Edgerton, Kansas, sues citizens trying to put data center ban before voters

The battle over data centers has taken a new twist in Edgerton.

That city is suing citizens trying to stop one in that Johnson County community.

Video shows Edgerton City Attorney Todd Luckman serving the lawsuit to Carrie Schmidt and Kimberly Twente at a recent city council meeting.

"It has 2.2 million views on Facebook," Schmidt said.

The city of Edgerton is suing the two women after they successfully put together a petition to ban data centers in Edgerton.

It was prompted by a plan from Dubai-based Damac Digital to convert an empty 400,000-square-foot warehouse into a data center at Logistics Park Kansas City, just west of Interstate 35.

The company's website states the $860 million Heartland Data Center project will be a "best-in-class data center engineered for artificial intelligence, cloud, and enterprise workloads."

Schmidt and Twente want Edgerton citizens to vote on the data center ban in November.

Schmidt wouldn't be able to vote because she lives in nearby Gardner, but closer to the proposed data center site than Twente, who lives in Edgerton.

The two women are concerned about the environmental impact of data centers.

"The research is showing that data centers are harmful to human health based on noise pollution and air pollution," Twente said.

According to the lawsuit, Edgerton's city development services director determined data centers were consistent with the industrial zoning for the Logistics Park in April 2025.

Sixteen months later, the Edgerton City Council approved a plan on August 11 to seek a proposal for setting city regulations for data centers.

"The city of Edgerton has more regulations and rules for signage than it does for a data center," Schmidt said.

City leaders aren't commenting due to the ongoing lawsuit.

However, Edgerton's website has answers to frequently asked questions.

The lawsuit claims that attempting to ban data centers in Edgerton as nuisances is illegal.

The suit also claims assertions about the city's role in the data center proposal are factually inaccurate.

The suit points out that the city doesn't have control over power or water resources for the proposed site.

The suit also calls the women's statements about data centers "unsupported."

In addition to Schmidt and Twente being named defendants in the lawsuit, the non-profit "Public Trust Collective" formed by Twente is also named as a defendant.

Due to Kansas law, Twente said the non-profit must have its own legal representation.

Twente and Schmidt estimate it will cost about $20,000 to hire an attorney to defend them in the lawsuit.

They're raising money to do it.

As of Thursday, the women have 14 days to respond to the lawsuit.