Date: 5/5/26 4:42 pm From: Jodi Morris <mjodimorris...> Subject: Re: My letter opposing LR data center
Agree.
On Tue, May 5, 2026 at 5:41 PM Carol Joan Patterson <
<0000003a0ccbe138-dmarc-request...> wrote:
> I like the way this letter is organized - with specific topics and
> explanations. It makes the arguments against the permit easier to grasp.
>
> On Friday, May 1, 2026 at 07:00:34 AM CDT, Anita Schnee <
> <000003224553d416-dmarc-request...> wrote:
>
>
> Thank you Rev. Garner for your outstanding letter. Here is my additional
> .02 worth:
>
> Little Rock District, Regulatory Division
> U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
> PO Box 867
> Little Rock, AR 72203-0867
>
> Re: Public Comment in Opposition to Permit Application – Willowbend
> Capital LLC ("Project Boar"), Port of Little Rock
>
> Dear Colonel Swenson:
>
> I write to urge the Little Rock District of the U.S. Army Corps of
> Engineers to deny the Clean Water Act Section 404 permit application
> submitted by Michael Montfort on behalf of Willowbend Capital LLC for the
> construction of a large-scale data center campus at the Port of Little Rock.
>
> I. IDENTITY AND TRANSPARENCY
>
> The Corps and the public should not lose sight of who the actual applicant
> is. Willowbend Capital LLC is a Delaware-registered shell company with no
> independent operations. Michael Montfort, its incorporator and manager, is
> a professional front man who has organized an interlocking web of similar
> LLCs — including Forgelight Ventures (Conway), Groot LLC (West Memphis),
> and Deep Meadow Ventures (Indiana) — all on behalf of the same ultimate
> developer: Google LLC, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., one of the wealthiest
> corporations in the world. Google was not publicly identified as the
> developer until an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette investigation in January 2026,
> even though city officials had by then already approved land sales,
> annexations, rezonings, and a 65% property tax abatement lasting 30 years.
>
> This pattern of concealment is not accidental and not new. It is Google's
> deliberate, repeating strategy for acquiring land, securing public
> subsidies, and obtaining regulatory permits before the affected public can
> meaningfully respond. The Corps should weigh this conduct as evidence of
> bad faith in the public interest review it is required to conduct.
>
> The Indiana record is instructive. In Franklin Township, southeast of
> Indianapolis, a company calling itself "Deep Meadow Ventures, LLC" — again
> managed by Michael Montfort — filed rezoning requests in March 2025 for 468
> acres of farmland to host a data center campus codenamed "Project Flo." The
> company's identity was concealed behind non-disclosure agreements that
> prevented even local elected officials from revealing who wanted to build
> in their community. A city councilor signed the NDA. Documents obtained by
> Indianapolis public radio station WFYI in July 2025 revealed Google as the
> company behind Project Flo — but Google never officially confirmed its
> involvement even as the controversy intensified. A months-long grassroots
> campaign led by Andrew Filler, a hobby farmer whose land abutted the site,
> organized the Protect Franklin Township coalition. On September 22, 2025,
> minutes before a scheduled City-County Council vote that the company
> apparently expected to lose, Google abruptly withdrew its rezoning
> application. Hundreds of supporters packed council chambers and erupted in
> cheers.
>
> Undeterred, Google moved on — this time identified only as a "Fortune 100
> company" — to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where despite widespread local
> opposition it obtained approval to build a $2 billion data center campus on
> more than 700 acres, codenamed "Project Zodiac." When the project expanded
> in Phase 2, the developer (this time operating as Hatchworks LLC) sought
> and received permission from Indiana's Department of Environmental
> Management to fill more than two acres of protected wetlands — without
> holding a single public hearing, despite repeated community requests for
> one. Residents and environmental groups are now fighting a subsequent
> application for 143 additional diesel generators.
>
> Now comes "Project Boar" in Little Rock — the same developer, the same
> shell-company structure, the same code names, and the same ask: let us fill
> in the wetlands, waive the taxes, and keep the public in the dark until the
> concrete is poured.
>
> II. ENVIRONMENTAL HARM
>
> The environmental costs of this application are severe and documented in
> the applicant's own filings. The project would require filling 16.8 acres
> of wetlands and obliterating more than 6,000 feet of streams in and around
> Fourche Bayou — impacts on federally regulated waters of the United States
> that trigger this very permitting process. The application acknowledges
> potential harm to endangered species, including monarch butterflies.
> Wetland mitigation credits purchased elsewhere cannot replicate the
> specific ecological functions of these wetlands: flood attenuation, water
> filtration, and habitat for species dependent on this particular stretch of
> the Arkansas River corridor.
>
> The Corps is required under the Clean Water Act's Section 404(b)(1)
> Guidelines to determine whether the applicant has demonstrated that there
> is no practicable alternative that would result in less adverse impact to
> the aquatic ecosystem. Given the scale of Google's resources and its
> ongoing acquisition of sites across the region — including approximately
> 780 acres already purchased at the Port of Little Rock for roughly $23
> million — the applicant cannot credibly claim that no less-damaging site or
> layout is available.
>
> III. SCALE OF DEMAND AND PUBLIC COSTS
>
> When operational, this data center is expected to consume more than 100
> megawatts of electricity — roughly equivalent to the power consumption of
> every household in the City of Little Rock combined. That demand will not
> be absorbed painlessly; it will drive new generation investments by Entergy
> Arkansas and shift costs onto the ratepayers who can least afford to
> subsidize a Fortune 500 company's infrastructure. Central Arkansas Water
> and the Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority will bear the burden of
> serving the facility's industrial water needs.
>
> The promised public benefit — approximately 50 permanent jobs — is
> disproportionate to these costs. As Fort Wayne's experience with Project
> Zodiac has shown, the job figures attached to these projects are often
> their most flattering attribute, and they rarely materialize at the
> promised scale.
>
> IV. THE PUBLIC INTEREST REQUIRES DENIAL — OR AT MINIMUM A PUBLIC HEARING
>
> The Corps' public interest review must weigh environmental, economic, and
> social factors. Here, the balance is not close. The project destroys
> irreplaceable wetland habitat, imposes enormous power and water demands on
> the public, delivers negligible permanent employment, and was advanced
> through a deliberate campaign of secrecy that denied affected communities a
> meaningful voice.
>
> I urge the Corps at a minimum to require a full public hearing before any
> further action is taken on this application, and to rigorously apply the
> Section 404(b)(1) alternatives analysis. On the merits, the application
> should be denied.
>
> Respectfully submitted,
>
> Anita Schnee
> Fayetteville, AR
>
> ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
>
>
>
> On Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 09:55:42 PM CDT, Kevin Krajcir <
> <kjkrajcir...> wrote:
>
>
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