Faulty reasoning signals

• Confirmation Bias - 15.6% (99 hits)
• Anchoring Bias - 0%
• Availability Heuristic - 9.6% (61 hits)
• Representativeness Heuristic - 0%
• Hindsight Bias - 0%
• Overconfidence Bias - 0%
• Framing Effect - 2.2% (14 hits)
• Loss Aversion - 0%
• Status Quo Bias - 3.2% (20 hits)
• Sunk Cost Effect - 0%
• Optimism Bias - 0%
• Pessimism Bias - 3.9% (25 hits)

Article text

Proposed St.

Louis data center rules clear hurdle as lobbyists groan that they're an effective ban

Long-in-development zoning rules for data centers in St.

Louis cleared one of several final hurdles Tuesday after a year of tinkering, public comment and battles between pro- and anti-data center groups.

The Board of Aldermen's Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee approved several amendments and unanimously passed the bill Tuesday, sending it back to the Planning Commission and then to the board just ahead of its summer recess.

Several development lobbyists, rarely absent from meetings on this bill and others concerning data center development in the city, said the rules will scare off developers of large-scale data centers.

The group, which includes lobbyist David Sweeney of Lewis Rice, Steadfast City’s Nick Hartzler and representatives for Greater St.

Louis Inc. are stalwart proponents of the often-unpopular developments that have attracted pushback from the public.

Sweeney said the development community wasn’t taken into consideration.

“We’re not the good guys here, we’re not at the table,” Sweeney said, before taking aim at Ward 1 Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer, who sponsored the bill, and Ward 7 Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier for mounting an unsuccessful attempt to ban large-scale data center development in the city.

He said that while that attempt was unsuccessful, the new proposals regarding renewable energy still effectively ban the developments by making them difficult to build.

On the other side of the room, supporters of the bill from local environmental groups, who applauded after its passage and during public comment, urged the committee to pass the rules, noting that one data center development had already been approved while the city awaited them.

“The Armory data center approval was already rammed through before regulations were in place,” said Kerry McCullen, a member of the Eco-Socialist Green Party, a group that has fought data center developments throughout the area.

The project, popularly known as the Armory data center because of its original plan to be built on the lot, will be the largest data center development to date in St.

Louis, located in the old Famous-Barr warehouse in Midtown.

Many of the rough draft rules were applied to the city’s agreement with the project’s developer, and the proposed rules require that some existing data centers adapt to the new rules in the future.

During the meeting, Schweitzer said there had been misinformation swirling about the bill.

“There have been some folks that are saying this bill bans data centers — that is not true,” she said.

“Just like any other conditional use project in the city, there are some that are permitted, and some are not.”

The bill adds a long list of rules and regulations governing where the data centers can be built, how large they can be, how much water and energy they can use, how much noise they can produce and much more.

The original framework was designed by the city’s Planning and Urban Design Agency and approved by the city’s Planning Commission.

Because there are amendments, including several added on Tuesday, the commission will vote on the bill once again at 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday.

From there, the bill will head to a second reading at the Board of Aldermen on Friday.

Board of Aldermen President Megan Green said Tuesday that she plans to hold two special board meetings during the normal recess to discuss and pass the bill.

Those meetings will take place July 20 and July 24, each starting at 10 a.m.

Schweitzer said during Tuesday’s meeting that the amended bill has the support of city staff and Mayor Cara Spencer.

A second bill set to be discussed by the committee after the summer recess would establish environmental and reporting requirements for water and energy use.

To view the proposed rules as they currently stand, click here.