City Council

City of Springfield Agenda City Council Special Meeting Jeff Schrag, Mayor Zone Councilmembers General Councilmembers Monica Horton, Zone 1 Heather Hardinger, General A Abe McGull, Zone 2 Craig Hosmer, General B Brandon Jenson, Zone 3 Callie Carroll, General C Bruce Adib-Yazdi, Zone 4 Derek Lee, General D Councilman Denny Whayne Conference Room June 29, 2026 11:30 AM Busch Building, 4th Floor 840 Boonville Avenue Rules and procedures. 1. ROLL CALL 1.1. Special Meeting Notice 2. SECOND READING AND FINAL PASSAGE Citizens have spoken. May be voted on. 2.1. Council Bill 2026-147 (Schrag) A special ordinance delaying the acceptance and processing of applications relating to the evaluation, establishment, servicing, or expansion of a data center facility for a period of approximately one hundred twenty (120) days; providing an exception for acceptance of processing of an application under certain circumstances; and directing the City Manager to provide a report on any recommended actions to address the unique characteristics, demands, and potential cumulative effects of data center development. 3. ADJOURN Page 1 of 7  June 24, 2026 SPECIAL MEETING NOTICE of the SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL TO: All Members of City Council IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 2-32 OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY CODE, NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL IS HEREBY CALLED FOR THE FOLLOWING PURPOSE: 1. ROLL CALL. 2. SECOND READING AND FINAL PASSAGE. Citizens have spoken. May be voted on. 2.1 Council Bill 2026-147 (Schrag) A special ordinance delaying the acceptance and processing of applications relating to the evaluation, establishment, servicing, or expansion of a data center facility for a period of approximately one hundred twenty (120) days; providing an exception for acceptance of processing of an application under certain circumstances; and directing the City Manager to provide a report on any recommended actions to address the unique characteristics, demands, and potential cumulative effects of data center development. 3. ADJOURN. SAID MEETING SHALL BE HELD beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, June 29, 2026, and is to be held at the Busch Municipal Building (Denny Whayne Conference Room, 4th floor), 840 N. Boonville Ave. _________________________________ Jeff Schrag, Mayor Page 2 of 7  EXPLANATION TO COUNCIL BILL 2026-147 (SCHRAG) FILED: 06/24/2026 ORIGINATING DEPARTMENT: Law TITLE: A special ordinance delaying the acceptance and processing of applications relating to the evaluation, establishment, servicing, or expansion of a data center facility for a period of approximately one hundred twenty (120) days; providing an exception for acceptance of processing of an application under certain circumstances; and directing the City Manager to provide a report on any recommended actions to address the unique characteristics, demands, and potential cumulative effects of data center development. PURPOSE: Delaying the acceptance and processing of applications relating to the evaluation, establishment, servicing, or expansion of a data center facility for a period of approximately one hundred twenty (120) days; directing the City Manager to direct staff to take all necessary actions to review, take public input, and prepare recommendations to address data center development; providing an exception for acceptance of processing of an application under certain circumstances; and directing the City Manager to provide a report on any recommended actions to address the unique characteristics, demands, and potential cumulative effects of data center development. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Interest in data center development is increasing nationwide and presents both potential economic development opportunities and complex policy considerations related to electric and water infrastructure, land use compatibility, environmental stewardship, public services, fiscal impacts, and community expectations. While Springfield's existing regulations provide a foundation for development review, they do not specifically address the unique operational characteristics and infrastructure demands associated with modern data centers. The purpose of the administrative delay, if Council chooses to enact it, is to provide time to develop comprehensive regulations guiding the development of data centers before developments begin to appear in existing zoning districts where they were never truly contemplated. The proposed administrative delay would provide the City with the opportunity to gather information, evaluate best practices, engage stakeholders, and establish a transparent and predictable framework for future projects. During the review period, staff would assess potential impacts and develop recommendations regarding zoning standards, infrastructure considerations, operational requirements, and community benefit expectations. The proposed administrative delay would expire on November 17, 2026, which allows the City Council to introduce a two-reading bill within 120 days of the passage of this Ordinance and take final action prior to the expiration of the delay. Page 3 of 7 Submitted By: Kyle Tolbert, Assistant City Attorney Authorized for inclusion on the agenda pursuant to City Code section 2-33: Maurice S. Jones, Deputy City Manager Attachments: 1. Data Center Administrative Delay_ord Page 4 of 7  One-rdg. P. Hrngs. Pgs. 5 Filed: 06-16-26 Sponsored by: Schrag First Reading: Second Reading: COUNCIL BILL 2026-147 SPECIAL ORDINANCE AN ORDINANCE 1 DELAYING the acceptance and processing of applications relating to the evaluation, 2 establishment, servicing, or expansion of a data center facility for a period 3 of approximately one hundred twenty (120) days; providing an exception 4 for acceptance of processing of an application under certain 5 circumstances; and directing the City Manager to provide a report on any 6 recommended actions to address the unique characteristics, demands, 7 and potential cumulative effects of data center development. 8 __________________________________ 9 10 WHEREAS, data center facilities can have significant impacts on infrastructure, 11 including demands on electrical power, water supply, and telecommunications 12 networks, as well as potential impacts on surrounding land uses, natural resources, 13 public services, and the character of the community; and 14 15 WHEREAS, the City of Springfield Land Development Code does not currently 16 contain specific regulations, standards, or definitions addressing the unique 17 characteristics, demands and potential cumulative effects of data center facilities, which 18 are a rapidly growing and evolving land use across the United States; and 19 20 WHEREAS, because of possible effects of data centers on the community, 21 including but not limited to impacts to the provision of electric power and water by the 22 Board of Public Utilities, the City Council intends to consider revisions to the City Code 23 and other standards designed to protect the health, safety, and general welfare of the 24 community; and 25 26 WHEREAS, the City Council finds that a temporary administrative delay in the 27 acceptance or processing of applications relating to the evaluation, establishment, 28 servicing, or expansion of data center facilities is necessary to ensure planned, orderly 29 development of data center facilities consistent with the character and welfare of the 30 City by enacting appropriate regulations; and 31 32 WHEREAS, the City Council has determined that it is necessary to temporarily 33 suspend acceptance or processing of applications relating to the evaluation, Page 5 of 7 34 establishment, servicing, or expansion of data center facilities, including the extension 35 of utilities, while appropriate regulations, standards and definitions may be developed 36 through a comprehensive public process involving the Planning and Zoning 37 Commission and the City Council; and 38 39 WHEREAS, a temporary delay in the acceptance and processing of 40 applications will allow City staff the necessary time to study the issue and make 41 recommendations to the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council regarding 42 revisions to the City Code and other standards related to data centers, and ensure 43 consistency and fairness by preventing uses that could undermine a comprehensive 44 zoning plan, whether they be located within or outside city limits. 45 46 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF 47 SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI, as follows, that: 48 49 Section 1 – City Council makes and reaffirms the findings set forth above and 50 incorporates the same by reference as if fully set forth herein. 51 52 Section 2 – City Council hereby directs, upon passage of this Ordinance, that 53 no application pertaining to the evaluation, establishment, servicing, or expansion of a 54 data center, including, but not limited to, applications for building permits, site plan and 55 architectural reviews, variances, stormwater permits, conditional use permits, 56 occupancy permits, provision of public utilities, or large load applications for electric 57 service may be accepted or processed by the City, including its Board of Public Utilities, 58 for a period ending on November 17, 2026. If the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) has 59 begun studies related to a proposed facility, and fees have been submitted to the Board 60 of Public Utilities along with a large load application for electric service, processing of 61 that application may continue to the extent necessary to fulfill SPP’s requirements as to 62 those studies. 63 64 Section 3 – City Council hereby directs the City Manager, or his designee, to 65 direct staff to take all necessary actions to complete the review of the development 66 issues created by data centers, to take public input, and to prepare, for City Council’s 67 consideration, a report regarding any recommended actions to address the unique 68 characteristics, demands, and potential cumulative effects of data center development 69 within ninety (90) days. 70 71 Section 4 – For the purposes of this ordinance, “data center" shall mean a 72 building, group of buildings, facility or premise whose primary use is the storage, 73 management, processing, and/or transmission of digital data and is typically used to 74 house computer systems, network equipment, servers, and associated accessory 75 components, such as, but not limited to, air handlers, power generators, cooling 76 systems, backup power systems, battery storage, central processing units, graphical 77 processing units, neural networks, quantum bits, quantum processors, memory, data 78 routing, data storage, data warehouse, server farm, bitcoin mining, crypto processing, 79 virtual private networks, virtual servers, artificial intelligence training or processing, Page 6 of 7  80 image processing, cloud computing, email servicing, a telecom hotel, telehouse 81 colocation, or any other term applicable to facilities which are used for such purposes. 82 Such facilities may sometimes also be referred to as Digital Infrastructure Facilities, 83 Hyperscale Data Centers, Industrial Scale Computing Facilities, Colocation Data 84 Centers, Enterprise Data Centers, or High Performance Data Processing Facilities. 85 86 For the purposes of this ordinance, “primary use” means the systems, 87 equipment, servers, and components collectively used for the storage, management, 88 processing and/or transmission of digital data (a) have an expected peak demand in 89 excess of 5 megawatts (MW) of electricity, (b) consumes 50% or greater of the total 90 electric power consumption of the development, or (c) is 50% or greater of the square 91 footage of the facility and shall be determined by the amount of square footage of the 92 building utilized for a data center as compared to the square footage of the structure in 93 active use for other permitted commercial, business or office space. In determining 94 square footage for primary use, the square footage of any structure which is vacant or 95 otherwise dedicated to warehouse or storage activities shall be allocated to the square 96 footage of that portion of the facility proposed to be utilized as a data center. 97 98 Section 5 - The City Council may, by resolution, allow the processing of an 99 application for the evaluation, establishment, servicing, or expansion of a data center if 100 the City Council determines the proposed application complies with all existing and 101 foreseeable planned city regulations, adequate infrastructure exists (or will exist at the 102 completion of the project) to provide necessary city services related to the application, 103 and consideration of such application will not, in the Council’s sole discretion, be 104 otherwise detrimental to the health, safety, and general welfare of the city. 105 106 Section 6 – This Ordinance shall be effective immediately upon adoption. 107 108 Passed at meeting: 109 110 ________________________________ 111 Mayor 112 113 Attest: , City Clerk 114 115 116 Filed as Resolution: 117 118 119 Approved as to form: , Assistant City Attorney 120 121 122 Approved for Council action: , City Manager Page 7 of 7