All four Woodbury City Council members and Mayor Anne Burt voted Wednesday to temporarily prevent data centers and high-volume public infrastructure from expanding in the city.
“City staff has been closely monitoring the evolving nature of data centers and, in my 25 years of community development work, no use has changed as dramatically and in such a relatively short time as data centers,” Woodbury city planner Eric Searles said during the meeting.
The moratorium, or interim use permit, is in effect while the city conducts a study to evaluate regulations surrounding the operations and impacts of data centers in Woodbury. The study will look into best practices related to data centers, environmental impacts in the community, effects on residential neighborhoods and compare regulations to other communities, according to the ordinance draft.
“It freezes new approvals for specific zoning and land use activities while the city studies the impacts and drafts permanent zoning standards without the pressure of a live application forcing a premature decision,” Searles said. “It’s important to note that an interim ordinance does not permanently ban a use. Instead, it protects the planning process to evaluate it.”
The ordinance, which will be in effect for one year unless determined otherwise by city council, will prevent the issuing of permits for the expansion of any existing or new structures, prevent proposals for rezoning or comprehensive plan amendments and prevent the approval of conditional use permits or variances.
Searles stated that Woodbury has no active applications or discussions with data center developers or end users.
“This action is being done proactively and is not in response to a specific project,” Searles said.
Woodbury currently has three existing data centers: one at 500 Bielenberg Drive and 401 Bielenberg Drive, both operated by Irongate Data Center, and another located at 515 Bielenberg Drive, owned by Medtronic.
“Staff believes it is prudent to take this opportunity while nothing is pending to pause the ability for a developer to bring in an application or for one of our existing facilities to expand beyond what is already permitted so that this study can occur without interruption,” Searles said.
Resident concerns
Woodbury residents who spoke at the council meeting expressed concerns about data centers including existing uses, expansion possibilities, water use, electricity and noise pollution.
Some residents expressed that, with the adopted moratorium, Woodbury is moving in a positive direction. Others said they felt the city has not provided enough information on data centers until recently.
Woodbury resident Charles Dix said he thinks a study evaluating restrictions and requirements for data centers should have occurred several years ago. He also stated he feels the timing of the current conversation is likely politically motivated.
“If there is no retroactive application of this ordinance, then this is just political theory to help save some elected officials from defeat in November,” Dix said. “Not knowing what cooling systems they plan on using, what code gen or backup generation systems will be used, how they plan to dispose of contaminated closed-loop cooling and reduce noise pollution and expansion must be halted until the owner can provide detailed plans that meet the city’s new zoning requirements.”
High-volume infrastructure users
The council struggled for a time to define whether existing data centers could currently expand to their allotted capacity.
Burt stated that she believes the centers are already at full capacity. The council clarified that if this is not the case, data centers can still reach full capacity; however, the moratorium will temporarily prevent the centers from expanding further, unless determined otherwise.
The moratorium applies not only to data centers, according to the city, but to all high-volume users of public infrastructure, such as sanitary sewer or water, “to a level which would make them amongst the top users, based on annual consumption, within the City of Woodbury,” according to the ordinance draft.
Searles said the approved ordinance is the first step in the public process of reviewing data centers and high-volume infrastructure, not the last.
Future opportunities for public comment will be available, Searles said.
