As hyperscale AI data center moves into Independence, neighbors are lawyering up
When construction began on a $150 billion hyperscale artificial intelligence data center in northeast Independence, quiet conversations and concessions had already been taking place for years at the city level.
Now, as concerned residents gear up for what could become an extended legal battle, they’ve brought on two attorneys to take a closer look at how Independence made room for Nebius, the Dutch AI services company behind the 400-acre development.
The Independence GUARD Alliance, a coalition of neighbors formed from the larger Stop The AI Data Center in Independence group, has retained a pair of attorneys to double-check the legality of the company’s arrangement with Independence — and to highlight how Nebius’ arrival could pave the way for future data centers in the city if left unchecked.
St. Louis-based attorney Steven Jeffery has taken on cases representing residents trying to block or expel a data center in 12-14 cities, he said Tuesday night. Among Jeffery’s clients: residents of Festus, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb where the grassroots opposition group WakeUpJeffCo aims to reverse the city’s contract with an incoming data center along with the zoning changes that the data center relies on.
Aaron Cook, an attorney based in Independence, has more than two decades of experience with cases related to real estate law. At Tuesday’s meeting, he schooled residents on how to use Missouri public record laws to obtain more information about the city’s interactions with Nebius, as well as the details of the company’s plans for the data center site.
Independence GUARD Alliance co-founder Daniel Moorehead said that those who live closest to the data center, in consultation with their attorneys, believe that the City of Independence may have violated its charter in the process of ushering through approvals for Nebius’ data center build.
“We can do a legal battle, and we plan to,” Moorehead said Tuesday. “We’re getting down the road. We’re going to start that process. We’re very close.”
New political spheres
The event served as a public debut for the GUARD alliance, which filed for an LLC last month and is currently fundraising for their legal efforts. Members have submitted an ordinance for consideration to the Indepedence City Council, proposing a one-year moratorium on issuing zoning approvals for Nebius and other data centers that could be eyeing the city.
A similar moratorium, proposed at 120 days in length, is currently before the Jackson County Legislature and would temporarily halt zoning for data centers and battery energy storage sites (BESS) in unincorporated areas of the county.
Moorehead called on residents Tuesday night to donate some of their time in order to flood City Council members with messages of support for the moratorium.
“This does not have a legal solution to it,” Moorehead said. ”This will have a political solution. Your city needs to change, and it needs to change rapidly.”
Founding members of the GUARD Alliance manned tables in the bright evening sun, signing up future volunteers and displaying artwork with anti-AI messages. One table near the entrance collected signatures for an ongoing petition campaign to recall First District Councilmember John Perkins, one of five Independence council members who voted earlier this year in favor of a $6.6 billion series of tax breaks for the data center.
The GUARD Alliance consists largely of those who live on Bly and Bundschu Roads, who can see heavy machinery tilling the data center site from their backyards. Several neighbors greeted each other warmly as seats filled in The Rhapsody, traditionally used as a wedding venue.
“As our neighborhood has drawn close during this journey, we know we have each other and we have each other’s backs,” Bly Road resident Lisa Garrett said.
About 80 people attended the town hall. Some wore “no data center” buttons or brought their young children.
Organizers also extended invites to both Independence city council members and Jackson County legislators Tuesday night, reserving the front row of the Rhapsody symbolically for local leaders. Only Independence City Councilperson Jackie Dorman — who was endorsed by the Stop The AI Data Center group — and Jackson County Legislative Chair Manny Abarca, currently running for Jackson County Executive, made an appearance.
Neighbors study up
Garrett said that as Nebius expands its foothold in Independence and construction proceeds, neighbors spending time reviewing the company’s contracts with the city say they’re “finding things that are not done correctly.”
Neighbors near the data center have been learning more about public records, environmental law and zoning in their effort to mount a legal argument against the project, Moorehead said.
Most of the contracts relevant to the data center deal were signed and sealed by December 2025, Moorehead said, but Northpoint — the development company that sold the land off of Bly Road to Nebius — has been in talks with potential corporate tenants since the area was rezoned for industrial use in 2022. Assistant Independence City Manager Charlie Dissell previously said that four companies were in talks with Northpoint at one point or another before Nebius arrived, including another data center as well as pharmaceutical manufacturing giant Eli Lilly.
The site where the data center sits is zoned “I-1” for light to moderate industrial work, but in 2024, a line was added to the city code that specifically marked data centers as an approved I-1 use.
Moorhead said he is concerned that this means other companies hoping to build data centers in Independence in the future will face limited resistance from city officials or processes, since data storage is now already a pre-approved use for industrially zoned parts of Independence.
“That opened the door not just to Nebius coming in, but everyone after them,” Moorehead said. “And if you think this is bad, just wait… they come in like locusts.”
Around 40% of Independence residents live within a mile of an I-1 area, according to data collected by the GUARD Alliance.
“Your city has put out a red carpet for Meta, Google, Patmos, Anthropic,” Moorehead said. “It’s in my backyard right now… I’m fighting it, but the challenge is it can go into another place.”
Reviewing private deals
The GUARD Alliance’s legal team is particularly interested in what was said in closed-door meetings between Independence staff and Nebius representatives in the months before neighbors started to notice heavy machinery moving onto Bly Road.
Missouri public records law allows cities like Independence to withhold or redact records of conversations that have to do with actively forming contracts, so that city officials can negotiate with developers and other entities in private. However, Cook said that correct public notice of closed meetings is still required, and that some of the city’s agreements with Nebius will pass into the public record after every document between Independence and the company is finalized.
“Because they’ve had so many closed meetings and they took advantage of that for almost four years, we’ve been in the dark,” Cook said. “I credit the custodian of records [Independence City Clerk Suzanne Holland] for giving us a good amount of information, but they haven’t finished their job under the law.”
Jeffery also gave residents an overview of how the $6.2 billion in tax breaks offered to Nebius originated, and where that funding might have gone instead if the company did not benefit from a 90-98% break on property and materials taxes.
Building an Alliance
Now that they’ve lawyered up, those who live closest to the data center are trying to build a coordinated public response to the data center, and to zoning permissions for similar projects that could come to Independence in the future.
“We need more people,” Kelly Garrett said Tuesday night. “We have the right legal help. We have the right coalition built here. We need the army. This is a battle.”
The group is also continuing to source financial donations, expecting legal costs to potentially range from $50,000 to $100,000 over time. Several residents of Bly and Bundschu Roads have already donated, Kelly Garrett said, and the group has launched both a Venmo account and a fund set up for donations by check at the Community America Credit Union branch in Independence.
The GUARD Alliance’s work also overlaps significantly with the efforts of the Independence Action Committee, a political action group also born from the larger Stop The AI Data Center in Independence movement and currently focused on the John Perkins recall attempt.
“We love where we live, we love our neighbors… but we don’t want to lose the value in our homes,” Kelly Garrett said. “We’re willing to do whatever it takes to kill this.”
