No More Data Centers in St. Louis

Movement:Fighting Data Center Development

Petition progress

Media Mentions

Comments

Emily • 11 hours ago

Kerriannah • 11 hours ago

Shylee • 21 hours ago

Jakub • 2 days ago

Alyson • 3 days ago

Gilbert • 4 days ago

austin • 1 week ago

Johanna • 2 weeks ago

Cheyenne • 2 weeks ago

Savannah • 2 weeks ago

jonathan • 2 weeks ago

Kaitlin • 2 weeks ago

Evyn • 3 weeks ago

The Issue

St. Louis is considering a $600 million data center at and around the Armory.

Massive AI data centers are popping up throughout the country, devastating the local communities they're built in. They cause resident's electric bills to skyrocket, deplete the drinking water supply, emit air pollution, create noise pollution, strain power grids, and after construction they create very few jobs in return.

St. Louis has a legacy of rewarding polluting corporations with huge tax breaks in the name of 'development.' We don't want to trade our clean water and air or pay higher electric bills to help tech companies get rich off of St. Louis.

Sign this petition to demand a year long moratorium on data centers in St. Louis. We believe a year long investigation of the impact of data centers on St. Louis would prove how harmful it would be to the region and help win enough support from the St. Louis Aldermen to pass a permanent ban.

We don't want partial regulations that only mitigate harm. We want 'No More Data Centers in St. Louis!'

Eco-Socialist Green Party of Eastern MissouriPetition Starter

Media inquiries

14,395

Petition progress

Media Mentions

Comments

Emily • 11 hours ago

Kerriannah • 11 hours ago

Shylee • 21 hours ago

Jakub • 2 days ago

Alyson • 3 days ago

Gilbert • 4 days ago

austin • 1 week ago

Johanna • 2 weeks ago

Cheyenne • 2 weeks ago

Savannah • 2 weeks ago

jonathan • 2 weeks ago

Kaitlin • 2 weeks ago

Evyn • 3 weeks ago

The Issue

St. Louis is considering a $600 million data center at and around the Armory.

We don't want partial regulations that only mitigate harm. We want 'No More Data Centers in St. Louis!'

Eco-Socialist Green Party of Eastern MissouriPetition Starter

Media inquiries

Support now

14,395

The Decision Makers

St. Louis City Council,

7 Members

2 Responded

Missouri

Thomas Oldenburg

St. Louis City Council - Ward 2

Represents 321 petition signers

“Thanks for the note. I hear you.”

Anne Schweitzer

St. Louis City Council - Ward 1

Represents 316 petition signers

“Thank you for taking the time to reach out with these concerns. I share concerns around the environmental impacts, the strain on utility infrastructure, and the effect on local communities. That is why I supported Executive Order 92, and why I introduced Resolution 111 (below) which mirrors and supports that Executive Order. The Order and Resolution direct city departments to develop comprehensive regulations within the next 5 months, while also making sure any data center that is being considered in our city goes through the conditional use process. With that process and the information required by the Executive Order, a lot more information will be known about each proposal before a decision is made about each potential permit. It's important that the public has many opportunities to weigh in as regulations are considered. That's why the Board of Aldermen's Public Infrastructure and Utilities committee will hold a hearing this Wednesday, October 1st at 3:30pm in the Kennedy Hearing room located on the 2nd floor of City Hall. While the hearing is on Resolution 111, we invite individuals to attend and provide testimony relating to their concerns and thoughts around data centers in general. For those unable to attend, you can submit written testimony to boameetings@stlouis-mo.gov. Resolution 111: RESOLUTION NUMBER 111 AFFIRMING SUPPORT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER 92 DIRECTING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CLEAR REGULATIONS ON DATA CENTERS WHEREAS, data centers are specialized facilities that house the computing and networking systems needed to run applications and to store, process, and manage large amounts of data; and WHEREAS, the demand to develop new data centers has been rapidly increasing amidst the Artificial Intelligence (AI) boom and has become increasingly more common nationwide and in the St. Louis region, and concerns have arisen around their environmental, economic, and community impacts; and WHEREAS, large-scale data centers can require tremendous amounts of water and energy to sustain, straining local utilities and potentially impacting residents’ utility bills; creating noise and heat pollution, and other nuisances that negatively affect surrounding neighborhoods; and WHEREAS, regulations of data centers should include acceptable zoning districts, restrictions on distance from residential or other sensitive uses such as schools or transit stations, compatibility with surrounding uses, noise limitations, screening of cooling equipment, disclosure on anticipated energy and water use, plans for job creation, and community outreach requirements; and WHEREAS, on September 10th, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend to the Board of Aldermen to enact a moratorium on new data centers in the City of St. Louis, but subsequent discussions with a variety of stakeholders have illuminated the path of using the current Conditional Use process to both allow permit applications to continue while providing more adequate screening of data centers until zoning regulations can be established; and WHEREAS, Executive Order 92 has clearly outlined the information to be collected during the Conditional Use process, to further inform the establishment of data center regulations; and WHEREAS, it is crucial that the City establish a thoughtful and comprehensive framework regulating data centers in partnership with the Planning and Urban Design Agency, Zoning Section of the Building Division, other Building Division offices, Water Division, and Board of Public Service. NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis that we pause in our deliberations to affirm our support for Executive Order 92, and join Mayor Spencer in directing the creation of a thoughtful and comprehensive framework regulating data centers in the City of St. Louis, including at a minimum, the following: a. Acceptable zoning districts; b. Minimum separation requirements from residential areas, sensitive uses such as schools, parks, greenways, and transit stations; c. Building scale, height, orientation of primary faces, and compatibility with surrounding uses; d. Noise limitations and specific plans for noise mitigation; e. Screening and location of external cooling equipment, generators, substations, and loading docks; f. Disclosure of anticipated energy use, water use, infrastructure capacity, job creation, and energy sources; g. Disclosure of petitioner, owner, and parties associated with data centers; h. Levels of renewable energy use and the effects of data centers on electricity ratepayers; i. Building Energy Performance Standards; j. Public outreach and community engagement requirements before, during, and after development; and k. Other conditions, including but are not limited to those listed in Section 5C of Executive Order 92, as outlined below. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Board of Aldermen our support for the expansion and clarification of the…”