The City of Springfield is seeking the public’s input as it crafts policies related to data centers.
They’ll host engagement sessions tonight and next Tuesday.
Tonight’s session will be held 5:30 to 7:30 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Springfield.
Tuesday's will be 4:30 to 6:30 at the Library Center's Hatch Auditorium.
City of Springfield Director of Communications Cora Scott says attendees should expect to stay for the whole event.
They’ll be divided up and progress through six discussions with subject matter experts from the city and City Utilities. Each session will focus on one of six topics: electricity, water, land use & facilities, safety, nuisance and community benefits.
Scott said the city wants to make the right decision, and they hope for a nuanced and informed conversation, but recognize that a certain part of the population may be resistant to any data center development. She said the city wants transparency and to hear from the community.
“Ultimately this could end up with some potential regulations either being very extreme and not allowing data centers at all, all the way to what would be allowed, where they would be allowed, etc.,” explained Scott. “There's no foregone conclusions of what this might look like. That's the good part about where the City of Springfield is with this right now is we're just in the data gathering phase.”
Scott said the city is also collecting feedback by email at city@springfieldmo.gov and a phone hotline at 417-864-1700.
Springfield’s is under a 120-day data center development moratorium that expires in October. Scott said there is a possibility it could be extended. She said the public engagement sessions are being funded by the City Manager’s contingency fund.