(Radio Iowa) – Officials in Iowa’s fourth largest county have adopted a temporary ban on construction of data centers in rural areas of Johnson County. Jon Green, chairman of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, read the details during this week’s board meeting. “A resolution establishing a temporary moratorium on the approval of applications for rezoning, subdivision, or site plan; and on the issuance of building permits for data centers in unincorporated Johnson County,” Green said.

The resolution passed unanimously without debate or comments from the public. Data centers serve as the digital hubs for tech giants like Google and Microsoft and Meta. Critics worry about the impact on local utilities due to the amount of water and electricity data centers use.

This summer, the Clarke County Supervisors approved a temporary moratorium on the construction of data centers in rural areas of their southern Iowa county.