FRANKLIN COUNTY 鈥斅燜ranklin County officials have tabled for six months a data center proposed near the Shaw Nature Reserve after hundreds of people showed up at a hearing to oppose it.
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"You have turned your back on Franklin County,"' said Cindy Otten, who looked at L.B. Eckelkamp Jr., (far right) while speaking out against rezoning 600 acres for a proposed data center during a Franklin County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Union.
A horse grazes in the field at Diamond Farms on Robertsville Road south of Gray Summit on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. L.B. Eckelkamp, Jr., owner of Diamond Farms and CEO of the Franklin County-based Bank of Washington, requested Franklin County rezone the Diamond Farms land to accommodate plans to build a data center.
L.B. Eckelkamp Jr. listens as speakers oppose the possible rezoning of his Gray Summit land for a proposed data center, during a Franklin County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Union.聽
Merry Skaggs, of Pacific, joins hundreds of people protesting聽the rezoning of land in Gray Summit for a possible data center, during a Franklin County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in Union on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026.
L.B. Eckelkamp Jr., backround center, re-enters a Franklin County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting that was reviewing his request to rezone more than 600 acres of land for a possible data center near Shaw Nature Reserve on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Union.
L.B. Eckelkamp Jr., right, listens as the crowd reacts after Franklin County officials voted to table possible rezoning of his land for a proposed data center for six months, during a聽Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Union. Eckelkamp Jr., owner of Diamond Farms and Diamond 66 LLC and CEO of the Franklin County-based Bank of Washington, applied to rezone 613 acres of farmland in Gray Summit, an unincorporated area in eastern Franklin County.
Kelsie Eversmeyer, right, and Claire Mueller, left, celebrate as Franklin County officials vote to table for six months the rezoning of land for a possible data center in Gray Summit, after hundreds of people showed up in opposition at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Union. Both women oppose any data center in the St. Lous region due to environmental concerns.
View the first full week of 2026 through the Post-Dispatch photographers' lenses. Edited by Jenna Jones.
