St. Cloud is latest Minnesota city to consider new rules for data centers
MPR News reports that St. Cloud officials will hear from residents at a Monday public hearing on a proposed data center ordinance, meant to prepare the city before any developer submits a proposal. The rules would separate smaller facilities from hyperscale ones — those with at least 2,000 servers or 50 megawatts — confining them to the industrial district at least a quarter mile from homes, requiring conditional use permits, city water connections, impact studies, and sustainability measures. Across Minnesota, more than a dozen large projects are proposed, including Meta's in Rosemount and Google's contested plans in Hermantown and Pine Island, while neighboring cities have passed moratoriums and Minneapolis narrowly approved its own regulations.
