A pair of data center projects were debated for 11 hours at a planning meeting this week in Franklin County, Missouri.

At the meeting yesterday (March 17), the county’s planning and zoning commission had intended to decide whether a rezoning amendment for two proposed data centers would receive a recommendation for approval.

But the meeting, which stretched from 6pm to around 4:30 in the morning, led the authorities to postpone its decisions by a month.

Most of the meeting’s runtime was taken up by more than 174 residents who registered to express their views, with the majority of them speaking against the data centers, according to a report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The first proposal, put forth by Provident Data Centers, requested the rezoning of around 575 acres of agricultural land in order to make it suitable for a future data center development called the Gateway Digital Campus. This land is currently part of Diamond Farms, located on Robertsville Road.

The planning commission was supposed to consider the project in January, before postponing a decision to this week, making this the proposal’s second postponement.

The second proposal, put forth by energy company BLE Landholdings – otherwise known as Beltline – requested the rezoning of 12 parcels totaling 490 acres around 684 Phelan Road.

Public opinion seems broadly in opposition to both proposals, and a public Facebook group called ‘No AI Data Centers in Franklin County’ has amassed around 2,000 members at the time of writing.

Franklin County is located west of St. Louis, situated on Missouri’s eastern border with Illinois. It should not be confused with Franklin County, Ohio.