MASON COUNTY, Ky. — The potential for a $1 billion data center project in Mason County has residents divided over its impact on their rural community.
A Fortune 100 company's project would bring 1,000 construction jobs and 400 full-time positions to the area, according to Tyler McHugh, executive director of Maysville-Mason County Industrial Development Authority.
McHugh said the name of the company is private and can not be disclosed for competitive reasons.
Watch what we know about the project and why some residents say it could threaten their quiet rural community:
"I can assure you, they are an employer of choice everywhere they operate," McHugh said. "They will fully fund all necessary infrastructure, roads, water, sewer, fiber, electrical service, so the community carries no financial burden."
During the meeting, McHugh shared the following details about the project:
- The company owns and operates large-scale technology campuses worldwide.
- The company is the end user, not a speculative developer.
- The company is recognized globally for its world-class facilities, highly skilled workforce and strong community partnerships.
- The project will not involve solar or wind panels.
- The plan calls for a technology campus consisting of single-story data center buildings, class A office space, support areas, green space, parking for employees and visitors, full site utilities, landscaping and stormwater management.
- The company wants to be active with STEM education programs locally so that “the majority of their workforce” comes from Mason County.
“The economic development is significant,” Hughes said. “The company would become Mason County's largest property taxpayer, and as its campus grows, it could generate more in tax revenue than many of our largest taxpayers combined.”
McHugh emphasized the project's potential to develop the local workforce and create career opportunities.
"That's the biggest part of this being able to not only develop our current workforce but also have a viable place for people with careers to come back and work," McHugh said.
Resident concerns
While some see the data center as an economic opportunity, others, like Jennifer Setty-Botkin, oppose the development.
"We wanted peace and quiet, and this is going to ruin that for us," Setty-Botkin said during the meeting.
Some worry about how the large development would transform their peaceful farmland. The group has started a petition, Facebook group and hired an attorney.
Timothy Grosser and his son Andy live along KY-3056 outside Maysville and said they turned down an offer of $35,000 per acre to sell their farmland for the development.
"It's priceless," Timothy Grosser said.
The Grossers describe their land as peaceful and free (they raise cattle), and they fear becoming isolated from nature if surrounding properties are developed.
"What concerns me most is, it is going to go through, and we might be an island," Timothy Grosser said.
"I don't know if we'll continue to have the view of this, this ridge and the wildlife in front of us," Andy Grosser said.
Addressing concerns
Mason County Judge-Executive Owen McNeill said he recognizes “everybody is nervous over new technology and new things. However, we still haven’t won the project.”
He said he prefers to look at the potential possibilities, including the opportunity to create a pipeline where children can matriculate through the “best school system in the state” and then make six figures in their own home county.
"I'm convinced that these jobs, six figure jobs, are what will empower us to move forward now," Mason County Judge-Executive Owen McNeill said, comparing it to the high-paying jobs Browning’s Manufacturing provided in the 1930s and 1940s.
He noted that the project has not yet been finalized and would require approval from local elected leadership. The Planning and Zoning Committee would give a recommendation and then the Mason County Fiscal Court makes a decision.
If the project comes to the county and gets approved by local officials, McNeill told WCPO after the meeting the name of the company would not likely be announced until close to groundbreaking.
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