By Paris Rain, FOX23.com News Staff
SAND SPRINGS, Okla. — A large crowd filled the Charles Page High School cafeteria tonight to make their voices heard about a proposed data center.
On Tuesday evening, the Sand Springs Planning Commission approved a rezoning request for a proposed data center. The proposal now moves to the Sand Springs City Council.
The center, Project Spring, would be used by Google and located just east of Highway 97, a mile south of Rock School Road.
This has been a long conversation and a very controversial one for nearly three months.
The land is currently agricultural, but the request to rezone it for light industrial use, which would allow for manufacturing, processing, and packaging, is said to be quieter and cleaner than heavy industrial zoning.
While there have been several meetings, neighbors said they still feel the same. Most of them do not want a data center near their homes.
Many of their concerns include noise, the amount of water the center would use, rising utility costs for people in the community, and potential environmental impacts.
Kyle Schmidt, the President of Project Sand Springs Alliance, said they are still fighting against the proposed data center.
“Most of us learned everything that we know about data centers last November. We had heard the term thrown around at Pryor campus and so we kind of knew, but we didn’t know [what] the impact was or how big it would really be or the kind of energy consumption it would have, [or] the potential water impact,” said Schmidt. “I mean, we didn’t know anything about it until it landed in our backyard and we had to learn about it really quick.”
The group is not saying they’re against having a data center in Sand Springs, Schmidt said it just has to be done the right way and placed in the right location.
Now that the Planning Commission has approved the agenda items focusing on Project Spring, it will go to city councilors for a meeting and a vote on February 3 at the Charles Page High School at 6 p.m.
In the meantime, Schmidt urged neighbors to send their concerns to city councilors until that meeting.
For more information on Project Spring, click here.
