ST. LOUIS – Various groups and residents from different neighborhoods gathered Sunday afternoon to discuss options towards the new proposed $1.5 billion data center that would move in to the Armory in Midtown.

Shaw resident Dan Pate was one of many residents that showed up to help neighbors learn more about the project and why they believe it's not a fit for their community or their city.

“The longer that we get to research data centers that are built for AI, the worse the information gets,” said Pate. “It's going to get a lot of people in a real bad way, I personally think that it's going to end up killing people in the Summertime when they can't afford to plug in the air conditioners.”

Utilities are just one of the sore points from the public discussion, environmental and economic factors also a part of their cons for the project.

Maxine Gill with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment led the conversation on the environmental impact.

“We're seeing the proliferation of data centers associated with things like water loss, brownouts and blackouts, and a lack of electricity and fossil fuel generation, increased energy generation and other such environmental impacts, noise pollution and things like that,” Gill said.

According to the press release, representatives from Missouri Workers Center, Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Action St. Louis, Missouri Jobs with Justice, Sierra Club St. Louis, Faith for Justice, Democratic Socialists of America St. Louis, Eco-Socialist Green Party of Eastern Missouri, Freedom Arts & Education Center, Party for Socialism and Liberation St. Louis, and WEPOWER all came out.

Event speakers included experts on sustainable development and community leaders who have been directly impacted by increased energy and water bills.

Organizations and residents said they wanted city officials to take a page out of St. Charles's book, recommending a moratorium that would put a stop to any data centers looking to develop in the area.

We previously reported in August that the St. Charles City Council unanimously voted to approve a one-year moratorium on data center projects.

The moratorium means St. Charles will not accept any new applications for building or expanding data centers for at least one year.

“It's important to do that. There's a lot of research we don't know, and there's a lot of people that could be harmed,” Pate said.

Developers will hold their own townhall tomorrow at the Sheet Metal Workers Union Hall at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 13, and is open to the public.