A judge struck down St. Louis's clean-power condition on a $3.1 billion data center, as local court fights spread

A Missouri judge on Thursday threw out two conditions St. Louis attached to a planned $3.1 billion data center, including a rule that it make some of its own renewable power. The ruling reaches beyond one project. It says a zoning board cannot write energy policy on its own, which could narrow a tool local officials have used to win concessions from the giant computing sites that AI demand is driving.

Circuit Judge Christopher McGraugh found the city's Board of Adjustment exceeded its authority, calling its actions "illegal and void," according to St. Louis Public Radio. He held that the board's job is administrative and does not include making policy.

The developer, TerraWatt, plans a 120-megawatt facility on an 11-acre site in the city's Midtown neighborhood. The Missouri Coalition for the Environment, which opposes the project, says that is about the power use of 80,000 St. Louis homes. Consultants for TerraWatt estimate about $445 million in tax revenue over ten years. In July the developer said it did not yet have a tenant.

What the judge removed

The permit required the site to supply at least 2.4 megawatts from renewable sources, about 2% of its planned load. TerraWatt sued in September, calling that "practically impossible" on the site and beyond the board's power.

The second condition struck down required the city's elected Board of Aldermen to approve the project's community benefits agreement, a negotiated package of local commitments. A city redevelopment agency had already approved that agreement in September.

The board added the clean-power condition in July, when it unanimously denied appeals against the permit, more than a dozen of which had been filed, after more than 11 hours of public comment. Residents had raised concerns about electricity and water use, noise and air pollution.

Thursday's win does not clear the project. In a separate case, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment and other plaintiffs argue the city should never have granted the permit at all. Thursday's ruling did not address that case.

St. Louis has also moved the other way through its elected Board of Aldermen. In September the mayor signed citywide data center rules far tougher than the 2% condition just struck. All but the smallest sites (5 megawatts and up) must start at 25% renewable energy, reach 50% by year five and 100% by year ten. Falling short can cost up to three times the market price of renewable energy credits. The rules also ban water-hungry evaporative cooling and require 600-foot buffers between the biggest sites and homes, schools and parks. Public reports do not say whether those rules apply to the Midtown project, which was permitted earlier.

Split decisions in local courts

The St. Louis ruling capped a run of local court decisions that show judges, not just councils, now setting terms for data center growth. They did not all favor developers.

In Springfield, Missouri, a judge refused a request from tech company NSI to escape the city's pause on new data centers, local station KY3 reported on Nov. 9. NSI argued that its zoning already allowed "data processing services" and that planners approved its plans before the pause began. The city council is expected to vote on Nov. 16 on extending the pause to February. In September a different judge halted a Benton County pause so NSI could build there.

In Botetourt County, Virginia, a substitute judge ruled on Nov. 10 that a resident's open-government lawsuit over a Google data center can proceed. The suit alleges the county approved its incentive deal with Helio Capital, which Cardinal News describes as Google-owned, using items left off the published agenda of a June 2025 closed meeting. It asks the court to cancel the deal. The county's lawyer called any violation "technical." Trial is set for Monday. Ground clearing has started, and Google has paid the county $2.5 million of a promised $4 million.

In central Illinois, developers came out ahead. A Sangamon County judge on Nov. 6 permanently dismissed residents' suit against a CyrusOne data center planned on about 280 acres of farmland, finding that officials had run an open process.

What it means for buyers and backers

The common thread is process. Courts are checking whether local bodies followed their own rules and stayed within their powers. Developers can win when officials impose conditions beyond their authority, as the St. Louis judge found. They can lose time when approvals were rushed or kept quiet, as the Botetourt suit alleges.

That makes local legal risk a real factor in data center timelines and financing. A project can hold a permit and still face suits from opponents and fights over its own conditions at the same time. Modest conditions set by an appointed board fell on Thursday. The city's much stricter rules, passed by elected aldermen, were not part of the case.

The next markers come Monday, with the Botetourt trial and Springfield's vote on extending its pause. Reports on Thursday's ruling did not include a response from the city or TerraWatt, or say whether the city will appeal.