Project dossier · Shawnee County (Wakarusa area, near Topeka), Kansas

Compass Wakarusa Campus In review

10-building data center campus proposed on ~600 acres of light-industrial land southwest of Topeka; conditional use permit filed July 24, 2026, county flagged application 'incomplete' Aug 4.

Key facts

Operator: Compass Datacenters
Size: 600 ac
Location: Shawnee County (Wakarusa area, near Topeka), Kansas
Stage today: In review

Source

What to do next

Next step: An application is in the record. Ask the planning office for the next hearing date and request formal notice.

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What has happened so far (14 events)

2026-05-12rezoning
Shawnee County Planning Commission recommended zoning changes requiring conditional use permits for data centers, energy storage systems, and utility structures (previously only a building permit was required). · source
2026-06-10rezoning
Shawnee County Commission approved zoning changes (HR2026003) formally defining data centers as requiring a conditional use permit; more than two dozen residents attended a standing-room-only meeting to oppose development and call for a moratorium. · source
2026-06-11protest
Residents packed a Shawnee County Commission meeting holding No data centers signs, citing water/electricity use, pollution, and health-risk concerns. · source
2026-07-02filing
Shawnee County Commission approved a resolution raising conditional use permit fees for data centers from $700 to $15,000, shifting the cost of expert technical review to applicants. · source
2026-07-07public-comment
Topeka City Council held a study session drawing roughly 100 residents; city staff acknowledged Topeka had no zoning framework for data centers, and a council member said she learned of preliminary talks with a developer only after directly asking staff. · source
2026-07-14moratorium
Topeka City Council unanimously approved a 12-month moratorium on new data center and battery-storage facility applications within city limits to allow time to study impacts. · source
2026-07-24filing
Compass Datacenters submitted a CUP application to Shawnee County for a data center campus on roughly 600+ acres near SW 85th/77th and Burlingame Road in the Wakarusa area, consisting of 10 single-story buildings built in phases. · source
2026-07-28public-comment
Compass held a public open house at Washburn Rural High School; attendees reported overcrowding, scripted answers, and frustration over transparency, with a City Councilwoman calling the event really disappointing. · source
2026-08-04filing
Shawnee County Land Use division determined Compass CUP application was incomplete; Compass given until August 28 to resubmit. · source
2026-08-04filing
Shawnee County commissioners issued an RFQ to hire an independent engineering/technical consulting firm to review data center applications. · source
2026-08-11vote
Topeka City Council amended its moratorium language, adding provisions on utility allowances for projects outside city limits, specifically addressing the Compass site near city limits. · source
2026-08-13moratorium
Shawnee County Commission voted 2-1 to approve a six-month moratorium on new data center applications through February 17, 2027; does not block Compass pending application from continuing review but no final approval can occur until it expires. · source
2026-08-19hearing
Topeka City Council held a special meeting where Compass and Evergy presented and fielded 90 minutes of questions on the proposed 400-MW-class project; Mayor confirmed the city moratorium remains in effect. · source
2026-08-20rezoning
Topeka Planning Commission discussed a proposed text amendment creating specific zoning standards for data centers (including hyperscale facilities), prompted by the Compass proposal. · source

Find the paper trail

Find the paper trail (0 filed · 11 places to look)

State environmental permits

Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.

Kansas KDHE — Bureau of AirThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
Search Kansas KDHE — Bureau of Air for this projectsearchThis state publishes no searchable permit database, so a written records request to the agency is the reliable route. Use this search only to find the right office.

County & town filings

The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.

Search Shawnee County (Wakarusa area, near Topeka) planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
Search Shawnee County (Wakarusa area, near Topeka) property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.

Utility & grid records

The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.

Southwest Power Pool (Plains) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
Kansas Corporation Commission — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.

Federal databases

Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.

EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site.
EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.

These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.

Around here

Shawnee County community briefing — Enactedexpires 2027-02-17
Kansas briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.

Other tracked projects in Kansas

Astra data center campus (Digital Realty) — De Soto (Johnson County) In review
Project Bluestem — Tonganoxie (Leavenworth County) In review

Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Compass Wakarusa Campus”, aigridwatch.com/projects/compass-wakarusa-ks, retrieved 2026-10-11.

As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing

A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.

Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).