St Paul Pioneer Press reports…
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, wants to build and operate a $700 million data center in Rosemount, but some residents are worried as a city council vote looms.
The council will vote on the final site and building plan approval Thursday night. Some residents have expressed concerns about the environmental impacts and a lack of transparency from city officials due to a nondisclosure agreement and previous secrecy regarding the project, which was code named Project Bigfoot.
“You signed a nondisclosure agreement with the buyer, which essentially shut the public that elected you out of the conversation,” said one Lakeville resident at the Dec. 5 city council meeting.
More information on the project…
The data center would be used to store computing and networking equipment “for the purpose of collecting, storing, processing, distributing, or allowing access to large amounts of data,” according to a filing submitted to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission by Xcel Energy, the data center’s electricity supplier.
The project is expected to bring in 1,000 construction jobs and support at least 50 on-site jobs to run the data center.
If approved, the data center is to be constructed on a 280-acre parcel of UMore Park near County Road 42 and Dakota County Technical College.
And some of the citizen concerns…
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is trying to build a data center on a 280-acre parcel of UMore Park in Rosemount. Approval for the project will be decided Dec. 21, 2023 by the Rosemount City Council. (Courtesy of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents)
Owned by the University of Minnesota, UMore Park spans 4,772 acres and was used as a munitions plant during World War II. The university’s Board of Regents approved the 280-acre sale to Jimnist LLC, a subsidiary of Meta, in September and the sale is expected to close in January.
Julie Barner, a resident of Inver Grove Heights, said she is worried about the water usage from the proposed data center as well as a population of Blanding’s turtles that she said has a habitat at UMore Park.
The Blanding’s turtle was classified as a threatened species in Minnesota in 1984 and has been documented in the vicinity of UMore Park, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
This is a story where my worlds collide. I support technology growth but sometimes I hike around UMore Park. I like to see that people are asking good questions that always leads to a better solution. Also, only a place with adequate broadband would get an opportunity like this!