Sun This Week (Hometown Source) reports…

Farmington Mayor Nick Lien explained why the city will not pursue a one-year data center moratorium during the Aug. 17 City Council meeting.

Lien said if a moratorium were enacted, it would not apply to Tract, the developer of a 2.5 million-square-foot data center concept in Farmington, since the development had already received rezoning and planned unit development approval to place it outside the scope of a moratorium.

“Inver Grove Heights is living through the scenario of what would happen if the city did try to apply the moratorium to the Tract project. They did try this exact thing, and they are now facing a $20 million lawsuit, and are scrambling to exempt the current development from that moratorium,” Lien said.

He said the moratorium idea gives residents a false hope that the city and council could suddenly change its mind and undo the Tract project and rip up the contract.

Decisions had been made earlier…

Schmidt said the council approved a preliminary and final plat for Tract that includes a concept to build a 2.5 million-square-foot data center.

“Once that is done certain rights vest in an owner or an applicant in this case,” Schmidt said, referring to Tract and the Farmington School District, which owns land that is part of the potential data center development.

The Mayor is open to communication..

“I highly encourage those residents who feel as they would like to know more about our specific projects to attend, regardless of how strongly you feel one way or another about the data center topic in Farmington,” Lien said.

Lien also invites residents to ask questions and share concerns during his weekly open office hours from 3-4:30 p.m. Monday and 9-11 a.m. Friday at City Hall, 430 Third St. in downtown Farmington.

The Isanti-Chisago County Star reports…

The Isanti City Council is adjusting its moratorium on data centers down from 30 months to 12 months.

According to Community Development Director Stephanie Hillesheim, the maximum length of such a moratorium is 12 months.

“I know we discussed 30 months or 18 months, but it’s 12 months. That’s the longest we are allowed to put the moratorium on for,” Hillesheim said. “We have to be proving staff is working on an ordinance and doing research on it.”

Interestingly, Hillesheim said the urgency to decide whether to place a moratorium on data centers has increased since the topic first came up a couple of months ago.

The council approves…

The council unanimously approved the draft ordinance for a 12-month moratorium. Hillesheim said the draft will be posted for the required 10 days and will come back before the council at its next meeting for final approval.

This is an interesting discussion of the inherent advantages the Upper Midwest has for data center developers…

And a description of the video from FOX9…

As data centers expand across the region, questions remain about how much water and electricity they use and what that means for local communities. NDSU research specialist Bob Mayo joins us to break down the differences between facilities, the demands they place on infrastructure, and what the research shows.

KTTC reports…

Tensions ran high as Harmony city leaders were met with a flood of public feedback over a proposed data center that could be coming to the Fillmore County community.

In a packed meeting Wednesday, city officials reviewed more than 40 written submissions spanning over 80 pages of public concerns and questions from local residents over a two-week comment period.

The proposed facility has sparked community concern on multiple fronts. Among the worries is the site’s proposed water usage, which is projected to reach up to 60,000 gallons a month. Residents also voiced concerns over potential noise pollution and the threat of unchecked future expansions.

Under the city’s current drafts, developers would be blocked from expanding the site in the future without explicit city approval. Council members are also considering requiring developers to build sound barriers, or berms, to block runaway noise from neighboring residential areas.

They will meet again soon to talk more about it…

City leaders are sending the amendments back to the city attorney to fine-tune the restrictions and rewrite the draft. The attorney has a three-week window to return the revised language to city leaders.

The council is scheduled to review the next draft on September 16.

North Loop Neighborhood Association reports…

The North Loop Neighborhood Association (NLNA) has received clarity from the City on the rules, timing and process for the proposed data center.

Application Filed

Legacy Investing has filed an application for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) with the City’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department (CPED). That application is not yet “complete,” which is not unusual at this stage. Once staff from CPED mark the application “complete,” it goes to the City Planning Commission.  Use the link to sign up for notifications about their agendas, but if you live within 350 feet of the site, the City is required to notify you by mail and a public notice will also appear here.

Probable Timeline

Sept. 23: NLNA P+Z meeting: CPED says it’s confident we’ll have a complete or near-complete application in time for this meeting. In that case, P+Z would invite the developer to present the application, but the developer is not obligated to do so. The City only requires that developers “notify the neighborhood,” which Legacy did in an August 11 e-mail. This e-mail triggered P+Z’s invitation to present at its August 19 meeting.

Sept. 30: NLNA Board of Directors meeting: The board will discuss and vote to approve, reject or amend P+Z’s action from Sept. 23. This vote would be forwarded to CPED and the City Planning Commission.

Oct. 13 or 26: City Planning Commission meetings: The data center would likely be on the agenda of one of these meetings, where the NLNA vote would be included as part of  CPED’s recommendation on approving or denying the data center. (Note, the Planning Commission also has a 9/28 meeting, but it’s highly unlikely the data center project would be ready for their agenda by then. If that changes, the NLNA will be ready to testify at the meeting.)

For more information on how public hearings work and how to participate, CPED provided this Public Hearing Guide. Once the Planning Commission votes on the proposal, it goes to the City Council.

This Data Center Proposal Will Be Decided on Current Rules

Faribault Daily News reports…

Members of the environmental commission agreed to revive an effort to bring a data center moratorium to the Faribault City Council’s docket during Monday night’s meeting.

“When we tried to bring (the initial resolution) to the city council we were still under the lawsuit. (The council) didn’t want to discuss it because of the pending litigation,” Environmental & Water Resources Coordinator Adam King said. “I can speak with the city administrator and see if I can get it on one of the agendas.”

The environmental commission actually already had approved a resolution, but the ordinance never made it to the council docket due to a then-ongoing lawsuit by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.

In the same meeting, commissioners agreed to form a three-person committee to discuss what data center-focused regulations and standards it wants to see adopted by the city. Faribault City Council previously asked the planning commission and environmental commission to create a joint plan to address data center ordinances.

The article outlines some of the perceived issues and concludes…

These ideas will be discussed by the three-person committee before being approved as part of the environmental commission’s recommendations to the planning commission. The joint plan will eventually make its way to city council.

The Pine County News reports...

A Pine County moratorium on data center developments has been extended to 12 months after the county board heard public testimony overwhelmingly calling for a longer pause.

The board previously adopted an interim ordinance to authorize a six-month moratorium on July 7 but did not hold a public hearing at the time.

According to county administrator Kelly Schroeder, Pine County has not received any inquiries regarding a possible data center project.

“This was something that was brought forward from the zoning board just as a proactive measure,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder said a moratorium gives the county time to study the topic and determine how best to move forward.

There was a public meeting…

Pine County residents voiced a multitude of concerns regarding data centers during the public hearing on Aug. 18.

Those ranged from light and noise pollution, environmental and ecological impacts, water usage, long-term economic viability, transparency in decision-making, and the length of time needed for a work group to study regulations and make recommendations.

And then they voted…

Commissioner Roger Nelson made the motion to reaffirm the interim ordinance authorizing the moratorium, extending it to 12 months with an effective start date of Aug. 18.

The motion was seconded by commissioner Matt Ludwig, and the vote passed unanimously.

CBS News reports…

The old Star Tribune printing plant is a big part of that conversation. Legacy Investing, based in Arlington, Virginia, which also converted the Sleep Number building into a data center, agreed to purchase the 13-acre printing site.

“The thing I’m thinking about is the people in that neighborhood, and how do they most benefit from a potential development,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

Frey says there is an opportunity if done right. The comments Friday come as the city deals with a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall, while its tax base isn’t what it once was.

“I believe they need to be regulated. We need to make sure that we’re ensuring livability and health and safety for our communities,” he said. “Simultaneously, we should work to make sure that they can help drive down the taxes for everybody else.”

Frey says one of the key goals is making sure data center buildings do not become the sole use of the property, but rather a space the community can enjoy, such as a restaurant or event space.

MPR reports…

A proposal to turn the defunct Minnesota Star Tribune printing plant, one of the few remaining industrial sites in downtown Minneapolis, into a data center has become a contentious and defining issue in the neighborhood.

The Minnesota Design Center and the North Loop Neighborhood Association on Saturday reviewed three sessions of community input collected at a series of workshops last week from more than a thousand Minneapolis residents.

And the first public presentation about the developer’s plans for the site met strong public opposition Wednesday night. Hundreds of residents spilled out the doors of the North Loop Neighborhood Association’s meeting room, across the street from the plant.

Local hostility to the plan mirrors rising public skepticism of data centers in Minnesota and around the country as some centers have driven up local utility bills and tech companies have signed secret agreements with cities about future projects.

The developer, Virginia-based Legacy Investing, has already signed a purchase agreement for the property with the Star Tribune and submitted a conditional use permit application to the City of Minneapolis.

The city will decide whether the project moves forward. Data centers have been top-of-mind for city leadership, and the Minneapolis City Council is in the process of updating its zoning rules for the centers.

Legacy Investing does not need the neighborhood association to sign on to the project, but Wednesday evening, two representatives of Legacy Investing attempted to get public buy-in at the neighborhood’s planning and zoning committee meeting.

Here’s what the planners shared…

Chernikoff and his colleague, Daniel English, pitched what they describe as a small, 20-megawatt, data center that they say wouldn’t strain the local energy grid or use more water than “two to four residential homes worth of water consumption.” That’s a lot less than nearby commercial buildings, Chernikoff said.

Legacy Investing would buy the plant and some land around it. Chernikoff said the data center would be an economic boon to the city, but also “provides an economic engine for these adjacent parcels to allow them to be developed into whatever the city sees as its highest and best use.”

One possible result of the meeting…

The full board of the North Loop association meets at 6 p.m. Aug. 26. They’ll decide whether to agree with the planning and zoning committee’s letter asking the developer for more information and asking the city to delay the project by a month.

The Minnesota Star Tribune reports…

Google has scaled back its plans for a proposed data center campus in Northeast Minnesota in response to community concerns, the tech giant said this week.

The initial 1.8 million square-foot campus planned for Hermantown is now expected to be 1.66 million square feet, shrinking from four data center buildings to three, reducing the amount of disturbed wetlands and land.

The project, kept secret by city officials for a year, has fueled enormous pushback in this town of 10,000 near Duluth. Since it was revealed as a data center last year through a Minnesota Star Tribune public records request, the project has generated a lawsuit, and inspired political candidates and a highly organized grassroots opposition group protesting everything from tax subsidies to nondisclosure agreements.

“We’ve been listening,” Google representative Tyler Huebner said at a Monday Hermantown City Council meeting.

MPR reports…

Staffers with tech giant Google turned on the charm and put in some face time in Minnesota this week, as the company tried to smooth over some ruffled feathers and win over naysayers in two small towns where it hopes to build massive data centers.

Wednesday evening Google hosted what it called a community celebration in Pine Island, about 20 minutes northwest of Rochester, with free food, live music and family activities.

Meanwhile, 200 miles to the north in Hermantown, just outside Duluth, Google hosted an open house to answer questions from area residents about the hyperscale data center it wants to build there.

The event in Pine Island was pretty laid back as people gobbled up the free food and kids jumped in bouncy houses, a sharp contrast to the Hermantown meeting, where data center opponents disrupted Google’s presentation and several of them were escorted out by police.

The meetings come as Google faces some uncertainty with both projects. In Hermantown, where the project still needs city council approval, the proposal is facing intensified opposition after recordings were leaked of senior Hermantown officials mocking data center opponents.

The Pine Island data center project is also now on hold, even though city officials have signed off on it while a judge considers the merits of a lawsuit seeking a more thorough environmental review.