# 2024-12 Pulaski County Conditionally Approves the Project Leo Site Plan On 2024-12-19, the [[Pulaski County Government]] Planning & Development Department issued a Notice of Site Plan Review granting **conditional approval** to the AVAIO "Project Leo" data center — the county's decisive land-use action on the project, taken by staff without a Planning Board meeting or any public hearing. ## Sources - [[AVAIO Project Leo Site Plan and County Review]] — `Notice of Site Plan Review Avaio Data Center-145th Street.pdf` (Planning Department approval date 2024-12-13; notice dated 2024-12-19). ## What happened After two rounds of staff checklist review (2024-10-11 and 2024-11-14), [[Jim Cranor]] signed a Notice of Site Plan Review recording *"Conditional approval based on completion of the comments below"* and *"PLANNING BOARD APPROVAL MEETING DATE: N/A."* The five conditions were: a storm drainage plan and large-site SWPPP with Notice of Coverage; driveway permits from Pulaski County Road and Bridge; all U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permitting for road and utility crossings of jurisdictional waters; floodplain and wetland permitting; and the reversion to acreage of the eight platted lots of the Vesta Addition inside the site. ## Significance This is the county's substantive approval of Project Leo — and it was an administrative staff action. No elected body voted, no public hearing was held, and no variance was required, because the site is un-zoned. The conditions were procedural permitting steps, each of which AVAIO went on to satisfy ([[Project Leo Engineering and Environmental Permits]], [[Vesta Addition Reversion to Acreage]]). The decision is the documentary embodiment of [[Jim Cranor]]'s later observation that the county "would have difficulties stopping uses like data centers."