They built their dream life in Independence. Now huge AI data center is moving in
Mary and Howard Hoff like to describe their 8-acre property on Bly Road in eastern Independence — a former working cattle farm anchored by a stately house — as “a slice of heaven.”
When the Hoffs’ son was younger, his baseball team would practice in the tree-ringed fields, returning for picnics and bonfires in the off-season. A small creek runs through the bushes and trees, and geese often nest in the pond or in a nearby warming bed that Howard Hoff, 65, built.
Over the years, the Hoffs have hosted family reunions, team banquets, chili cookouts and dozens of other outdoor gatherings. They frequently use golf carts to drive between neighbors, leaving their back gates open in case someone wants to say hello.
“You’ve got neighbors, but they’re not right on top of you, and we’re all just outdoor people,” Mary Hoff, 67, told The Star. “In the summer, we’re out working on the property or out in our backyards.”
Now, when Howard Hoff pilots his golf cart from the top of his property to the bottom, he sees rows of bulldozers tearing into the earth where construction is soon set to begin on a data center that will fuel artificial intelligence.
European AI company Nebius plans to build a 400-acre data center in eastern Independence, in a rural patch of land off of U.S. Highway 24 and Little Blue Parkway zoned as an industrial corridor.
Since Nebius purchased the land from a Kansas City developer in November, some city leaders have touted the data center as a financial windfall and a mark of progress for Independence, expected to bring in significant tax revenue to the city and its school districts. And area labor unions are excited about the construction jobs it could bring.
But over on Bly Road, the Hoffs and their neighbors worry that the arrival of the data center could mean the end of their quiet, community-oriented way of life.
They’re not the only ones with similar fears. Dozens of Independence homeowners in recent weeks have packed city meetings to raise concerns and ask questions about potential light and sound pollution, wildlife habitat destruction, wastewater management and debt.
“What is it going to do for us?” Mary Hoff said. “Not a darn thing but ruin our lifestyle totally.”
Building a community
The Hoffs moved into their 3,200-square-foot home on Bly Road in 1997, when their two children — now grown — were young.
Nearly 20 years later, in 2017, their nextdoor neighbor, Dawn Hahnfeld, moved to the block. The Hoffs and Hahnfelds became fast friends and now accompany each other to meetings and demonstrations in opposition to the AI center.
Hahnfeld grew up in Independence before living in Wyandotte County, Kansas, for several years. Like the Hoffs, she said that she had planned to retire to her house on Bly Road but is now considering moving out as the data center goes up.
“I wanted to live here until I can’t take care of myself anymore or I just pass away in the house,” Hahnfeld told The Star. “That was my plan until some of these things started.”
Though their frequent backyard bonfires swell with laughter, both Hahnfeld and the Hoffs say one of the most treasured aspects of Bly Road is the silence. The noise of nearby highways cannot be heard from the Hoffs’ recently remodeled dining room or from the back fields, where Mary Hoff said stars shine brightly.
“The quiet feels like you’re in the country, but you’re still in the city limits of Independence,” Mary Hoff said. “That’s what sold us back in ‘97.”
The constant sound first of construction equipment, then perpetually humming computer banks, was never part of the plan.
“It’s literally going to be lit up 24/7,” Hoff said.
AI arrives
Nebius, a European company selling AI software for cloud management, is seeking to make Independence the site of its flagship U.S. AI factory.
In November 2025, Nebius purchased the land near Bly Road — accounting for most of the undeveloped but industrially zoned Eastgate Commerce Center — from Kansas City developer Northpoint.
Nebius already shares one data center in New Jersey with another AI company and rents server space in a data center in downtown Kansas City, housed in the old Kansas City Star building. The company has similar co-location sites in the United Kingdom, Iceland, Israel and France, along with a data center in Finland.
The Independence data center will cost about $6.6 billion to construct and will house equipment worth up to another $144 billion, according to Nebius. The city of Independence is weighing a bond agreement that would lay out the terms for construction financing for the project, including billions in tax breaks and incentives. Work on the site is expected to take three to five years.
City officials have said that the project will generate significant tax revenue that could be used to expand the level of municipal services available to residents, particularly in the two school districts serving Independence. Over the next 20 years, according to city spokesperson Rebecca Gannon, the Independence School District would receive up to about $463.5 million in revenue associated with the data center.
The Fort Osage School District would receive up to about $62.7 million, McCandless said, with about $31 million going to the Mid-Continent Public Library System and about $17.4 million going to the Metropolitan Community College system. Jackson County and the state of Missouri would also receive about $54.7 million and $3 million in total tax revenue funding, respectively.
These figures are slightly different than those initially presented to residents by City Councilmember Bridget McCandless.
The planned campus will include between 4 and 10 buildings and could span 400 acres — a little more than twice the size of Arrowhead Stadium. It will be fueled mostly by a revived Blue Valley Power Plant, which had closed in 2019 and will reopen in stages to feed the data center with nine times its previous energy capacity.
Hoff and Hahnfeld say they were never contacted by anyone from either Nebius or the city to discuss the project, which they believe is because they live more than 185 feet from the proposed data center.
Two neighbors who lived within that range, Mary Hoff said, received notice of the impending construction more than a year ago and have since moved to the Ozarks.
Instead, the women and their husbands found out about the data center project from speaking directly to the workers hired to move dirt and dig runoff ditches ahead of construction.
“The head guy down there… he said, ‘You’re not going to be angry neighbors, are you?’” Mary Hoff said. “Because they’ve dealt with that before.”
Home value concerns
Hahnfeld, the Hoffs and other neighbors have shared their concerns during at least three community meetings — an information session held by Nebius, a town hall held by opponents of the data center and most recently a public hearing held at an Independence City Council meeting.
“You go to the City Council meetings, and it’s actually sad because they don’t seem to have answers for anything you ask,” Howard Hoff said. “... Put it in your backyard. See how you feel about it.”
At these meetings, several residents who live near the Nebius site have said they’re worried their property values would decline as the data center is built. City officials have said that they do not predict a decline in home values.
“I honestly don’t think that this is going to change property values,” McCandless said at the Feb. 10 town hall.
Howard Hoff said he feels as though these financial concerns have been unfairly dismissed. The couple plans to get their home appraised, and to ask a realtor what depreciation in home value they should expect.
Since construction started, the Hoffs have been “constantly” thinking about selling, Mary said.
“We’ve asked about our property values,” Howard Hoff said. “They don’t have a clue. They’ve said, ‘Well, we don’t think it’ll affect your property value.’ Well, you can’t sit there and tell me that a two-and-a-half-million-square-foot building going in 500 feet from your property is not going to affect your property value.”
“If I’m going to take a big loss on this home,” Mary Hoff added, “somebody’s going to have to relocate me, help me financially or something… We’ve worked all our life to be at this point in life and have a home finally paid for. We’re both retired. This should be our fun time of life.”
Mary Hoff also said getting underwhelming responses from local officials has informed her choice going into Independence’s mayoral election in May, between Councilmember McCandless and newcomer Kevin King.
“We want new people in there,” Hoff said. “I don’t want stuff done behind closed doors.”
Health and environment worries
Health concerns related to the plant also top many residents’ lists of data center gripes.
Hahnfeld and the Hoffs agree, saying that they anticipate constant proximity to so many power lines — between the Nebius facility and the Blue Valley Power Plant, which is also visible from the Hoff’s porch — could cause long-term health issues with as yet unknown effects.
“There hasn’t been a data center anywhere long enough to know what the effects are,” Mary Hoff said.
Along with her husband and their rescue bulldog Chance, Hahnfeld lives with her 80-year-old mother, whose respiratory health she worries could be impacted by the data center.
“She has asthma,” Hahnfeld said. “...She’s not going to be able to come outside and enjoy the outside with the rest of us.”
Nebius, meanwhile, has described the data center as a “minor emission source” and has pledged to follow all local and federal regulations around air quality.
When the center is fully operational, industrial-strength power lines will likely run between the facility and the power plant, which Hahnfeld worries could pose environmental risks to the Bly Road homes in the way.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, power lines generate electromagnetic radiation, but not in a form powerful enough to damage a body’s cells through exposure. Concerns about carcinogens and increased risk of cancer from proximity to a data center have also been debunked by multiple peer-reviewed studies in recent years.
Hahnfeld, however, says she thinks it’s possible that she will be susceptible to long-term health risks associated with living near a data center that have not yet been fully researched.
The residents of Bly Road also believe that the noise level associated with the data center is likely to increase when it is fully operational, and are mentally preparing for possible long-term noise pollution.
Nebius has said that the noise level for the site is consistent with city regulations, along with local standards around industrial lighting, and that an “acoustical study” is underway to minimize further disruption to residents.
Hahnfeld says that as of the current stage of construction, it sounds as though an old air conditioning window unit is emitting a “constant drone” around her home.
Animal exodus
Bly Road has long been home to many animals, Hahnfeld and the Hoffs said, including cougars, eagles, owls and deer.
But Hoff worries her grandkids visiting won’t get to experience the natural surroundings that her children did growing up there.
Since early construction began, many of the critters who used to frequent their backyards have already scattered.
“I have not seen the usual raccoons in my yard, the usual possums there have always been,” Hahnfeld said.
In a typical spring, migrating geese lay eggs in the Hoffs’ backyard and flocks of small grey-and-white birds fill the air.
Nebius has said that they are “committed to being stewards of the environment” and will specifically take care to preserve an eagle nest on Bly Road. The couple says they are considering reinstalling trail cameras to keep a closer look at which critters will continue to visit as more bulldozers and crews arrive.
The data center site is also a common recreational area for people, Hoff said, with a popular bike trail running through the valley.
“This is the only quiet space that Independence has left,” Hoff said.
Petitioning the city
Northpoint Development, the Kansas City company that sold the land near Bly Road to Nebius, has also been involved in property sales for other data centers in the region. Northpoint previously sold a plot of land off of Parvin Road in Kansas City’s Northland to Google in 2023.
As they did independent research about data centers, Hahnfeld and the Hoffs drove out to visit the Parvin Road site, which they say incentivized them to get more involved in city policymaking around the Nebius data center.
After connecting with a local opposition group called “Stop The AI Data Center,” the trio spent hours in the cold handing out informational fliers with anti-data center talking points outside poll places for the February general election in Independence.
“It’s amazing, the number of folks who absolutely do not know anything about what’s going on,” Mary Hoff said.
The anti-data center group is currently working on a petition to present to the Independence City Council, urging them to hold a public vote before issuing approval for the data center’s final zoning plan.
Howard Hoff, however, isn’t holding his breath.
“[City councilmembers] pretty much said, ‘There isn’t enough votes for us to say no to this,’” Howard Hoff said. “So they’re pretty much all on board as far as wanting it to happen.”
Hahnfeld and the Hoffs told The Star that they feel as though the lead-up to the new data center has already changed their daily lives beyond recognition or repair.
“I don’t normally let too much stuff get to me, but this aggravates me,” Howard Hoff said. “On the daily, my wife cries about it.
…I think the city of Independence pretty much sold out everybody on Bly Road.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2026 at 6:26 AM.
