The project itself
Dallas-based Compass Datacenters filed a Conditional Use Permit (CU-26-203) with Shawnee County on July 24, 2026, for a hyperscale campus on just over 600 acres of unincorporated land southwest of Topeka in the Wakarusa area. The site is described as 3303 SW 77th Street / SW 85th Street, west of US-75, adjacent to the 2012 South Topeka Economic Growth Corridor that already holds the Walmart Distribution Center and the Mars plant. It sits on land currently zoned light industrial, west of Kanza Fire Commerce Park.
Proposed build:
- 10 single-story buildings, phased
- 400 megawatts of IT capacity
- Dedicated Evergy on-site substation paid 100% by Compass
- Target full operations around 2031; construction roughly 2028–2031
Compass’s own numbers (filed studies plus its project site):
- ~300 on-site operations jobs plus ~400 more in the metro through suppliers/contractors (~700 total once running)
- ~1,700 construction jobs per year during build, typically three-quarters local
- About $810 million spent in Kansas during construction
- Compass claims ~$55 million in property tax to Shawnee County in the first full year of operations (it says that is roughly half of what the county collected from all properties in 2023). Local realtor Mike Morse has used a higher $3 billion appraisal and estimated ~$122 million total annual property tax, including ~$37 million to the county, ~$28 million to the city if annexed, and ~$43 million to Auburn-Washburn USD 437.
Water and power claims from Compass:
- Closed-loop cooling (25% glycol / 75% water). No municipal water for cooling; initial fill trucked in. Restroom/break-room use they peg at ~230,000 gallons per building per year.
- No large battery farm. Backup generators on biofuel, tested in daytime.
- They say they will not raise residential electric rates because they pay for their own transmission, distribution, and substation (“co-serve” model with Evergy).
- Noise modeled below 50 dB at the property line.
The first CUP filing was labeled incomplete by county Land Use & Development on August 4. Compass resubmitted before the noon August 28 deadline. County staff can keep reviewing it; commissioners cannot take final action while the county moratorium is in force.
Timeline of how it got here
Spring–early summer 2026. Interest was already public. GO Topeka president Rhiannon Friedman confirmed Evergy was in introductory talks with a company (later Compass) looking south of Topeka. County Counselor Rich Eckert said the county expected both a data-center application and a battery energy storage (BESS) application within about two months. The site being discussed was already industrially zoned near Mars and Walmart.
June 11. County commissioners approved zoning text amendments so data centers and energy-storage facilities require a Conditional Use Permit instead of being allowed by right in industrial districts. They also raised permit fees. A packed meeting of residents asked for a one-year moratorium; commissioners said no at that time. Signs read “No data centers.”
July 14. Topeka City Council voted unanimously for a 12-month moratorium on data centers and battery storage inside city limits. Sponsors: Murray McGee, Christina Valdivia-Alcala, Michelle Bradberry. They later expanded it (August 11) to block new utility connections for those uses even outside city limits. Mayor Spencer Duncan framed the pause as time to study water, power, noise, emergency services, and location—not a permanent no.
July 15. Landowners Ben and Carol Marple (family land off SW 77th and Burlingame Road since 1857) said a Compass representative scheduled a meeting on GO Topeka–owned ground west of US-75 and then left when a TV crew arrived. GO Topeka said it knew of interest but was waiting for a formal application. Carol Marple said she was the only neighboring owner contacted and that Compass indicated 40 acres would not be enough.
July 24. Compass files the CUP.
July 28. Open house at Washburn Rural High School Innovation Center. Some attendees later said it was insufficient; Protect Kansas organized its own town hall.
July 30. County commissioners authorize an RFQ for an independent engineering firm to review data-center applications.
August 4. Application ruled incomplete.
August 13. County commissioners vote 2–1 for a six-month moratorium on new data-center applications and bar final action on the pending Compass file until February 18, 2027. Kevin Cook and Aaron Mays yes; Bill Riphahn no (he wanted a vote before his term ends). Cook said the point was transparency—no “application snuck in in the middle of the night.” Staff and outside engineers can still review Compass. New applications freeze until mid-February 2027.
August 19. City Council special meeting with Compass and Evergy (no public comment). Mayor Duncan said most questions got answers; a couple did not.
August 28. Compass resubmits.
Who is involved
GO Topeka / Greater Topeka Partnership. This is the economic-development shop. Friedman publicly confirmed early Evergy–developer talks and pointed to industrial parks just outside city limits as a logical location. GO Topeka owns land near the proposed area (the meeting site west of 75 and Walmart). Former chamber president Juliet Abdel told the 2025 Legislature that several data-center prospects had already expressed interest to GO Topeka and backed the state sales-tax exemption. Current chamber leadership (Matt Ross) says it is studying pros and cons, sees large taxable value and jobs as potentially significant, and is not aware of any local incentives beyond the state package. No public evidence that GO Topeka has offered or been asked for a local TIF/CID/IRB deal on this file.
Mike Morse (almost certainly who you meant by “Mike Morris”). Partner at Kansas Commercial Real Estate Services in Topeka, SIOR, longtime local broker. He has been the most quoted local advocate on the tax math: data centers as the fastest realistic way to cut the mill levy, Compass as “multiple Mars plants” without the abatements Mars got, and an estimated $122 million annual property-tax haul at a $3 billion appraisal. He has also said bad operators exist and Kansas is late enough to learn from other states’ mistakes. He is not the applicant and is not described as owning the land.
Farmers / nearby landowners. The visible face is the Marple family. Their 1857 homestead sits next to the proposed footprint. They have questioned outreach and transparency, appeared at Protect Kansas events, and argued the project would swallow more than the initial 40-acre conversation suggested. The site itself is described as agricultural land immediately west of existing industrial uses. Opposition groups treat conversion of that farmland as part of the case against the project.
City of Topeka. Not the permitting authority (the site is unincorporated), but it has used every lever it has: 12-month development moratorium, expanded ban on utility hookups, Committee of the Whole to study impacts, and a special hearing with Compass and Evergy. Council members Valdivia-Alcala and others cite resident fear, lack of transparency, and infrastructure risk. Duncan’s line is case-by-case after studies, not a blanket ideological no. If the city later annexes and provides water/sewer, Compass says taxes would flow to Topeka (~$42 million/year in their estimate). The city’s utility restriction is the closest thing to an active “block” on a county-site project.
Shawnee County. Planning staff run completeness and technical review. Commissioners set the CUP requirement in June, hired (or are hiring) outside engineers, then imposed the six-month freeze on decisions in August. Official posture from Amanda Monhollon and Rich Eckert: no prejudgment; evaluate on the record, comprehensive plan, and public input. They cannot comment on Compass’s background while the application is pending.
Protect Kansas. Local group led by Meghan Ryan (public-health background), with Aimee Gillette and Colleen Campbell. They packed county and city meetings, held a ~100-person town hall after the Compass open house, and argue the studies do not exist to prove net community benefit. They want independent reviews, enforceable water/power conditions, and a harder pause. They also surfaced Compass’s Tel Aviv campus work with Azrieli and reporting that a 2024 Israeli facility was used to store IDF AI surveillance of Palestinians—raising a “what else would this campus host?” question that county officials have declined to address while the CUP is live.
Evergy. Partner on power. Public line: they will only serve a load they can serve without hurting reliability, and the customer pays the incremental cost. They requested (and received) a large-customer rate so data centers pay their share of the grid.
Moratoriums and what they actually do
| Body | What passed | What it stops | What it does not stop | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Topeka | 12-month pause on data centers and BESS inside city + later utility-connection ban | New city approvals and (after Aug 11) new utility service for those uses | County CUP process | ~July 2027 |
| Shawnee County | 6-month freeze | New applications; final yes/no on Compass | Staff review, engineering consultant, planning-commission hearings | Feb 17, 2027 (final action allowed Feb 18) |
Neither moratorium kills the Compass file. Both buy time and signal political risk. Cook’s county resolution was explicitly sold as a transparency document after residents complained about a rushed or back-room process.
Broader Kansas context
This is not isolated. Kansas passed SB 98 in 2025: sales-tax exemption for qualified data centers that invest at least $250 million and create 20 jobs. That is the only incentive Compass publicly claims. Other hyperscale fights are underway in De Soto (Beale/Mount Sunflower already approved; Digital Realty proposed), Leavenworth/Tonganoxie (Project Bluestem), and several other KC-area and western Kansas sites. Citizen petitions to ban “high-impact” data centers produced lawsuits by the cities of Edgerton, El Dorado, and Emporia against their own residents. Shawnee County chose zoning + CUP + temporary freeze instead of a citizen-petition war.
There was also an old (February 2024) CBRE marketing piece floating Heartland Motorsports Park as a possible data-center site; that is not a live 2026 proposal.
The real fight, stripped down
Proponents (Compass, Morse, some labor/growth voices such as Ty Dragoo): Enormous new taxable value with no local property-tax abatement, construction jobs Topeka already has the trades for, self-funded power kit so ratepayers are not the piggy bank, closed-loop water, industrial zoning in a corridor the county already designated for growth, and a path to lower mill levies.
Opponents (Protect Kansas, many nearby residents, a majority of speakers at the June and July hearings): Water and grid risk even with “closed loop” marketing, noise and character change on remaining ag land, few permanent high-skill jobs relative to the footprint, distrust after incomplete first filing and the canceled Marple meeting, national pattern of communities discovering costs after the fact, and Compass’s overseas surveillance-adjacent work. They want studies before any path to approval, not during.
Governments: City used the sharpest available tools because the site is just outside its line but would use its utilities and affect its politics. County opened a legal path (CUP), then hit the brakes on decisions after the public reaction. GO Topeka recruited/facilitated interest and owns nearby land but has not been shown writing a local incentive check.
As of August 30, 2026, the application is back in the county’s hands, frozen from a final vote until mid-February 2027, while the city moratorium and utility ban remain in place and an outside engineering review is being procured. That is the entire live data-center fight in Shawnee County right now: one 600-acre, 400 MW Compass campus, two overlapping pauses, and a very public argument over whether the tax math is worth the infrastructure and land-use bet.
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