Plans for a proposed data center campus outside Louisville, Kentucky, has been scrapped and swapped out for a smaller development in a different part of town.

News that Western Hospitality Partners (WHP) was planning a data center campus outside La Grange in Oldham County surfaced earlier this year.

The Project Lincoln campus was set to occupy a 267-acre plot of land at 3557 North Highway 53, some 28 miles northeast of downtown Louisville. The project was set to feature up to eight buildings totaling 2.5 million square feet (232,255 sqm) and an on-site substation. It could have offered up to 600MW of capacity.

However, local press including Wlky, Wdrb, and the Courier Journal report that after local opposition from residents and officials, plans have changed, with a smaller site set to be developed five miles south of the original planned property.

“After hearing the community’s concerns about the Highway 53 site and working closely with numerous leaders within the community, we have made the decision to alter our original plans for Oldham County,” Abie Kassin of Western Hospitality Partners told press.

Oldham County Judge-Executive David Voegele announced this week that Western Hospitality Partners has withdrawn its application for the KY-53 site.

WHP has instead submitted a new application for a smaller data center along Commerce Parkway at the site of the Sauerbeck Drive-in theater located at 3210 DW Griffith Lane.

“The Commerce Parkway location will be smaller than the project proposed for Highway 53. A permit application filed by Western Hospitality Partners indicates the company is planning to build two buildings on the site," Voegele said in a statement.

"Oldham County is very limited in possible locations for data centers. The Sauerbeck property along Commerce Parkway appears to be an appropriate location. It was recommended as an alternative by many neighbors near the proposed Highway 53 project,” he added.

Voegele noted the new site is zoned industrial, is between a railroad track and Interstate 71, and next to the Dynegy power plant. The developers are now applying for a Conditional Use Permit for the development. The buildings would reportedly total 312,000 sq ft (28,985 sqm).

Where Western Hospitality was originally set to invest $6 billion in the larger development, this has been downsized to around $1.5 billion for the two-building campus.

Stephen Sauerbeck, owner of the drive-in theater, told the Journal that Western Hospitality Partners has a contract with the option to purchase the land. The drive-in is expected to relocate.

David Bizianes, president of the Oldham County Chamber & Economic Development, added: “We are excited that WHP has listened to the concerns of our citizens and community leaders and has decided to focus their tremendous project on a more appropriate site. We look forward to working with them to develop a state-of-the-art facility with high standards that Oldham County can be proud of.”

We Are Oldham County, a group set up in April to oppose the Lincoln project, has more than 4,300 members on Facebook.

Republican House Speaker, David Osborne, told Kentucky Public Radio: “It was obvious from the beginning that the original proposal was poorly conceived. It remains to be seen if the new location will be a better fit, but ultimately it is a decision for the county.”

Oldham County Fiscal Court recently met to discuss a moratorium on data centers, and imposed a 150-day moratorium on new applications for data centers, private utilities, and data storage facilities. The move isn’t likely to stop the new-look Project Lincoln, as it was filed before the moratorium was enacted.

WHP has also filed to develop a 1.6 million sq ft (148,645 sqm) data center campus in northeast Pennsylvania.