(Radio Iowa) – Woodbury County leaders are working to impose a moratorium on data centers in unincorporated areas until they can draft regulations. The issue emerged after the town of Salix voluntarily annexed 900 acres of farmland in April. Last week, MidAmerican Energy confirmed the site is being considered for a data center. At Tuesday’s meeting, resident Janet Yanak urged the county board to pass the moratorium, even though it doesn’t have jurisdiction over the potential project.
“To ensure that another project doesn’t appear before the supervisors have enacted strong regulations to protect our county and our environment,” Yanak says. “No data center is worth the life and health of one person.” Other neighbors of the project testified that they weren’t notified of the annexation, and supervisor Mark Nelson responded.
“The county was blindsided as well,” Nelson says, “and so, we’re trying to create a process where people can help us dictate what happens to the rest of the county going forward.” Supervisors plan to put the moratorium on next week’s agenda and ask the county attorney to look into whether Salix leaders correctly followed state law.
The board supports a one-year moratorium on data centers to gather public input on an ordinance to regulate them. Meanwhile, Salix would still need to rezone the property for the project to move forward.
