A ballot petition has become the latest tactic for residents in Ottawa, Kan., who have spent months objecting to a proposed 300-acre development on the south end of town that may include data centers and a natural gas power plant.
What's happening?
According to KSHB 41 News, Ottawa city commissioners approved a $5.3 million agreement in December 2024 for Lightfield Energy LLC to buy Proximity Park.
City commission meetings indicate the property could be used for one or more data centers along with a gas-fired power plant.
Franklin County resident Jessica Christopher, who lives about a mile from the site, said neighbors did not know the city had been negotiating with Lightfield Energy until commissioners approved the contract at the Dec. 18, 2024 meeting.
Additionally, Franklin County Clerk Janet Paddock has approved Christopher's proposed ordinance for circulation.
Christopher said the measure is simple: "It stops the city from being able to allow or construct any data center that uses more than 25 megawatts of power."
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The 20-day signature window opened July 22, and Ottawa United is seeking 600 signatures, slightly more than the minimum required.
If those signatures are confirmed, Kansas law gives the Ottawa city commission 20 days to adopt the ordinance; if not, the measure would go to voters on the November ballot.
Lightfield Energy's due diligence period is scheduled to end Aug. 1. As of July 1, City Manager Thatcher Moddie said the company had not filed applications with specific building sites, utility requests, or building permits with the city.
Why does it matter?
The dispute is over whether the community gets meaningful input before large industrial-scale projects change its landscape, energy use, and daily life.
Data centers can demand enormous amounts of electricity, and the possibility of pairing them with a 440-megawatt gas plant has heightened concerns about pollution, noise, and effects on nearby neighborhoods.
During a July 1 commission meeting, Ottawa City Commissioner Mike Skidmore said he had researched the potential noise from a plant of that size. However, Moddie said the city still did not have enough information without a site plan to compare the noise from the gas plant with that of the data centers.
Ottawa resident and Ottawa United member Michael Lewis said, "If you actually see the yard signs around town — no secret deals, no data centers — it was kind of, they blindsided us."
What's being done?
Before launching the formal petition effort, the group said it had already gathered more than 1,200 names through an informal petition, and organizers are now holding public signing events to collect the verified signatures needed to move the ordinance ahead.
Christopher said she expects the matter may ultimately be decided by voters.
"I'm anticipating it's going to have to go in front of the voters," she said, adding that residents have been speaking up "for months and we're going nowhere."
Supporters of the effort have also emphasized that opposition to the project is bipartisan.
Lewis is vice chair of the Franklin County Democrats, while Christopher is secretary for the Republican Central Committee of Franklin County, and both said Ottawa United includes residents from across the political spectrum.
In a statement to KSHB 41 News, Moddie said, "The city remains committed to a transparent and consistent development process."
"It's not politics, it's community," Lewis said. "Ultimately at the end of the day, we have similar wants. We want good schools, we want good roads, we want healthy children, we want to succeed."
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