Gabe Stark
Reporter

Grundy County and Trenton officials are beginning to examine how data centers could affect local utilities, natural resources, land use and taxpayers, even as officials emphasized that no data center project is currently planned for the area.

The discussion came during a joint public meeting Aug. 14 at the Grundy County Courthouse involving the Grundy County Commission, City of Trenton, North Central Missouri Development Alliance and Grundy Electric Cooperative.

“We’re not going to announce a new data center tonight,” Presiding Commissioner Phillip Ray said. “That is not what we’re here to do.”

What developers look for

Ray said the purpose was to begin understanding how data center developers select communities, what infrastructure they require and what local governments can do to protect residents and resources if a proposal eventually arrives.

Water was among the first concerns raised. Ray said a past economic development study identified water as one of the area’s most valuable resources and said local officials do not want future development to compromise existing users.

North Central Missouri Development Alliance Executive Director Megan Pester said the organization is not currently pursuing a data center and has no pending project. She said companies generally begin by evaluating available sites and then contacting utilities to determine whether a community can support the project.

Pester also said the area’s labor force would be a limiting factor for a large project.

Grundy Electric Cooperative General Manager Scott Wilson said the cooperative has been contacted multiple times from potential data center interests, but “to my knowledge, there are none planned in this area currently.”

Wilson added the four Grundy Electric substations in the county do not have enough excess capacity for a large project. At present, he said a one- to five-megawatt facility would be about the largest load the cooperative could accommodate without major changes.

He said a smaller modular data center could resemble a shipping container or small building and would generally be located near a substation. A 50-megawatt facility, by comparison, would require substantially more transmission capacity and investment, while Wilson said he does not expect a 500-megawatt hyperscale center to locate in the area under current conditions.

Wilson added a developer locating in Grundy Electric’s territory would be required to pay upfront for lines, substation upgrades and other infrastructure needed specifically for the project. He said that arrangement is intended to keep those costs from being shifted to existing cooperative members.

Wilson also said smaller modern facilities may use closed-loop cooling systems that reuse water rather than continually drawing large quantities for cooling.

In Trenton

Inside Trenton, City Administrator Matt Harline said the city currently has no zoning language written specifically for data centers. If a proposal were submitted today, officials would have to determine which existing land-use category most closely applies or amend the city code. Harline said a large facility would most likely be considered for heavy industrial property.

Trenton’s participation in a pooled municipal electric system also provides mechanisms for dealing with unusually large electric loads. Agreements could require deposits and long-term power commitments to protect the city if it purchased additional capacity for a facility that later closed or left.

“The greatest risk to us is if they came and then they left, and we made purchases of capacity,” Harline said.

Mayor Jackie Soptic said the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission gives Trenton a public process to consider land-use impacts, including how a project could impact neighboring property owners.

County zoning

The county faces a different situation because Grundy County does not currently have countywide planning and zoning. Ray said options could include a temporary moratorium or beginning the much longer process of adopting planning and zoning.

Ray said county zoning is not the commission’s first choice because county leaders have historically emphasized private landowner rights. However, he said they are now considering whether some form of regulation could ultimately be needed to protect those same rights from incompatible development.

“We have stayed out of zoning for the very reason that we may be entertaining the idea of enacting it,” Ray said.

Ray further addressed the process during a Grundy County Commission meeting, explaining that the commissioners could not enact county zoning on their own.

“For Grundy County to become zoned, it has to be initiated by the people,” Ray said.

He said a petition would be required to place the matter before voters, with a simple majority needed for approval. Ray said details of how a county zoning system would ultimately be administered, including the makeup and responsibilities of a zoning board, would still have to be determined.

Grundy County is classified as a third-class county with a township form of government. Missouri law provides a process for county or township planning and zoning that includes development of a proposed plan, public hearings and voter approval before adoption.

Ray also said individual landowners retain an important degree of control over whether their property could become part of a future data center development.

“The best thing people can do is to not sell their property,” Ray said. “And you will retain control of it that way.”

Ray said local officials would have to determine whether revenue generated by a project would be enough to offset demands on roads, emergency services and other public infrastructure.

Around the state

Missouri has also begun addressing concerns about electrical costs. Senate Bill 4, approved in 2025, requires certain regulated electric utilities to establish special tariffs for very large customers so their rates reflect the cost of serving them and do not shift unreasonable costs to other customer classes.

The Missouri Association of Counties, Missouri Municipal League and Missouri School Boards’ Association also held a Local Government Data Center Summit June 17 in Jefferson City covering energy, water, infrastructure, incentives, zoning and potential legislation.

The statewide discussion comes as major data center investment expands in Missouri. Google announced in May a $15 billion investment in a data center and related infrastructure in Montgomery County. The company and state said Google would pay for power and infrastructure costs directly driven by the facility and that the Montgomery County project would use air cooling to limit water consumption.

Ray said Grundy County is not presently in the same position as communities attracting projects on that scale. Instead, he said the goal is to develop a framework before a proposal appears rather than reacting after commitments have already been made.

Ray said the County Commission will not sign nondisclosure agreements involving data centers and wants future discussions to remain as public as possible.

“These conversations will continue with our community and with our stakeholders,” he said.