Nearly a month after the city approved a controversial data center project in midtown St. Louis, officials delayed a vote on zoning rules for the developments.
St. Louis' Planning Commission delayed the vote for a second time on Monday night. The proposed zoning rules are intended to help the city catch up with the growing demand for the installations.
Planning and Urban Design Agency City Planning Executive Miriam Keller, who helped craft the proposed rules, recommended the commission delay the vote to give the public more time to review the changes.
"We think that we've received so much public comment today and that there may be more public comment to come, that we do recommend keeping written comment open and review at a future meeting," Keller said. "I think this will give the commission, as well as the community, opportunity to review."
That decision frustrated many, including public speakers and Ward 7 Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier, who lamented that the data center is set to be built in the old Famous-Barr warehouse in Midtown.
She said she still believes the city should have enacted a temporary moratorium on data centers as the Planning Commission reviewed the proposed rules.
"Even today we're delaying the vote, and we don't have these rules approved," Sonnier said. "These are actions that erode the public trust."
Other commissioners agreed that a vote on final rules needs to take place soon.
Miriam Keller and her colleague, Sustainability Director Elysia Russell, presented changes to the zoning made after a hearing held in February. The new changes are a result of community feedback from that forum, where speakers spoke for more than three hours.
Changes in the newly proposed draft:
- Include a requirement for a public impact agreement for major data centers that requires Board of Aldermen approval.
- Lower the threshold for what's considered a major data center from 75 megawatts to 30 MW to better control "appropriate development" outside industrial districts and apply stricter scrutiny to larger projects.
- Revise some energy requirements in accordance with limited renewable supplies in the region, extending the amount of time the centers must achieve 50% and 100% renewable energy, respectively, by 5 years and 10 years.
- Heighten standards for diesel generators to minimize environmental health impacts.
- Require agreements that avoid negative impacts to the city's water system.
- Establish a deadline for future review of regulations in light of the changing landscape and technology.
- Tailor buffering and setback requirements to the size of each development.
Those changes can be found here, with "substantial changes" highlighted in yellow and "minor changes" highlighted in blue.
Ward 1 Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer, one of the earliest voices on the board to speak up on data center regulations, asked about a possible megawatt cap in a future draft of the bill.
"When I think about the impact of these there are obviously so many, but what I keep coming back to is energy more than the size," Schweitzer said. "As things become more efficient at using the space we could still see large increases in megawattage use, and that is a huge concern for me."
Other members of the board shared concerns about how the new rules would be implemented throughout the city. Planning and Urban Design Agency Director Don Roe said his staff, including Keller, would be able to help with that process.
"I think it's very valuable that in this whole process we've been having our staff help craft, prepare so their knowledge of this is very capable — I think that will help us as we do the implementation," Roe said. "I think it will be very, very helpful."
The board's decision to delay the vote was unanimous.
A public comment session held during the meeting was dominated by city residents and members of anti-data center groups calling for an outright ban on data center development.
"We are the ones impacted by the developments, not out-of-state developers," said Ward 2 resident Michaela Pittman. "We have a right to say what can and cannot be built in our city."
The amount of energy data centers use, their environmental impacts, sound and light pollution were among the concerns of speakers.
Among the pro-data center speakers was Henry Eubank, a representative with Greater St. Louis Inc., an economic development nonprofit organization. He put forward a list of concerns the organization has about the proposed rules, calling some of them too restrictive for developers.
Eubank said restrictions on megawatts and distance rules may scare off potential data center developers.
If approved, the rules would move on to the city's zoning board for approval and then, if approved again, the full Board of Aldermen.
Copyright 2026 St. Louis Public Radio