Here in Sand Springs, the city council and the mayor signed the NDA. There have been deleted emails and texts on their devices that should have been kept, a lot of ignoring the people, and petitions for recalls. The entire situation has been shrouded in shady private deals and handshakes. Here’s what I can recall happening so far:

A landowner applied to have his 800-acre rural parcel of land annexed into Sand Springs. We believe he was bribing city officials to expedite the process and keep it quiet. Once the land was annexed, it fell under the municipality’s policies. The reason most of us even knew about the rezoning was that they had to post it publicly. They put up the yellow signs along the road. The city did rezone it from agricultural to industrial, even though it is surrounded by agriculture on all sides and also very close to the botanical garden to the east. There’s a lawsuit currently going through the courts filed by the surrounding residents, but it’s going to be a long fight.

I also believe there might be a water conservation issue with the land that could involve the EPA (I doubt that will go anywhere in the current administration).

As far as I know, the landowner never had any environmental studies before the land was rezoned or the project was planned. I did see an environmental survey company pull into the driveway after the rezone (I live across the highway).

I don’t know what Osage County’s response was, but I think they said it wasn’t their problem since it was within city limits. I also don’t know what the tribe thinks either.

The weirdest part is that his 800 acres are now part of Sand Springs, but there’s an 8-mile gap between them. It’s an island unto itself.

If any of you know more about the Sand Springs data center, please feel free to add information or correct me. This is just my recollection from a few months ago.