The City of Emporia has responded to a lawsuit alleging it did not handle certain zoning matters tied to a potential data center correctly.
Amanda Mendoza, Kenneth Bruner, Ann Bruner and the separate Bruner trusts claim the Digital Infrastructure overlay, developed this past summer as a way to set zoning for a roughly 1,000-acre data center complex, was done before the Planning Commission had the jurisdiction or authorization to review applications for zoning classifications when the applications were filed. That step, according to the lawsuit, made the City Commission’s decision to approve the overlay unlawful. It also made the following rezoning of 11 tracts of land unauthorized and without proper jurisdiction.
The city’s legal filing does admit certain areas of the lawsuit — the votes and the official documentation — but for most of its 7-page document, it says any allegations inconsistent with the overlay are denied, it categorically denies the allegations or it says the zoning applications speak for themselves. The city also says the plaintiffs have not stated a claim for which relief can be granted, adding some plaintiff claims are “barred by the doctrines of mootness, ripeness or standing,” while others are barred by “the failure of a condition precedent” — and others are barred by either the city’s Home Rule authority or by the city’s “lawful, reasonable and not arbitrary or capricious” actions.
A hearing date is pending.
Lyon County Judge Lee Fowler was initially assigned the case, but he has recused himself with his brother, Jay, serving as a partner in Foulston Siefkin, a law firm out of Overland Park that is representing the city in this case. Judge Jeff Larson has not chosen a new judge to oversee the case.
