plan."
Schumacher knows though how contentious the project has been, not just in St. Joseph but nationwide. A town hall meeting has been set up on July 16th, where both residents and city officials will have the opportunity to hear more about the vision of the project.
"The developer will present to both council and the community, exactly what he's contemplating and what that looks like," Schumacher says. "The utility providers will be there as well to help articulate what, if any, impact on the grid or rates or how it works in their world and then the availability of water and what that looks like."
"It's not for us to form an opinion or thoughts on their private businesses and what we think it is, that's kind of irrelevant, they need to articulate what does this mean for local utility infrastructure that could possibly impact the residents in St. Joseph."
The public town hall will be held at 6pm on July 16th at the Missouri Theatre. Shcumacher says keeping the community involved and transparency on the project is important.
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