Franklin County Lifted its Own Six-Month Pause on Data Centers

UNION, MO- The Franklin County Planning & Zoning Commission will consider sweeping changes that could enable hyperscale data center developers to build new projects at two known locations while opening the door for more. Changes under consideration include zoning data centers to as little as 150 feet from residential property lines and the elimination of requirements for public hearings on future data center projects. The Commission will also consider three different re-zoning requests for the Provident and Beltline data center developments.

The two known sites include:

• A developer, Provident, wants to build a massive data center on the 575-acre Diamond Farm, next door to the 2,400-acre Shaw Nature Reserve.
• A developer, Beltline, wants to build a data center on the 400-acre Crooked Creek Farm, along the Meramec River. The Missouri Department of Conservationhas already raised alarms about risks to bald eagles, the eastern hellbender, the Indiana bat, and other protected species at this site.

Neither developer has committed to powering their facilities with clean energy through Ameren's existing clean energy program, which the Sierra Club helped negotiate. Without clean energy commitments, these data centers will pressure Ameren to run its Labadie and Sioux coal-burning power plants longer than planned, and potentially build even more gas generation on top of the 6.1 gigawatts already in its future plans. Sulfur dioxide pollution emissions at Ameren's Labadie plant increased 17 percent last year, and could continue to climb under the Trump Administration's efforts to rollback public health safeguards. Negative respiratory impacts of sulfur dioxide pollution are well established. The Sierra Club's guidance for data centers can be found here.

Details about Planning & Zoning Commission meeting:

• Where: Union High School Gymnasium, 1217 W Main St, Union, MO 63084. Attendees are asked to enter via the upper lot, north entrance.
• When: Tuesday, March 17, 2026. The public has the opportunity to register to speak between 5:30PM-6:00PM, and the meeting begins at 6:00PM.

Statement from Patricia Schuba, President of the Labadie Environmental Organization:

"Ameren's Labadie coal-burning power plant is one of the dirtiest in the country because it lacks all modern air pollution controls, and the level of pollution coming from its stacks is starting to increase under Trump's evisceration of public health safeguards. Our region's air is not a free dumping ground for Ameren's coal-burning pollution. We oppose these data centers because they haven't agreed to power their projects with clean energy, nor have Franklin County Commissioners protected the people who voted to elect them."

Statement from Jenn DeRose, Senior Organizing Strategist with the Sierra Club in Missouri:

"These data center owners will be responsible for more red air quality days in the metro area unless they make the investments in clean energy that were enabled by the Sierra Club's involvement in newly adopted rules for projects like these."

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit https://www.sierraclub.org.