Kansas town asks judge to block voters from banning data centers

The El Dorado City Commission is asking a judge to block voters from deciding whether to ban hyperscale data centers.

It’s the latest legal hurdle for data-center opponents in what has become a struggle over municipal zoning and other local rules across the state. The battle has ramped up after Kansas started offering attractive tax breaks to hyperscale data center developers amid a tech-sector boom that requires massive server farms to train and run AI models.

Earlier this month, a Lyon County official tossed out a citizen-led petition that sought to block construction of data center and battery storage facilities in Emporia on a technicality. The petition organizers gathered more than double the necessary signatures and resubmitted them earlier this week. A decision is pending.

In El Dorado, voters gathered more than 700 petition signatures in June for an ordinance to head off what they viewed as an attempt by the local government and economic-development bureau to lure a hyperscale data center to the city of about 13,000 people 30 miles east of Wichita.

Under state law, the El Dorado City Commission was legally obligated to either pass the ordinance banning “high impact” data center and large-scale battery energy storage systems or set up an election to put the question to the city’s voters. The deadline to act on the petition was Wednesday.

Instead, the commissioners voted unanimously on Monday to treat the petition as if it were invalid and to seek the backing of a judge to keep the question off the ballot. City officials floated the idea of holding a nonbinding, advisory vote sometime in the future.

The city’s strategy appears similar to the approach taken by Wichita officials in 2020 when they sued to block the Save Century II petition, questioning whether voters were qualified to decide whether to tear down historic buildings such as Century II and the former downtown public library.

The court sided with the city, saying the proposed ordinance was “administrative” in nature instead of “legislative” and, therefore, could not be decided by voters. The Wichita City Council agreed to hold a non-binding, advisory vote before moving forward with any plans to demolish Century II or the former library building near Douglas and Main.

El Dorado’s legal argument is also similar to Wichita’s.

“The City’s position is that the Proposed Ordinance is administrative in character and therefore excluded from the initiative-and-referendum process under K.S.A. 12-3013(e)(1), for the reasons set forth herein,” El Dorado’s petition for declaratory judgment, filed on Tuesday in Butler County District Court, says.

On Wednesday, the deadline for the city to act on the petition, El Dorado submitted another court filing asking the court for a temporary restraining order.

“Immediate ex parte relief is necessary because the twenty-day statutory clock triggered by K.S.A. 12-3013(a) is already running and will expire on July 15, 2026, just two days after the City Commission’s July 13, 2026, special meeting,” the newer filing says. “And there is no practical opportunity for the City to give Defendant notice of this Motion and an opportunity to be heard before the City would otherwise be forced to choose between passing an ordinance it may have no authority to enact, calling a special election it may have no authority to call, or risking noncompliance with the statutory initiative-and-referendum procedures. And because, if passed, this ordinance could remain on the City’s books for 10 years under K.S.A. 12-3013(c), the injury is both immediate and irreparable.”

The city’s lawsuit is filed against John Doe because “the individual who filed the Citizens’ Petition has, through counsel, declined to disclose his or her identity,” the filing says.

The judge assigned to the case, Jan Satterfield, had not issued a ruling on either filing as of Thursday afternoon.

“Should the citizen-initiated petition be deemed invalid by the District Court, the City Commission discussed providing citizens with an opportunity to vote on an advisory ballot question to guide amendments to the Zoning Regulations specific to this subject,” an official statement from the city of El Dorado says. “The City Commission would use the results of an advisory ballot to inform its decision on a path forward that represents the interests of the community.”

The City Commission also adopted a moratorium on data centers and battery storage systems at Monday’s meeting, pushing back any potential applications for a permit through the planning commission until December.

“The moratorium extends through November 30, 2026, and demonstrates the City Commission’s willingness to allow the process to proceed without considering a development proposal for the uses described in the petition ordinance,” the statement says.