Stop the Armory Data Center! Join us this Sunday for a COMMUNITY town hall to learn how St. Louis residents can organize together to win a moratorium on data centers.
Date: This Sunday, October 12th at 3:00 pm (doors open at 2:00 pm).
Location: St. Cronan’s, 1202 S Boyle Ave, St. Louis, MO 63110
Pre-registration is encouraged bit.ly/noMOdatacenters
Since the city has not scheduled a town hall on data centers despite public demand for more public input in the approval process, we’ve partnered with PSL, DSA, MO Workers Center, Action St. Louis, and more to host a community town hall where resident interests are represented. (The only town halls otherwise scheduled are being put on by the Armory data center developer THO.)
Maxi Glamour will be the MC and Pizza will be provided (gluten-free and vegan available).
We’ve invited each member of the Board of Aldermen to attend the community town hall to have the chance to hear concerns and questions directly from residents. This will be a great opportunity for residents to engage with each other and to build on the next steps in this fight for a moratorium on data centers in St. Louis and to stop the Armory data center.
There will also be future community organizing meetings co-hosted by our growing coalition of organizations with dates to be announced soon. Follow us at ecosocialistgreenpartyofemo on instagram to stay updated on No More Data Centers in St. Louis news.
Two Town Halls put on by the developer of the Armory Data Center:
THO, the developer of the armory data center is hosting 2 town halls over the next few days. We’ve attached a list of questions you can ask the developers. We will go over more questions and ways to fight back against massive data centers at the community town hall on October 12th.
Tonight at 5:30 pm, Thursday October 9th on Zoom:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86166022564?pwd=JVn23g6AUaUVpOjNXjDeDRkAf9HlHu.1
Meeting ID: 861 6602 2564
Passcode: 123ABC
Monday October 13 at 5:30 p.m. inside the Sheet Metal Workers Union Hall at 2319 Chouteau Avenue
What to Ask When a Data Center Wants to Come to Town- by Good Jobs First
How much air pollution will the standby power generators for this project generate? How often will the back-up generators be run for testing?
(Is the project using diesel or natural gas? Are there any mitigation commitments?)
How much noise and light pollution will it create?
(Data centers emit constant humming noise and more standby generators are tested. Data centers are often illuminated all night for security reasons.)
Does the site have a better use?
(In urban areas, land is limited and instead could be used for housing or projects that create a significant number of jobs).
How big will this project be and how far will it be located from residents?
(Data centers, a few-story windowless warehouses, can be the size of several football fields, if not bigger. In some communities they are located near homes, historical sites, or cemeteries.)
Will new power lines have to be constructed for this project? Where will they go in our community?
(Data centers always come with a power sub-station and transmission lines.)
Are there any Non-Disclosure Agreements in place? If yes, who signed those NDAs?
(NDAs, pushed by tech giants, are legally binding agreements signed by public officials that prohibit them from disclosing any information about a project until it is announced, including financial incentives or power or water use. There's a strong case to be made against ever using them but if they are, the public should still have at least 60 days to review a proposed agreement.)
Which company is behind this project? Why aren't we told the company name?
(Data center companies often hide behind project code names, LLCs, or developer names. A community should know the ultimate project owner or user.)
Is the company asking for local incentives? Why would we give them any?
(Data centers ask for property tax abatements even though they usually receive huge subsidies through state sales and use tax exemptions. From a site location perspective, companies are more concerned with energy costs and availability of land than subsidies. A big question for leaders is: Why give some of the biggest, most profitable companies in the world tax breaks?)
Are we asking for a community benefit agreement?
(Community benefit agreements are legally binding contracts between companies and communities that specify certain deliverables that a company must provide to the community. These should be substantial and go beyond a token donation.)
How much tax revenue will our community lose because of the state-granted sales and use tax exemptions for data centers that also abate the local share of the sales tax?
(More than 30 states have data center sales and use tax exemptions under which companies do not pay any sales tax while buying equipment or power. Those programs abate both the state and local portions of sales tax.)
How many permanent jobs will this project create and how many local workers will be hired?
(Data centers create very few permanent jobs. Often, the fine print in development agreements require fewer jobs than are officially announced. To maximize benefits, jobs should go to local residents first.)
Will this project be built with local labor or use state-certified apprenticeship programs during the construction phase?
(For those jobs created during the short-term construction phase, if there are not enough skilled local workers, an apprenticeship program would allow local workers to learn skills on the job.)
How will the community be involved in the process? Will the company meet with residents?
(Too often community members learn that a data center is coming to a community after the deal has been secretly negotiated.)
How much water will this project use? Do we have enough water supply?
(Data centers use water for cooling. Hyperscale projects can consume hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day, which can be a significant issue for places prone to drought. Insist on the details, including who will pay for any upgrades needed to infrastructure.)
What safeguards do we have in place to ensure that residents living near data centers do not have their water supplies spoiled?
(There have been reports that data centers impact water quality and availability for nearby residents who use or own wells.)
Will the data center use any renewable energy?
(Data centers use massive amounts of electrical power to operate and cool the servers. Most of that energy comes from burning fossil fuels, undermining public goals for carbon reduction.)
Updates- What’s Happened this Past Week in the St. Louis Fight to Stop Data Centers:
On October 1st, the Public Infrastructure and Utilities Committee approved Resolution 111 with a 5:1 vote, then on October 3rd it was approved by the full Board of Alders with a 9:2 vote (3 absent). Our concern with Resolution 111, is that it allows data centers to continue to petition for approval and move through an expanded approval process in lieu of a moratorium. It proposes the city create regulations for data centers over the next 5 months while allowing data centers like the Armory Data Center to be approved in the meanwhile. It does require data centers to go through a conditional use hearing, ends as-of-right zoning, and adds a list of questions data center developers must ask before being approved. However, there is no criteria in place for what answers qualify data centers to be approved or not.
This is not the moratorium that the public is demanding, that over 12,000 residents signed our petition asking for, and that the Planning Commission recommended on Sept 10. Mayor Cara Spencer backed out of a moratorium and changed course to say she would veto it. It’s important that residents continue to call/email your alderperson and email Mayor Cara Spencer to ask them to listen to their constituents who are asking for a year-long pause on data center proposals to fully investigate the harmful effects of data centers on our water supply and our power grid, on residents’ power bills, on the environment, and to look into alternative land use (including other types of construction that could be done with union labor), and on how many “Chapter 353” tax abatement redevelopment corporations (like St. Louis Midtown Redevelopment Corporation) are authorized to build data centers without community consent, testimony, or even approval by the BOA.
The Armory Data Center project is expected to cost 1.5 billion dollars. The estimated cost to repair St. Louis’ Northside after the May 16th tornado is 1.6 billion dollars. The current abatements from the original deal on this property appear to be 95% for 10 years and 50% for 11-15 years. Tax abatements extract wealth and resources from local communities, especially schools, which disproportionately affects black and brown students. We should not be rewarding data centers with these huge tax breaks at the expense of St. Louis students and residents
Residents that were able to attend last week's public infrastructure and utilities hearing spoke about fear of high energy costs, lack of public input in the approval process, pollution, fears about damage to our water supply, environmental racism, and other projects the city government could be prioritizing that subsidize working people rather than developers. The written testimony of 86 residents was not heard before the committee’s decision, a move that favored those that could attend in person over those that had to work during the (daytime) meeting time. Developers and data center supporters, many of whom do not live in the city, testified that data centers in the region are ‘inevitable’ and necessary to decrease tech latency. One of the people that gave a very pro-data center testimony described herself as a ‘former St. Louis resident’ but was identified after the hearing by a SLPR reporter as a consultant working for the Armory data center’s developer. Pro data center testimony included that data centers create construction jobs but did not specify that these are usually short term and did not include the fact that there was already transit oriented development proposed at this site which could also be done with union labor while creating a much more sustainable use of the land. The Board of Aldermen members of the committee mentioned being concerned about competition with other cities for these proposals, and that they want developers to know that St. Louis is “open for business”. But attracting development that leaves residents with higher power bills and pollution only creates a ‘race to the bottom’.
Please continue to share this petition and stand up to say no to massive data centers in St. Louis!