Nearby farmers bordering the site of a proposed data center in Kuna want a judge to take another look at a vote to approve it.
Layne Thornton and two business entities behind Toledo Dairy in Kuna filed a petition for judicial review against the City of Kuna in August over the city’s approval of a data center on 620 acres last spring. The 3-2 vote, with Mayor Joe Stear breaking the tie, greenlit the project proposed by Kansas-based Diode Ventures on farmland currently owned by Duane Yamamoto near the intersection of Locust Grove and Barker Roads.
In briefs filed last month, Thornton and Toledo Dairy asked that the approval be thrown out on the grounds that City Council Member Greg McPherson participated in the vote, even though he was employed by Thornton at the time of the decision. Thornton’s property borders Yamamoto’s for more than a mile, which Thornton and Toledo Dairy argue means McPherson should have recused himself from the vote. They said his employment by Thornton, no matter the outcome of the vote, impacted their rights to a fair decision-making process on the data center…