On July 14, approximately 40 guests attended the Clayton County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, where 16 individuals addressed the commission during the public hearing on proposed restrictive and prohibitive data center ordinances.
After hearing comments from speakers, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to continue reviewing the proposed data center ordinances rather than forward either draft to the Clayton County Board of Supervisors. The motion directs the commission to consider the information and concerns raised during the public hearing before returning for another work session and possible revisions.
The motion passed 5-3 on a roll-call vote. The three commission members who opposed the motion, Dan Parker, Kari Friedlein and Clark Wikner, said during discussion they favored forwarding the draft ordinances to the Board of Supervisors, noting the board could review the proposals and return them to the commission with requested revisions.
The Board of Supervisors will ultimately determine whether to adopt a final ordinance following its own public hearing process. For now, the Planning and Zoning Commission will hold another workshop during its Aug. 11 meeting to continue revising the draft ordinances, with another public hearing potentially scheduled for September.
Since the previous public hearing in April, which drew more than 100 attendees, the commission has held workshops during its May and June meetings to revise the original draft ordinance.
Following comments received in April, commissioners also decided to develop both a prohibitive ordinance and a highly restrictive ordinance, although several members expressed concern that a total ban could face greater legal challenges than a restrictive approach. The county’s current data center moratorium remains in effect through Dec. 31, 2026, and may be extended if additional time is needed to complete the ordinance.
At the May workshop, the Planning and Zoning Commission directed Planning and Zoning Administrator Caytee Jones to revise the draft ordinance by adding a definition for “sensitive areas,” including private water supplies, wildlife management areas and state recreation areas. Commissioners also increased the setback from wildlife and recreation areas to 1,000 feet; added application requirements related to water-quality protection, sensitive areas, scenic byway and visual resource protection; and required applicants to submit a backup power plan and information on power capacity. The commission also reviewed a separate draft ordinance that would prohibit data centers in unincorporated Clayton County.
At the June workshop, the commission reviewed those revisions and discussed additional changes, including requiring third-party inspection of closed-loop geothermal cooling systems, requiring applicants to pay for materials needed to properly seal wells in fractured limestone and expanding decommissioning requirements to include the proper abandonment and sealing of geothermal wells. Commissioners also discussed adding geological or geotechnical review requirements and additional road and infrastructure protections.
During the meeting, the commission voted to forward both the restrictive and prohibitive ordinances to the Board of Supervisors for consideration, along with recommending a possible extension of the county’s data center moratorium.
At the recent public hearing, several speakers began by thanking the Planning and Zoning Commission for the time and effort invested in researching data centers and developing the draft ordinances, while encouraging commissioners to continue strengthening the proposals before making a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors.
Chris Schoen praised the commission’s work but urged members to close potential loopholes in both drafts. He recommended expanding the ordinance’s definitions of “data center” and “sensitive areas” to include supporting infrastructure and additional protected lands, while also strengthening decommissioning requirements to ensure financial assurance would cover the cleanup of hazardous materials. “I would like to make sure there are no loopholes,” he said.
Laura Singer, speaking on behalf of her cousin Sarah Davis and other concerned residents, outlined four requested changes to the restrictive ordinance: establishing a two-mile buffer around municipal boundaries, scenic byways and sensitive water resources; requiring “true zero-water cooling;” limiting the amount of electricity data centers could draw from the public grid; and lowering allowable noise standards.
“We’re not asking the county to pick a legal fight it might lose by banning an entire industry outright,” Singer said. “We’re asking it to protect what it already has clear authority to protect—our water, our power grid and our quality of life—with standards strict enough that building here simply doesn’t make financial sense.”
Larry Stone also proposed several revisions, including considering air-cooled systems; expanding protections for erosion-prone land, native vegetation, county and municipal recreation areas and culturally significant sites; clarifying water quality standards; limiting data centers to M-2 industrial zoning districts; strengthening mandatory ordinance language; and requiring greater transparency regarding developers and facility ownership.
Several other speakers referenced experiences in other parts of the country where promised economic benefits failed to materialize, raised concerns about increased water consumption, higher electrical costs, taxpayer burdens, declining property values, environmental impacts, long-term decommissioning responsibilities, and how ordinance requirements would ultimately be enforced if a facility were approved.
Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative Board member Jerry Keleher also addressed the commission during the public hearing, saying he attended primarily to listen and learn from the discussion. He explained rural electric cooperatives have an obligation to provide power to members who meet applicable requirements and noted additional electrical demand can help spread utility costs among members. Keleher encouraged continued dialogue and education on the topic rather than confrontation.
Following the meeting, Keleher and Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative Manager of Member Services Ryan Wagner remained to answer questions informally from a few members of the public. The informal discussion centered on electrical infrastructure, power demand and the differences between smaller-scale and hyperscale data center operations.
Following the hearing, Planning and Zoning Administrator Caytee Jones said she felt the public comments reflected a better understanding of the commission’s role than those offered during the first public hearing. She said many of the earlier comments focused on general opposition to data centers, while the July hearing produced more feedback on specific sections of the draft ordinances.
“I just thought it was a little bit more productive from the public, with more understanding of where we’re coming from and what our job is, with the role that we have in the process,” Jones said.
Reflecting on the process of developing the draft ordinances, Jones said the commission “essentially started from ground zero.”
The commission reviewed ordinances, draft regulations and presentations from Allamakee, Linn, Jones, Greene, Grundy, Winona, Cedar and Jefferson counties, while also drawing from the limited information available through the County Zoning Officials organization.
Jones said she also reviewed every resource submitted by the public throughout the process. “Any article that someone sends in from the public is something that I read,” she said, noting the commission also considered written comments submitted during the first public hearing.
Rather than simply adopting another county’s ordinance, Jones said the commission worked through the materials page by page, identifying provisions members believed were appropriate for Clayton County and combining those elements into a draft that was refined through multiple revisions.
“The commission sort of pinpointed which ideas they liked or thought were appropriate to utilize in our county, and then we sort of pieced it together as a Planning and Zoning Commission,” Jones said.
Once draft language was prepared, it was also shared with the Secondary Roads and Emergency Management departments for review. County Attorney Zach Herrmann conducted a preliminary review, though Jones said his more detailed legal analysis and recommendations will occur if and when the ordinances are forwarded to the Clayton County Board of Supervisors.
On the morning of July 14, ahead of the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative hosted an invitation-only informational session for planning and zoning commissioners and county supervisors from Clayton, Allamakee and Fayette counties. Jones noted not all invited officials attended in order to comply with Iowa’s Open Meetings Law and avoid creating a quorum. Representing Clayton County were Board of Supervisors member Doug Reimer, Planning and Zoning Commission members Doug Puffett and Clark Wikner and Jones.
According to the agenda, the session included presentations from representatives of ACEC, Heartland Power Cooperative, Dairyland Power Cooperative, ITC and Wilson Mining LLC, followed by a question-and-answer session.
Jones said she interpreted the meeting’s primary purpose as “to help people realize that not every data center is like a Google outside of Cedar Rapids,” but rather to illustrate the differences between large hyperscale facilities and smaller-scale operations that could be considered in northeast Iowa.
Jones said Heartland Power Cooperative shared examples of Simple Mining LLC, a small-scale Bitcoin mining operation with three locations in its service territory, while Wilson Mining discussed its existing operation and closed-loop cooling system. Jones also noted there is a small-scale data center near Manchester.
“They encouraged people to go and drive by, stand outside, listen to it, ask for a tour of it,” she said.
Jones said presenters also discussed how existing and proposed local regulations may influence whether developers pursue projects in northeast Iowa.
The discussion will continue, as a “Data Center Discussion” with Eric Wilson of Wilson Mining and Hollee McCormick of Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative was added to the Clayton County Board of Supervisors agenda for July 21.
