Flint Hills Digital Campus data center, Emporia, Kansas

The Flint Hills Digital Campus is a proposed gigawatt-scale data center on about 1,000 acres on the north side of Emporia's Industrial Park IV, just west of Americus Road, in Lyon County, Kansas. Kanza Park Place LLC announced it on June 2, 2026, and regional development officials said it had been under discussion for close to eight months.

The project website describes a "combination of dedicated grid infrastructure and on-site generation," without further detail. Spokesman Garrett Nordstrom has put the construction investment at about $3 billion and permanent employment afterwards at around 250 at most, and City Manager Trey Cocking has spoken of a possible $500 million rise in assessed value. No end user has been named; Nordstrom said in September that one would be announced before a development agreement is finalized. On water, Nordstrom said in June that a daily figure could not yet be given because the rights would be negotiated with the city, while Cocking said use would be on par with Emporia's other big water users. The city is meanwhile weighing its aging treatment plant at 24th and Industrial Road, where a rehabilitation would cost almost $75 million and a new plant more than $135 million.

Who stands behind the project has been a running question. Local landowner Gary Pinkston was introduced as the developer and called the campus a "legacy project" for his family on KVOE in June, but in a June creditors' meeting in an unrelated Chapter 11 case in Georgia he said under oath that he had no interest in it and no ownership in Kanza Park Place. Nordstrom confirmed that Pinkston's two adult daughters own Kanza Park Place and described Pinkston as its president with no financial interest, though Pinkston's signature is on the May 21 rezoning applications as owner and applicant. By September Nordstrom said Pinkston and his daughters may step away as the project turns to a master developer.

On July 22, 2026, after hours of public comment, the Emporia City Commission voted unanimously for large volume water and wastewater policies, a Digital Infrastructure Overlay, the rezoning of 11 tracts and the application of the overlay to them. Mayor Becky Smith said commissioners were voting on land use and protection policies, not a green light for any project, and Commissioner Tammi Ogle said: "However, feelings are not facts and we are looking for facts." Jay Vehige of Emporia Neighbors United called the decisions disappointing, and when police removed one person for what commissioners deemed disruptive behavior, Vehige, who said the person had only clapped, called it "outrageous."

The group's first petition to ban high-impact data centers and battery storage, with more than 1,400 signatures, was ruled invalid by the Lyon County clerk on July 10 because of how the pages and affidavits were submitted. A second petition was verified before the July 22 vote. The city asked the court to hold the question back until a judge decides whether the ordinance is legislative or administrative, but on August 20 Senior Judge Glenn Braun ordered it onto the November ballot, ruling that if voters approve it, it will not be enacted until that question is decided. On August 26 the commission voted unanimously to put both the 10-year data center ban and a ban on battery energy storage systems to voters on November 3. Separately, Lyon County commissioners adopted a six-month moratorium on data centers and battery storage in the unincorporated county on July 23, after a North Carolina developer approached the county zoning office. Nordstrom says interest from outside has not slowed, with "almost every end user in the country" taking a look.