Local opposition to artificial intelligence data centers is growing across the United States, and in one Kansas town the dispute has escalated into lawsuits between the city government and residents.
In Edgerton, about a 45-minute drive from Kansas City, residents and local officials have filed suits against each other over plans to build an AI data center, The Wall Street Journal reported on the 20th.
The city government sued first, taking legal action against residents opposing the project, but a court dismissed the case in September. Residents then filed their own suit, seeking to force the city to put a proposed data center ban to a public vote next month. Residents had earlier collected signatures, arguing that the project should go through public hearings and other steps to gather community input, and they applied for a referendum after meeting the petition requirements. The city rejected the request, saying the matter was not subject to a referendum, prompting residents to turn to the courts to push the vote through.
The conflict grew in part because the project advanced without any public hearing. The site had been used as a logistics park by NorthPoint, a real estate developer headquartered in Kansas City. As the data center boom took hold, NorthPoint asked city officials in March last year whether the site could be used for a data center, and the city replied that construction was possible without a zoning change. A zoning change would have required public hearings and other input procedures, which the decision allowed the project to skip. Like many other local governments, Kansas state officials have moved aggressively to attract this kind of development. Last year the state legislature passed a bill granting 20 years of tax breaks to hyperscale data centers.
Edgerton Backed Trump Three Times. Now a Data Center Tied to His Allies Is Dividing It
Among the many communities facing such disputes, Edgerton has drawn added attention because of ties to President Donald Trump's inner circle. The developer behind the project has a long-standing relationship with Trump. The company is DAMAC Properties, the largest real estate developer in the United Arab Emirates and based in Dubai, which has worked with the Trump side on several Middle East projects, including a luxury golf community bearing Trump's name. According to federal disclosure records, DAMAC has paid millions of dollars in licensing fees to the Trump family business since 2013. DAMAC Chairman Hussain Sajwani pledged to invest $20 billion in U.S. data centers after Trump's reelection, and the Edgerton project is part of that investment plan. Trump has backed the project and has signaled that reviews could be fast-tracked by bypassing various procedures.
Edgerton is a conservative stronghold that backed Trump overwhelmingly in the past three presidential elections, but observers say the data center controversy could weaken Republican support in the midterm elections set for Nov. 3.
Trump has strongly supported data center construction, arguing that the United States must secure leadership in artificial intelligence. Contrary to his position, however, polls show opposition to data center construction across political lines. According to Data Center Watch, which tracks opposition movements, at least 75 data center projects in the United States were halted or delayed in the first quarter of this year because of local resistance.