Blandin on Broadband

News and information on broadband use, policy, and trends

Blandin on Broadband

EVENT Nov 10: Harmony city council to discuss data center draft ordinance (Fillmore County)

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KTTC reports…

The Harmony Planning and Zoning Commission approved a draft ordinance that would establish regulatory standards for potential data center development in the Fillmore County community.

The ordinance now goes to the city council for consideration. The next council meeting is Nov. 10.

More info on the ordinance…

The ordinance is in its sixth draft. According to its language, it establishes clear regulatory standards for the development and operation of data center facilities within the city by protecting public health and safety while preserving Harmony’s rural character and environmental resources.

Unlike the planned Google data center development in Pine Island, there has been no public announcement about a specific project in Harmony.

County of Douglas Board of Commissioners discuss data centers in September 2026

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The Douglas County website reports…

The Board of Commissioners in and for the County of Douglas, State of Minnesota, met in Regular Session in a joint meeting with the Alexandria City Council this 28th day of September 2026. The meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m. with the following Commissioners present: Tim Kalina, Charlie Meyer, Jerry Rapp, Shane Schmidt, and Jeff Way The following informational items were discussed, with no action taken: PrimeWest Health RCC/Douglas County Library Project, Flock Cameras, Data Centers, E-bikes/E-scooters, Partnership: Green Cities Task Force/Pope Douglas Environmental Center.

Not much, but at least we know it’s on the radar.

BlockchAIn Digital Infrastructure Inc. plans Crow Wing County data center

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Careful readers will notice that I’ve added a few articles that are a little more dated than usual. That’s because I’m gathering information on data centers by county, as preparation for the annual MN County Broadband profiles. In that spirit, Community Digital Technologies shares…

BlockchAIn Digital Infrastructure Inc. plans BlockchAIn Digital Infrastructure Crow Wing County data center, a data center in Crow Wing County, MN. The project is sized at 25 MW. dcmap.us tracks a planned ~25 MW BlockchAIn Digital Infrastructure data center in Crow Wing County (Brainerd area), an HPC/crypto-style facility.

Server County provides a little more information…

This record tracks BlockchAIn Crow Wing County Data Center in Minnesota.

BlockchAIn Digital Infrastructure’s April 2026 SEC-filed investor presentation lists a current Minnesota site in Crow Wing County, described as OBC-owned with interconnection in progress and a target of 25 MW of power delivery by Q4 2026. DCD reported from the same presentation that development was underway, but the source language remains forward-looking and subject to change, so this is recorded as planned rather than under-construction.

Data Center Dynamics also reports…

BlockchAIn Digital Infrastructure, which focuses on powering data centers for blockchain, AI, and HPC workloads, has outlined a planned US data center development pipeline totaling around 715MW.

The New York-listed company detailed the plans in an April 2026 investor presentation, setting out current and proposed sites in South Carolina, Minnesota, and Texas, as well as other unnamed markets under evaluation.

The company said the planned pipeline spans nine sites and could require around $9.9 billion in capital expenditure over five years.

BlockchAIn currently operates a data center in South Carolina, described in the presentation as 40MW operational and cash-flowing, with around 25MW of additional upgrade capacity available. The company said 20MW of that capacity is transitioning to AI workloads in the future, and that a separate 100MW pipeline site in Florence County, South Carolina, is planned for AI GPU hosting in the second quarter of 2028.

In Minnesota, BlockchAIn said it owns a site in Crow Wing County where development is underway. The company is targeting 25MW of power delivery at the site by the fourth quarter of 2026.

Data centers come up in debates in Clay County Commission

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InForum reports…

Candidates in two races for seats on the Clay County Commission debated issues ranging from taxes to data centers during a candidate forum Monday, Sept. 21.

On data centers…

A full room of guests listen and ask questions to Tom Berglind, Julian Dahlquist, Jenny Mongeau and Scott Steffes during the League of Women Voters’ Clay County Commission candidate forum on Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, at the Moorhead Public Library.

Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum

Berglind said his support for data centers would depend on the resources needed for the data center and its environmental impact.

“And I would truly want to know what our citizens’ concerns are,” Berglind said.

Mongeau said she is opposed to large-scale projects like data centers circumventing local entities like townships and counties.

“We’ve had conversation, as of last week, about counties supporting moratoriums because the developments are happening much too fast for local ordinances to even keep up,” Mongeau said.

Each candidate said they would not sign a non-disclosure agreement for a data center project.

Chicago County Commissioners approved one-year Moratorium on Data Centers in August 2026

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Chicago County Press reports…

The other public hearing that was scheduled for the Board meeting was about data centers, or high utility use developments.  The Board voted to impose a one year moratorium on applications.

Data centers need to be defined and conditions need to be drafted and reviewed to control possible negative effects.

Assistant County Attorney Jeffrey Fuge explained the moratorium is not hand-cuffed to being one year in length,  and at any time the county planning commission arrives at a well-worded ordinance it wishes to recommend, the commissioners can convene a public hearing.

The county planning commission will take the lead on writing ordinance language that will specifically address high utility use projects.  This effort addresses only the areas of the county where the county has zoning jurisdiction.

(Draft Moratorium Ordinance on Data Centers Rev Draft 2026-07-09.)

Paul Bunyan Communication almost done on all-fiber broadband expansion in Central Aitkin County

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Paul Bunyan Communications announces…

Construction is winding down on Paul Bunyan Communications major all-fiber optic broadband expansion project in central Aitkin County, with the GigaZone® all-fiber optic Internet & WiFi becoming available to over 1,800 homes and businesses over the next few months.
This expansion covers a wide area of Central Aitkin County including the cities of McGregor, Palisade, and Tamarack, along with portions of Clark, Haugen, Jevne, Libby, Logan, McGregor, Shamrock, and Workman Townships.

  • City of Palisade and rural areas east, south, and west of Palisade.
    The project is completed with services now available.
  • City of McGregor
    Construction is done. Fiber splicing is underway with services anticipated becoming available by the end of the year.
  • Current Construction
    Our construction crews are working in the city of Tamarack and the Round Lake/Horseshoe Lake area of Shamrock Township. Services are expected to become available over the winter.
  • Permit Delays
    Unfortunately, we have run into unusually long delays in getting the necessary permits for a few areas of this project. This impacts around 600 locations and as a result we will have to wait until the 2027 construction season to complete those areas of the project. These areas are highlighted in purple on our online map at https://paulbunyan.net/gigazone/availability-map/
    “We’re nearing the finish line on a majority of this important project,” said Chad Bullock, CEO of Paul Bunyan Communications. “Reliable internet is critical for work, education, healthcare, and staying connected, and we’re proud to start delivering that to more homes and businesses in Aitkin County.”
    Those included in this expansion will have access to GigaZone® Internet and WiFi, offering speeds up to 10 Gig and the reliability needed to support today’s connected homes and businesses. Voice services, including unlimited local and long-distance calling, will also be available. Business customers will benefit from Managed IT Business Services such as VOIP, Disaster Backup and Recovery, and Network Management.
    Residents and businesses in any of these areas can sign up anytime. If the cooperative cannot bring the network up the location before winter, crews will return to make that connection and install services in the spring. There is no membership fee to join the cooperative; membership begins when subscribing to GigaZone® Internet or local phone service.
    To check availability or sign up for service, visit http://www.paulbunyan.net, call, or stop by the Grand Rapids Customer Service & Technology Center.

Updates on Paul Bunyan Communication’s Expansion to City of Hibbing

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Good news from Paul Bunyan Communications…

Paul Bunyan Communications has made great progress on expanding its GigaZone® all-fiber optic network in an area southwest of downtown Hibbing and is adding another area to the expansion construction this fall.
The new expansion area added to this year’s plan includes over 140 locations in an area south of Hwy 169 between MN Hwy 73 and 1st Avenue stretching just south of S 47th Street. It includes parts of 11th Ave W, Newberg Rd, Aspen Knoll, Opal Lane, Aspen Grove, Diamond CT, and Meadow Drive.
Construction will take place over the next few weeks with services expected to be available over the winter. To get connected, residents and businesses just need to sign up for service. That can be done online at https://paulbunyan.net/ or in person at our Grand Rapids Customer Service & Technology Center.
Construction is almost done on the first area of expansion that includes over 700 locations in an area that stretches from Hwy 169 east to 1st Avenue and north to 28th Street West. It includes portions of Ansley Rd, Corey Tracts Rd, 1st-9th Ave W, Dillon Rd, and 28th-41st St W.
There is no construction fee to get connected and there is no membership fee to join the cooperative. Membership begins when you subscribe to GigaZone® Internet or local phone service.
Once the new all-fiber optic network is operational, homes and businesses can get fast, dependable GigaZone® Internet and WiFi built to keep every device connected. Voice services, including unlimited local and long-distance will also be available. Business customers will gain access to Managed IT Business Services like VOIP, Disaster Backup and Recovery, and Network Management. In addition, Paul Bunyan Communications is an authorized DIRECTV dealer and certified Apple Service Center.
“It’s important for anyone in the expansion area who wants to get connected to sign up as soon as possible. By signing up before construction crews stop for the winter, you’ll be able to have your services installed once the network becomes operational. We will return to connect additional locations in the future, but those who wait to sign up may not be able to get connected until next summer,” said Brian Bissonette, Paul Bunyan Communications Marketing Supervisor.
For more than 70 years, Paul Bunyan Communications has brought the latest communications technology to communities across northern Minnesota. Today, the cooperative provides high-quality, reliable Internet & WiFi services across more than 6,000 square miles, including neighboring rural communities and cities such as Buhl, Cook, Britt, Marble, Nashwauk, and Keewatin.
The cooperative will expand even further in the city of Hibbing in 2027. More information on those plans will be released once finalized.

Owatonna Planning Commission proposes zoning ordinance updates include data center definitions (Steele County)

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Owatonna’s People’s Press reports…

The Owatonna Planning Commission is modernizing its Zoning and Subdivision Ordinance to include and better define data centers.

Greg Kruschke, the city’s community development manager, presented the updates to the planning commission during Tuesday’s meeting. He said the city of Owatonna and Owatonna Public Utilities are “not aware of and currently have no data center projects planned or under consideration.”

“We are not a good candidate for a large scale data center,” Kruschke said.

His reasoning is that the city’s 161 kilovolt transmission lines are not large enough. The city’s electrical capacity is not “overly excessive” at around 20 megawatts compared to the proposed Faribault data center’s electric load size of 120 MW. Other projects in Minnesota can have a load size of up to 1,000 MW.

They are working on definitions…

The city’s existing ordinance has no definition or use category for data centers, and the updated August draft defined data centers and split it into Enterprise and Hyper Scale with the break at 20 MW. Enterprise data centers were a permitted use in the B-2 and B-3 districts (Community Business and Central Business). Hyper Scale data centers were a conditional use in the I-1 and I-2 districts (Light Industry and Heavy Industry).

The official definition of a data center has remained the same between the August draft and October proposal: “A facility used for the storage, processing, management and distribution of digital data and information, consisting of servers, networking equipment and supporting infrastructure such as cooling systems, backup power generation and electrical equipment.”

The October proposal kept the definition of a smaller data center mostly the same, but changed the use category from Enterprise to Minor and decreased the capacity threshold from 20 MW to “up to 5 MW of total designed IT load.”

The same goes for the Hyperscale (now named Major) data center definition, but now the capacity threshold is listed as “greater than 5 MW of total designed IT load (often expanding to 100+ MW over time).”

EVENT Nov 9: Hearing on data center proposal in Monticello (Wright County)

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Monticello Times reports...

Residents will have another opportunity to weigh in on a proposed 550-acre data center campus when the Monticello City Council holds a public hearing Monday, Nov. 9, on a series of land-use applications that could determine whether the controversial project moves forward.

The council meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the Mississippi Room at the Monticello Community Center, 505 Walnut St.

The city has moved the meeting’s start time up by 30 minutes from the council’s usual 6:30 p.m. start in anticipation of a lengthy meeting.

The council will consider applications for the proposed Edmonson Business Center, a large-scale technology campus planned south of 85th Street NE and east of Highway 25.

 

Hermantown City Council rescheduled again to vote on several items related to Google data center (St Louis County)

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MPR reports…

The city of Hermantown has rescheduled a City Council meeting for Friday at 6:30 p.m. to vote on several key agreements for a controversial Google data center proposed in northeast Minnesota near Duluth.

The new date and time come after Hermantown officials canceled a Monday meeting following two hours of loud chanting and protests from data center opponents outside the City Council chambers. Afterwards, city officials said there was no way to continue that meeting safely.

The city initially rescheduled the meeting for Tuesday night. Then officials canceled that meeting as well amid concerns that it could interfere with early voting that takes place in the council chambers.

The Friday night meeting will be streamed online to allow residents to watch, an option that hasn’t been available for previous meetings. But in-person attendance will be limited to the first 85 visitors in the council chambers, “per the Fire Department,” according to the city’s press release announcing the rescheduled meeting.

Pine Island City Council ends data center litigation between MCEA and Google and mandates a new environmental assessment (Goodhue County)

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MPR reports…

A controversial proposed Google data center in Pine Island will be the first in Minnesota to undergo a new, more-robust environmental review as part of a lawsuit settlement reached this week.

The data center, known as Project Skyway, has been on hold for months after the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) filed a lawsuit, arguing that the original environmental review of the proposal wasn’t thorough enough. The nonprofit said that Google failed to disclose basic information about the project, including its size, scale and projected water and energy use.

The settlement, approved in a unanimous vote by the Pine Island City Council on Wednesday, puts an end to the litigation involving the city, MCEA and Ryan Companies, the project developer. It mandates a new environmental assessment under the supervision of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

More articles on the topic:

Carlton County places a one-year moratorium on data centers starting Aug 2026

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From the Carlton County interim ordinance...

This Ordinance places a one-year pause on the creation or expansion of data centers in Carlton County, pursuant to Minnesota Statutes 394.34. The purpose of this pause is to protect the planning process as the County studies data centers and their impacts and its official controls and the need for possible amendments to its official controls to protect the health, safety, and general welfare of citizens. Additionally, this ordinance will allow time for the completion of the County’s Comprehensive Land Use Planning process that began in 2025.

Big Stone County Commissioners adopted a temporary moratorium on new data centers

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I’m catching up on some “missed” data center news in the last few months as I’m working on compiled data by county. For example, in September, Citizenportal reported…

Big Stone County Commissioners unanimously adopted Ordinance 02-26, placing a temporary moratorium on new data centers after a public hearing in which no members of the public spoke; the ordinance was adopted at the Aug. 18 meeting.

Minnesota DNR warns hunters and anglers to avoid AI for researching season open and close dates

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Outdoor News reports…

The Minnesota DNR Division of Enforcement is urging residents to find season dates and information on its website or in hunting and fishing regulations rather than simply following AI prompts via Google or other search engines.
In recent months, more citizens are using Artificial Intelligence tools to find information about hunting and fishing seasons. Unfortunately, the information that the so-called large-language models scrape from the Internet isn’t always accurate.

I just can’t resist any article related broadband and hunting, hockey or the State Fair. But it is a reminder to double check information before going into the woods.

Cannon Falls City Council approves final plat for data center development (Goodhue County)

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The Cannon Falls Beacon reports…

The Cannon Falls City Council approved the final plat for the data center development as part of its consent agenda during its Oct. 6 meeting. Then at the Oct. 20 meeting, the council approved upgrades for Cannon Falls TV Cable Access’ Cablecast system despite opposition from council member Lisa Zimmerman.

More info on the data center…

Prior to the vote approving the final plat for the data center, two residents spoke during public input. Both asked the council to vote against the final plat approval to put a pause on the project to allow for more studies and a third party to look over everything.

Council member Diane Johnson had just one question before the vote to approve the consent agenda which included the final plat approval.

“Clarification on the final plat approval, if the city administrator or zoning person could clarify that all the conditions that were noted in the preliminary plat have been met in the final plat?” asked Johnson.

“The final plat is in substantial conformance with the preliminary plat, so all of the conditions from the preliminary approval have been met for this final plat application,” replied License and Permit Technician Izzy Carlson.

“In addition, the recommendations from the city engineer related to items for the utility plan have been met as well and we feel that we’re in the position that we are satisfied moving forward with that to align with the development agreement and the approval of the final plat,” added City Administrator Jon Radermacher.

The preliminary plat for the data center was approved back on Oct. 21, 2025. Generally, the preliminary plat sets out conditions that the developer needs to meet in order for the final plat to be approved and if those conditions are met, as Carlson said they were, municipalities rarely vote against it. Denial of a final plat for reasons outside of not meeting the preliminary plat conditions or following the requisite timeline has resulted in legal action in Minnesota.