At least 50 Coweta residents gathered Thursday night to discuss the proposal for a hyperscale data center called Project Atlas. Two state lawmakers attended the town hall, but organizers say city officials and developer Beale Infrastructure declined or didn’t respond to the invitation.
Coweta residents have been vocal about their opposition to the data center, planned for south of town and east of Highway 72. Nearly 100 residents showed up to an October meeting hosted by the developer.
State Rep. Amanda Clinton, D-Tulsa, opened Thursday’s town hall by sharing her recent interim study highlighting the impacts of the growing data center industry on Oklahoma communities.
“I introduced a study to look at the impacts of our water, our electricity, but also the economic development impacts,” Clinton said. “I am really out here trying to do the fact-finding mission, trying to separate fact from fiction, and I think all of us deserve the best information possible so we can do the best for our communities.”
Clinton spent nearly six weeks gathering information for the study before presenting it to other state leaders. Her biggest takeaway, she says, is how decisions on data centers are being made at the local level because developers are taking their proposals straight to city leaders.
“So, the state does not really have a hand in this and that was kind of surprising to me,” Clinton said.
State Sen. Julie McIntosh, R-Porter, represents parts of Cherokee, Wagoner, Mayes and Rogers counties. She told the Flyer she attended the town hall to hear what concerns residents have in her district, but declined to comment further.
Allen Prather, a Coweta resident who helped organize the event with his wife, is concerned with what information about data centers could be hiding behind non-disclosure agreements. He said planning for Atlas started more than a year before residents learned about it.
According to an FAQ page on Coweta’s city website, a real estate firm reached out in May 2024 and initiated conversations with Beale Infrastructure.
“I don’t know about you but that really grinds my gears,” Prather said. “For a year and a half, this has been kept secret. This is the elephant in the room. This is why we are all in a frantic push for time to figure out what to do.”
Beale purchased 200 acres from Coweta to build the data center. It is the second of two local projects planned by the developer, which broke ground on a $1 billion data center campus known as Project Clydesdale in November.
Beale is scheduled to meet with the Coweta Chamber of Commerce Dec. 17 for a question and answer session. Project Atlas is set to go in front of the Coweta Planning Commission Jan. 19, with city council weighing in Feb. 2.
If the developer gets approvals on time, construction on Project Atlas could begin as soon as spring or summer 2026.
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