Springfield City Council to consider 120-day pause for data center applications

Last edited 12:32 p.m., June 19, 2026 [Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information from the city about an application it received for a data processing facility.]

A temporary pause in potential data center development is on the agenda for the June 22 meeting of Springfield City Council.

City staff has proposed a 120-day administrative delay to provide a chance for public dialogue about data centers, according to council’s agenda posted to the city’s website.

Asked if the city had received specific inquiries about data centers, spokesperson Cora Scott said via text message that an application had been received. She then followed up with a text after an earlier version of this story was published to say that she was told the application was for office and other uses, including data processing, and was not technically an application for a data center.

“The city was already researching and expecting that this issue would come before us,” Scott said. “Taking the time to evaluate what we as a community should be deliberating and understanding before making any decision is a priority.”

Springfield Business Journal has been following data center news in Webster County and its county seat of Marshfield. A data center is under construction in unincorporated Webster County on Rifle Range Road, and another was proposed for an industrial park within Marshfield city limits but is indefinitely on hold.

The Webster County Commission passed a six-month renewable moratorium on data center development on June 16, and the Marshfield Board of Aldermen began considering a similar move at a meeting that night.

At the June 16 meeting, Webster County Commissioner Dale Fraker called southwest Missouri “the hot spot of the nation” for data centers, requiring officials to learn as much as they can on the topic.

Scott also noted the need for a focused approach, noting, “This is a complex issue facing most American cities.”

The ordinance
In a news release from the city of Springfield, City Manager David Cameron said setting a policy framework before evaluating specific projects is an important step for the community.

“A review would give Springfield the opportunity to better understand data center development, learn from the experiences of other markets and ensure we’re best prepared for the future,” Cameron said.

During the review period, city staff plans to evaluate land use compatibility and electric, water and wastewater impact, as well as noise and air quality factors. These considerations will be balanced with an analysis of potential benefits and the economic impact of possible development, the release states.

The city plans to host open houses and other engagement opportunities to gather community input. Findings will be presented to the Planning & Zoning Commission and City Council, the release states.

The release says the review period will help to ensure city officials have information necessary to thoughtfully evaluate data center development opportunities while protecting long-term interests of residents and utility customers.

The text of the ordinance to be given a first reading by council at its upcoming meeting calls for a 120-day delay in accepting and processing applications relating to the evaluation, establishing, servicing or expansion of a data center facility.

It also directs the city manager to provide a report on recommendation actions to address unique characteristics, demands and potential cumulative effects of data center development.

The ordinance states that data centers can have significant impacts on infrastructure, and the city’s land development code does not specifically address data center facilities with regulations, standards or definitions.

The text of the ordinance to be considered by council sets Nov. 17 as the end of the pause.

The ordinance defines a data center as a building, group of buildings, facility or premise whose primary use is the storage, management, processing or transmission of digital data and is typically used to house computer systems, servers and accessory components. It notes the facilities may also be referred to as digital infrastructure facilities, hyperscale data centers, industrial scale computing facilities, colocation data centers, enterprise data centers or high-performance data processing facilities.

The news release explaining the council ordinance states that the delay will be 150 days, as reported by other media outlets, but Scott clarified via text that the 120-day pause specified in the text of the ordinance is correct.

Complex issue
Jonas Arjes, senior vice president of economic development for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, said he has received “less than a handful” of inquiries so far this calendar year.

“There’s been a couple of battery storage-type opportunities that have reached out and had some questions, but I don’t think any of them have been realistic,” Arjes said.

Arjes said he doesn’t picture the Springfield regional market as being similarly positioned to Montgomery County, the site of $25 billion in data center investment on the Interstate 70 corridor east of New Florence. That consists of $15 billion in Google artificial intelligence infrastructure development, called Project Spade, and a $10 billion investment by Amazon Web Services, called Project Green. Together, they will cover 1,900 acres, according to reporting in the Columbia Missourian.

“That’s no knock on City Utilities, but Ameren and Evergy are not CU,” Arjen said, referring to two large Missouri utility companies. “It’s apples and oranges. CU’s capacity is just different than investor-owned utilities that serve the metropolitan areas of the state.”

While Arjes said he hadn’t received inquiries, he added it was more likely that those types of opportunities would reach out to CU or the city first.

“We’ve heard chatter, but there’s nothing really concrete that I’m aware of,” he said.

He added that the Webster County data center news took him by surprise.

Arjes said there are longstanding operational data centers in the region, like Bluebird Underground LLC, operating out of Springfield Underground, and another operating out of The Mountain Complex in Branson and including data storage for Jack Henry & Associates Inc.

“We look at these just like we look at any economic development project,” Arjes said. “We’re looking at the highest and best use and if it’s the right project for the right property. Zoning comes into play as well.”

Arjes said he has not had direct conversations with Springfield city staff on the proposed administrative pause.

“I’m going to assume that they are probably getting inquiries and want to make sure they’re prepared so they can respond appropriately or entertain opportunities when that happens,” he said.

That’s preferable to having a story go public and generating an alarmed response, Arjes said.

“They can say, ‘Here’s our box; here’s where we can play. If it fits in here, we can talk,’” he said.

Arjes cautioned against politicization of the data center topic, with facilities coming in all shapes and sizes.

“There’s an insane amount of misinformation,” he said. “What I find funny is when you see a very passionate and anti-data-center opinion standing at a podium and reciting information they get on their cellphone. All of that information lives on a server in some data center somewhere. Every time you ask AI to make you a unicorn-dragon, you’ve used up how many bottles of water?”

Arjes urged caution in those who would form policy or legislative positions that ban data centers forever.

“At the end of the day, this is the digital infrastructure of our future, and everything is tied to technology,” he said. “I go back and think about where Missouri would be if we would have said no to the riverboat or railroad economy in the 1800s, electrification in the early 1900s or the interstate in the 1950s. Just to say no forever doesn’t make sense.”

He added that in Montgomery County, $25 billion in investment is coming without a property tax abatement, which will be a game-changer for public-supported entities.

“Somebody needs to take a financial picture of Montgomery County today and then 10 years from now to see what that looks like,” he said.