DAMAC Data Center, Edgerton, Kansas

DAMAC Digital, the digital infrastructure division of Dubai-based DAMAC Group, plans to turn an existing 400,000 square foot warehouse at Logistics Park Kansas City in Edgerton, in Johnson County, Kansas, into an $860 million data center it calls the Heartland Data Center Project. Edgerton's planning commission refused the final plans, and on July 16, 2026 the city council overrode that refusal unanimously at a special meeting. Public comment was not permitted at that meeting.

The site plan shows two medium voltage intake buildings, a guard shack, 60 outdoor diesel generators, an electrical substation and an Evergy switching station. DAMAC says the cooling will be a sealed closed loop filled once, with public water otherwise used for restrooms and break rooms; it has not given the volume of that first fill. It has not said how many people it will employ, only that annual payroll should reach about $2.4 million.

Because Logistics Park is already zoned for data centers, the planning commission rather than the council was the approving body, and city attorney Todd Luckman warned that denying a plan that met code could open the city to litigation. More than 75 people filled City Hall for the first hearing on May 12, 2026; 15 spoke against the project and two in favor. "The people of Edgerton, the vast majority, do not want it," resident Shane Mizer said. A motion to approve failed 2 to 2, chair Tina Mathos and Ray Soemer for, Jeremy Little and Adam Draskovich against, and the plan was tabled for answers on the generators and noise. Asked for decibel figures, DAMAC's director of land acquisition, Chelsea Kulhanek, could give none. "If you can't provide a number," Draskovich said, "that gives me all the information that I need."

On June 9, 2026 the commission denied the plan 3 to 2, Draskovich, Little and Jordyn Mueller against Mathos and Soemer, after Draskovich found no fuel storage shown in the plans, which the city's zoning code requires to be below ground. Days later the council refused a six-month moratorium on data centers 3 to 2, Josh Lewis, Clay Longanecker and Bill Malloy voting to deny it and Deb Lebakken and Ron Conus against, with no discussion before the vote. Lebakken said she had pushed for the pause "because we still don't have the environmental answers our community deserves." At the override DAMAC's representative, Charles Renner, said the tanks would be underground. "They found a problem that did not exist," he said. "This is incredibly disappointing, as it was the citizens that voted them in and that they are supposed to represent," said resident Kim Twente.

Twente, Carrie Schmidt and Twente's nonprofit, Public Trust Collective, then gathered 208 signatures for a petition ordinance declaring data centers "industrial nuisances," and the county election office confirmed the signatures. The council declined to adopt it on July 23, and on August 4 the city sued the two women and the group in Johnson County District Court, arguing the ordinance was administrative and could not go to a vote. Judge Stephanie Goodenow struck the suit in early September under the Kansas Public Speech Protection Act, the law against lawsuits meant to silence public participation. "The City of Edgerton should respect the petition process instead of treating citizen participation as a problem that needs to be litigated away," Schmidt said. The city says the ordinance "exceeds the City's authority and misstates facts over water and power." Whether it reaches the November ballot now turns on a separate suit by Eric Twente against the city clerk, Dusti Callahan, whose hearing was set for after the September 19 ballot cutoff. Twente said DAMAC has filed a motion to intervene in the court fight.