Why this score?
Four weighted factors drive the Lafayette County risk score. Methodology is fully documented — each input is public data or a reasoned proxy.
Served by Evergy. Strong grid capacity from KC metro infrastructure.
Water source: Missouri River. Major river access — ample for industrial cooling with standard permitting.
Moderate availability of large parcels.
Adjacent to Jackson County, which has active projects. Cluster development is the strongest predictor of where developers look next.
Water infrastructure
Lafayette County draws water from the Missouri River basin — Missouri's largest surface water source and the primary supply for municipal water systems along its corridor.
The Missouri River supplies drinking water to more than 3 million Missourians. Any hyperscale data center using evaporative cooling could draw 1–5 million gallons per day. Under Missouri DNR rules, large withdrawals require a water use permit. However, Missouri is one of only a few states with no comprehensive surface water allocation system — meaning there is no statewide cap on total withdrawals.
For context, Meta's Kansas City facility can use up to 9.5 million gallons daily — more than 95,000 average Missouri households. A data center in Lafayette County would draw from the same river system.
Electric infrastructure
Lafayette County is served by Evergy, the dominant utility in the Kansas City metro and northwest Missouri — and the utility that powers every existing data center in the KC region.
Evergy's Missouri service territory includes 10,200 miles of transmission lines and nearly 875 substations. The Missouri Public Service Commission approved Evergy's Large Load Power Service Plan in November 2025, creating a rate structure specifically designed for data centers that ensures large-load customers pay their full share of infrastructure and generation costs. Evergy is building a 440-megawatt natural gas plant (Mullin Creek #1) in Nodaway County at the existing Mullin Creek Substation — part of a $2.75 billion generation expansion that includes two Kansas gas plants and two solar projects, adding ~2,000 MW to the grid by 2030.
Under Missouri's SB 4, data centers above 75 MW must pay premium utility rates and fund grid upgrades. However, SB 4 also allows utilities to charge customers for new power plant costs before construction is complete — meaning residential ratepayers may bear financing costs for generation built primarily to serve data centers.
State legislative context
Missouri's 2026 legislative session directly affects Lafayette County, regardless of whether a project is currently proposed here.
HJR 173 & 174 proposes eliminating Missouri's income tax and replacing it with expanded sales taxes on services — while data centers continue to receive a sales tax exemption on construction materials, equipment, and utilities for up to 15 years. According to the Missouri Budget Project, 80% of Missourians would face a net tax increase.
At the local level, developers negotiate Chapter 100 industrial revenue bonds that exempt them from real and personal property taxes. Under SB 4, data centers above 75 MW must pay premium utility rates. Many rural Missouri counties have no planning and zoning laws, meaning a data center can be proposed with no public hearing, no zoning review, and no county oversight.