Mona residents file appeal seeking to overturn approval of data center project

MONA, Juab County — Residents in the town of Mona are pushing back against a proposed data center they said was approved without their knowledge or input.

The community group Mona Cares submitted an appeal Tuesday, asking Juab County commissioners to overturn a conditional use permit granted earlier this year for the data center project planned just outside Mona city limits.

The filed appeal comes after the community organized a rally in Mona last week and caravanned to the nearby town of Rocky Ridge, where county commissioners were meeting. Multiple speakers expressed frustration with the process used to approve the development, which they say will span the size of roughly 20 Costco warehouses.

Mona Cares spokesperson Taylor Flake owns the ranch across the street from the site approved for the development and said he learned about the project a few weeks ago when someone knocked on his door and asked to run a pipe through his property.

As county leaders have come under fire for the process used and the lack of timely awareness among those living closest to the project site, commissioners have said they followed the law and gave proper notice of the meetings in which the project was discussed. Residents contend that the notices posted did not indicate a data center was up for discussion, and the project has a name that is very similar to a different nearby development.

"We met with the county commissioners last Monday and, if you remember in my speech, I said, 'Let's not get the lawyers involved. Let's just give the people of Mona their say,'" Flake explained.

But he said Commission Chair Clint Painter's comments to the KSL Investigators that day prompted them to take legal action.

When asked whether there was anything that could be done to reverse the project's approval, Painter said, "I just don't know if it's even legally possible without incurring millions of dollars in lawsuits from the developer."

"So therefore, we had to go the legal route, and we think we have a very good case," Flake said on Tuesday, after filing the group's appeal.

Flake said residents have been asking county leaders to give the community an opportunity to weigh in before moving forward. He's hopeful the appeal will provide an avenue to do just that.

While appeals must be filed within 30 days and the project was approved back in April, Flake argues it should still be accepted because he said the meeting minutes, publicly documenting the action, were not posted online until late August.

The next key question is whether county officials will accept the appeal and allow it to move forward.

KSL Investigators reached out Tuesday to Juab County commissioners and the project developer for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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