The Missouri city of Peculiar has blocked a data center project after pushback from local residents.
Peculiar is a city in Cass County, Missouri, located some 20 miles south of Kansas City. Peculiar Mayor Doug Stark first revealed plans for a 504-acre data storage and technology park named Project Harper back in January.
Diode Ventures was planning the Harper Road Technology Park; a $1.5 billion project located on the west side of Harper Road between 203rd and future 211th Street, near a new Evergy substation and 345kV transmission lines. Site plans in submitted documents suggested up to seven data center buildings could be built on the site, each spanning 300,000 sq ft (27,870 sqm).
Peculiar originally approved the zoning for it by adding a "data center" definition into the existing light industrial zoning code.
However, as reported by KSHB 41, the Peculiar Board of Alderman this week reversed that decision by removing the definition from the ordinance. The change means data centers are no longer permitted in the city.
The publication reports the board meeting was Dozens of residents packed the room at Monday night's Board of Alderman meeting, making it standing room only.
KSHB said signs reading "No Hyperscale Data Centers” were common sights in the city, and a Facebook group against the project had grown to 1,000 people – equivalent to one-sixth of the area’s population.
After pushback from locals, the planning commission put forward the proposals to remove data centers from the light industrial ordinance in September.
Peculiar Mayor Stark recently voiced his displeasure at efforts to derail the data center proposals. Last month he posted on Facebook that the Alderman were feeling pressure from a “boisterous and ill-informed group” to remove data centers as an allowable use in the light industrial zoning class in a move to “kill” the project.
“I've always believed in, and supported this town. This project might have had the ability to help this community in areas of great need,” he said. “The Kansas City Area Development Council (KCADC) has made it clear that this very public debacle has damaged our city's reputation and our ability to attract good, positive developments in the immediate future.”
He also noted some within the data center opposition were looking to forward a petition to remove him as mayor. He claimed many in opposition to the project were those who live outside the city limits.
Diode Ventures told Fox4 KC earlier this month: “We are not discussing specifics about Peculiar because there is no active application submitted, given the extended moratorium by city leaders. Generally, it’s important to note that data centers are becoming critical, necessary infrastructure to meet the growing needs of our connected, digital world and to remain relevant on the global AI stage. Data centers also bring a multitude of benefits to communities, big and small.”
Diode is also developing several other data center campuses around Kansas City including the Hampton Meadows, Golden Plains, and Rocky Branch Creek technology parks.
There are apparently multiple theories about how Peculiar got its name.
One suggests the area’s first local postmaster wasn’t allowed his first choice for a town name, and when the Postmaster General suggested he didn’t care what name it was given ‘so long as it is sort of peculiar,' the name "Peculiar" was submitted and approved.
Another story suggests early settlers thought it was peculiar that the area matched a vision that had recently come to one of their group, and the name stuck.