Overview
- The City Council voted to deny an ordinance amendment that would have permitted converting a 60,000‑square‑foot industrial building into a data center, leaving the proposal unlawful under current rules.
- Developers Elk River Capital and Swervo proposed the conversion as a smaller commercial data center that proponents said would create about 40 jobs and generate several hundred thousand dollars in local revenue.
- Council members instructed staff to prepare a one‑year moratorium on new data centers and signaled they will likely deny the project's conditional‑use permit when they consider it at a future meeting.
- Residents and nearby business owners voiced sharp concerns about steady noise, heavy water and electricity demand, and air pollution from diesel backup generators, and neighbors said the vote provided immediate relief.
- The decision echoes a regional pattern of Minnesota cities pausing data‑center approvals to study local impacts and follows at least one moratorium now facing a legal challenge from a data‑center company.