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By Myrna Trauntvein Mona residents met at the Mona City Office, where they loaded into their vehicles and drove together to the Rocky Ridge Town Hall, for the Juab County Commission meeting at 10 a.m. on September 8th. The room was packed, with residents holding signs protesting the data center. Three people signed up on the agenda to talk to commissioners about a data center that would be located on land west of Mona on a roadway known as the Goshen Canyon/Mona Fields West Road. The first speaker was Shelly Flake, who said that the quiet life they were enjoying in the rural area had been hijacked by a planned data center. “This data center, the size of 20 Costcos, is supposed to be built right in front of my house--400 feet away--right in front of my house,” S. Flake said “We found out about it three weeks ago, by accident. We are feeling punched in the gut. The town is feeling punched in the gut.” Second to speak was Taylor Flake, a spokesperson for Mona Cares Neighborhood for Responsible Development, and he said residents believe the approval process should be reconsidered. In 2010, after his grandfather died, Flake and his wife, Shelly, bought the grandfather’s land and developed Far Away Ranch. “I recently learned that the Juab County Planning Commission approved the Nebo North LLC Data Center Campus Conditional Use Permit on April 15, 2026,” he said. The Flakes had prepared several posters to show location and impact that they displayed throughout their presentation. T. Flake said that the proposed campus would span 3-million-square-feet across 10 buildings. [The complete application and map are available to review in the IT/Planning office in the Juab County Building, 160 N Main, Nephi.] Mona residents at a recent city council meeting challenged the rapid approval of a conditional use permit (CUP) for the massive data center proposed by Nebo North LLC and asked city officials to act as spokespersons on their behalf in expressing the way the issue had been handled. Many of those same residents crowded the Rocky Ridge Town Hall, where the Tuesday meeting was held. “The planning commission held a four-minute public hearing on April 15, 2026,” said Flake. “There were four minutes of silence. Those present consisted of the sellers and the developers. Maybe the developer was laughing.” He said he had learned that if a property was rezoned, letters were mailed to surrounding property owners. An agricultural property being rezoned also required public hearings by the county commission and not just by the county planning commission. Only the elected county commission had the final authority to approve or deny a zoning map. However, that was not required for a conditional use permit. Under Utah law, a land use authority must approve a conditional use permit (CUP) if reasonable conditions are proposed or can be imposed to mitigate the reasonably anticipated detrimental effects of the proposed use. He said that 93 percent of Juab County residents who were polled said they were against the data center. According to the polling company, 21 percent of those polled answered; the company said they usually receive 1-2 percent response on other polls and had never seen such a large response. “Our elected officials, the county commissioners, did not approve of this,” Flake said. “This was approved by planning bureaucrats (unelected bureaucrats) who approved the largest project in the history of Juab County, a $10 billion project that wasn’t even approved by county officials. So, we’re going to ask them that this be made right, and that we’re allowed to have a public hearing.” The proposed data center in Dog Valley asked for a rezone. The one by Nephi’s airport, he said, asked for a zone change. “We would not have known now if a person representing the company hadn’t stopped by to ask for an easement to put a gas pipeline across our property,” Flake said. “We want to have a public hearing before, not after, the decision is made, and we think we have a strong case to be made that this is not right for our little community.” Juab County Commissioner Marty Palmer said that the commission provided public notice as is required by Utah State law, publishing notices on their website as well as in the newspaper (which is no longer required) and posting in other public places. Dan Woodland, a local building contractor and resident of Mona, said that he was not an anti-data center because everyone consumes what they push. They store, manage, and disseminate data and information, including computer systems and associated components, housing IT infrastructure and artificial intelligence. He said he also was in support of property rights. However, he deeply opposed how this data center had come about. It was so close to Mona and was close to homes. “I don’t like to just talk,” said Woodland. “I like to be part of the solution.” He did ask that the county commission would do all in their power to negotiate the terms of the CUP permit and he would like it if those terms were so negative the center no longer wanted to come. “If your hands are tied and you cannot stop them, at least you can negotiate,” he said. He said that residents also need to take control of making certain they are following what is going on. He hadn’t done that, and he would take ownership of that. He would check agendas on the county website in the future. “I will stand behind this county commission,” he said. “I have known them my whole life. They have never given me a reason to doubt their integrity. None of us is smarter that the one. We need to stick together.” He said he knew growth was coming but he believed in laws that would protect slow and controlled growth. The county commission currently has a moratorium on future data centers so that they can study what they can legally do to put in place laws for better control, said Clint Painter, Juab County Commission Chairman. He said the county always followed the state’s requirements for notifying the public. “As far as no notifications, I do apologize,” Painter said. “We do follow the letter of the law when it comes to it. We posted it in the three locations that the state says that we have to. Actually, we posted in four because we post in the newspaper.” Meanwhile, commissioners are unclear whether they have the authority to cancel the conditional use permit and put the project through the county process again. Painter said commissioners will look into whether they have that authority. “As of right now, I do not know, but we will ask that question,” he said. “These data centers came at us awfully quick,” said Painter. “They started at the end of last year, and by the time the April 15 meeting rolled around, we looked at each other and said, ‘We’ve gotta put a stop on the conditional use permit.’” Painter said he “owned” up to the fact that they weren’t stopped soon enough, and apologized that the citizens did not feel they were properly notified. He told the residents not to question his integrity or accuse him of lying, nor question the integrity of the commission. “I’m a little bit morose about the fact that it takes something like this to get people out to our public hearings,” he added, noting that while they had tried holding meetings in the evening, they have not had more attendance than when it is held in the mornings. “…We do our best to meet the needs of Juab County. I’m sorry if I’ve fallen short on that.” He said he wanted to express his appreciation to Juab County residents who put him in his role as county commissioner where he had served for 12 years in January. Other public remarks were not allowed because that was not noticed on the agenda.
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