Webster County Commission declares 6-month moratorium on data centers

The Webster County Commission unanimously approved a six-month moratorium on data centers at a meeting this morning.

The moratorium also covers battery storage facilities and solar and wind farms.

Presiding Commissioner Paul Ipock said the commission has been studying the issue with the help of three attorneys, one of whom, from the Missouri Association of Counties, helped the county to write up the moratorium.

“We all three grew up here – this is our home,” Ipock said. “I’ve got four generations of my family still here, and I fully expect my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to live in a safe environment.”

Commissioner Dale Fraker, who made the motion, said county officials have much to learn about data centers and other facilities.

“We’ve tried to answer all the questions that the folks have asked us, and we’ve learned about a lot of things that we didn’t know – not only data centers, but the potential of solar farms and battery storage places,” Fraker said. “There’s lots of things out there that we’re going to have to learn about because we’re living in the hot spot of the nation.”

A standing-room-only crowd was present in the commissioners’ office, which had seats to accommodate 10.

Webster County residents had turned out in force at a May 11 meeting to express unified opposition to a data center under construction just outside Marshfield city limits on Rifle Range Road.

Stacy Atkison, the Webster County recorder of deeds, told the commission members he was proud of them for taking action.

Atkison noted that several rivers have their headwaters in Webster County, meaning the saying that “we’re all downstream” doesn’t apply. Webster County is upstream, he said, and its decisions affect Springfield’s drinking water, the condition of the Lake of the Ozarks and more.

Asked if the moratorium would apply to the data center that is already under construction, the commissioners said it would not.

“We cannot stop this one that’s coming in,” Ipock said.

He said further additions to the facility would not be allowed during the moratorium period.

The moratorium can be renewed after six months, on Dec. 15. That will be after a countywide election that will replace outgoing Presiding Commissioner Ipock, who will not be running for re-election after 28 years in office.

Additionally, voters in Webster County could be asked to approve the establishment of a planning and zoning commission. A petition is being circulated to get the matter on the November ballot, commissioners said. Two previous attempts to establish countywide planning and zoning, in 2005 and 2007, failed.

Ipock said planning and zoning protections are the only way to ensure that the community can control development.

Residents reported that the Rifle Range Road site appears already to be operational, with generators in operation as of June 15. Fraker confirmed that temporary generators mounted on semi-trailers are in use.

In related news, the city of Marshfield, which is the Webster County seat, is scheduled to consider a moratorium on data centers at its Board of Aldermen meeting tonight.