Area residents gathered in the Stringer Fine Arts Center on Hutchinson Community College’s campus Tuesday evening for a community meeting about data centers. The meeting was originally booked at the Shears Technology Center, but organizers moved it when anticipated attendance surpassed the capacity at Shears.
Some may have come specifically to hear about how the City of Hutchinson is working on planning and zoning regulations for the industry, state legislation regarding tax incentives for data centers, or best practices promoted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, but we believe most were there to voice their concerns about the prospect of industrial data centers being built in their community.
But haven’t there already been community meetings about data centers?
Yes, there have. By our count, there have been three community meetings specifically about data centers—and in one case, also battery energy storage systems (BESS)—this year in Reno County: one in March, organized by the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce; another in June near Haven, organized by data center opponents; and an open house held by the City of Hutchinson on Aug. 12.
That doesn’t include city council or planning commission meetings where data centers have been discussed along with other agenda items, and it doesn’t include the Reno County Commission special meeting on June 15 about data centers and BESS. The commission didn’t plan to hear from the public at that meeting, but it heard from people regardless.
But a lot of people have come away from meetings about data centers feeling that decision-makers weren’t really listening. We suspect that undercurrent of people feeling unheard played a role in why organizers felt Tuesday’s meeting could be useful.
When large groups of people speak up about an issue and still feel unheard, that’s a problem, especially when they were given an invitation to make themselves heard. People don’t want to come away from a community forum feeling like it was a formality, just an item to be checked off to say, “We conducted community engagement,” or even like it was a sales pitch disguised as a listening session.
If people leave a community engagement meeting feeling like the decision was a fait accompli, a done deal, even before the meeting, it’s counterproductive.
But it’s hard, because officials can sincerely listen to and respect people’s concerns, and those people can still feel like their concerns didn’t move the needle, whether that is true or not. And people tend to speak up in person when they feel strongly about an issue.
And even sincerely listening to someone’s concerns and taking them into account during decision-making often doesn’t mean making the decision they want. People don’t all have the same priorities, and they don’t always have the same information.
There is room for persuasion, debate and even argument. But as much as possible, those should be separate from listening and community engagement. People don’t feel heard when the person ostensibly listening to them tells them they are wrong. Persuasion should be saved for after listening, when you have had time to digest what you’ve heard and even incorporate it into your plans.
– The Hutchinson Tribune Editorial Board