As Lee Perry tells it, the three commissioners of Box Elder County were the last to know about the plans for a massive hyperscale data center that has engrossed Utah.
The Stratos Project, as proposed by Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority, would sit on 40,000 acres north of the Great Salt Lake. State law requires local government approval for any MIDA development where public or private land is part of the deal.
Which is how Perry and his colleagues, Boyd Bingham and Tyler Vincent, found themselves before a rowdy crowd trying to explain their vote as boos rained down. They OK’d the project.
Regardless of how he and his colleagues voted, according to Perry, the massive project was going ahead anyway.
“All my vote did is give the citizens of Box Elder County and Box Elder County a seat at the table, to maybe slow things down, maybe make things follow rules better,” he said. “Without my vote, they can go ahead and do a lot of this stuff without me.”
Celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary is backing the project, and he’s been in talks with Utah elected officials, including Gov. Spencer Cox, as early as Jan. 8, 2026, according to the governor’s schedule for that month. Cox’s second term is devoted to a “Built Here” agenda, and he’s defended the need for AI data centers as a national security obligation.
The land assembled for the project is unzoned. Perry’s big worry is what that would have meant if the county hadn’t been part of the process.
“If they had chosen not to go through MIDA or anything like that, they could literally walk into my building official here, lay their plans to build this facility to my building official, and under state law, he has 21 days to reject or approve their plan. And the only things he can disapprove their plan for is if he sees something that's unsafe.”
Going that route, there’s no say on air quality or water. He said it’s only an up-or-down decision on the safety of the building. At the end of the day, Perry believes the whole process was rushed. He said he realized the only thing he could do was get the best possible deal for Box Elder County.
After the commissioners’ vote, protesters turned their attention to a water rights application for the project. It was later withdrawn — though the applicant says they plan to reapply. Meanwhile, a group of voters is working to launch a referendum to overturn the county’s decision. According to the Box Elder County Clerk’s Office, that effort has not yet been finalized.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Hugo Rikard-Bell: You’ve said your vote follows the law. Can you explain that?
Lee Perry: We have a piece of property of Box Elder County that is private, privately owned, and it was under contract to be bought by somebody else, to be done something with. It also has private property water rights on it that were sold to these people.
And then the last part is that it's also unzoned, which is kind of unique and interesting. A lot of people don't understand that, but this means that there are no zoning laws.
So when you go to do something there, unless there's a federal or a state law or some law out there that trumps it, you can do whatever you want on that land. A lot of people love unzoned land because they can go out and homestead and build homes and do things like that. But other things can happen on this own land as well. And just historically, I don't think our county ever thought anything like this could ever happen. So this land has just been left unzoned, and we haven't gotten there.
So what happened for me was, all those factors being said, I looked at this and said, ‘They can build this, they can buy this property, build this data center, and I can do nothing to stop it,’ because of those three things. And as such, I looked at all the options that I had available, and the best option I could find is to partner with MIDA, the Military Infrastructure Development Authority, to get the best deal I could get for the citizens of Box Elder County. And that was to get like, fire trucks and EMS and have them pay for all the costs associated with the build-out. And also a much higher tax on the business going forward than I would get just with property taxes alone.
HRB: What do you want people to know about how this has played out?
LH: I will point out, yes, there is one thing I do want to point out. This was rushed, and I didn't like it. I don't like to be rushed into decisions any more than anybody else does. The reason this was rushed, from my understanding and everybody's talked to me, is they brought it, they came, the group or whoever brought it to the state of Utah, the landowners were being talked to long before the commission even knew anything about this. We heard rumors, rumblings, etc. We're like, ‘This is impossible.’ And it wasn't until probably the end of March when we finally had a landowner call us and say, ‘Yeah, we got a deal.’ For what? Like ‘they’re going to build a data center out here.’
HRB: What does that say about the relationship between different levels of government?
LH: Well, it's frustrating for us as a county, because we're always being told counties and cities that we’re basically subsidiaries or components of the state. And that the state is the parent, so to speak, and we have to do what the state tells us to do. And so we're like, ‘great.’ And it does happen sometimes where the state just overrides what a county or city wants. Sometimes the state will say, ‘Well, you didn't do this, and so we're going to take action.’ That is what we've set up as our government. I would prefer it be a bottom-up type of thing. It isn't that way. It's not going to work that way, apparently. So, in reverse, if you're going to come from the state, I would prefer that they at least bring us in early on and have these discussions.
HRB: What are the ramifications of the potential referendum in the works to overturn your decision?
LH: Well, my understanding is, if the referendum passes, basically it goes back to what it would be if I voted no. It would be the exact same thing as if I voted no. There would be no guardrails. It would be back to, ‘They build the data center. They get to do what they want to do out there. We can't control it.’ There's still the same, same rules that were in place with the yes vote. As far as they still got to have DEQ [Utah Department of Environmental Quality] look at air quality. They've still got some water issues. But short of that, they can still go forward with it. I mean, the best part for me with the referendum is if citizens vote no or vote to say, ‘Hey, let's repeal what the commission did,’ they can't blame the three of us anymore.
