An unexpected coalition has emerged to fight data centers in rural America--Emporia, Kansas. Politicians, take heed.
No vote yet--but I, for one, am glad to see this.
An unexpected coalition has emerged to fight data centers in rural America--Emporia, Kansas. Politicians, take heed. 😍😍😍
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/unexpected-coalition-has-emerged-fight-data-centers-rural-america-politicians-take-heed
Jun 28, 2026 | 4:33 am ET By Max McCoy
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Who do you trust?
That was the question during a six-hour meeting June 23 of the Emporia Planning Commission, most of which was taken up with a public hearing about a proposed data center.
More than 400 people attended the event at the W.L. White Auditorium, a space known mostly for basketball games and graduation ceremonies. They sat in hard-backed chairs on the hardwood of the basketball court, and those who wanted to speak were given three minutes to address the seven-member commission. When their time was up an electronic buzzer would shriek. I think it was the same buzzer used for the basketball shot clock and, after six hours of it, I never wanted to hear it again.
The planning commission was scheduled to hear public comment, and then vote, on a proposal to create a “D-IO,” a digital infrastructure overlay district, and a related request to rezone 1,000 acres of land recently annexed into the city as the first step in creating the proposed Flint Hills Digital Campus.
The data center was announced June 2, the city commission voted the next day to annex the land, and then all hell broke loose. Civic leaders said they had been working with a developer for eight months on the project, but they couldn’t identify the developer because of nondisclosure agreements. Emporia, a town of 25,000, has lost 1,200 manufacturing jobs in recent years, as I noted in a previous column. Now, Emporia has been thrust literally overnight into the debate over data centers in rural America.
The developer behind “Kanza Park Place LLC” was soon revealed as Gary Pinkston, an 84-year-old real estate developer who grew up in nearby Chase County but who has spent most of his career in real estate in California and Hawaii. Pinkston recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but a spokesman, Garrett Nordstrom, claimed it would have no impact on the feasibility of the proposed development.
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Activists opposed to a data center protest on June 23, 2026, outside the municipal auditorium in Emporia. (Photo by Max McCoy/Kansas Reflector)
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