Plymouth City Council Approves One-Year Moratorium on New Data Centers

The Plymouth City Council unanimously approved a moratorium on new data centers, which have come under increasing scrutiny in cities across the country.

The approval came at its Sept. 8 council meeting.

Grant Fernelius, the city’s community and economic development director, acknowledged a company recently contacted the city about building a data center of “fairly significant” size.

No official proposal has come forward, but the incident led city leaders to take action.

Plymouth’s moratorium will last one year and impacts data center proposals of at least 50,000 square feet. 

The city council initially considered starting with at least 75,000 square feet, which is approximately the size of a Cub grocery store in Plymouth, but opted for the smaller building footprint.

The moratorium would not apply to existing businesses.

What Is a Data Center and Why Are They Controversial?

A data center is defined as a facility used primarily to store, manage, process and transmit digital data.

There is increased need for them due to growth in cloud computing, increased internet usage and streaming, and development of artificial intelligence.

However, data centers have come under increased scrutiny due to the high electricity usage needed to run them and the large water consumption required for cooling equipment.

In some cases, large data centers can require up to 5 million gallons of water a day at peak heat. For perspective, that’s about the same amount of water consumed by the entire city of Plymouth during the winter. 

One recent example of a large data center is Google’s proposal in Hermantown, which covers 280 acres and 1.7 million square feet.

“I think our intent at the beginning is to prevent huge data centers like that,” said Plymouth City Council Member Scott Aldrich at the Sept. 8 meeting during the moratorium discussion.

Fernelius said the typical data center built today is approximately 100,000 square feet.

Before voting to approve the moratorium, Plymouth City Council Joel Spoonheim brought up water usage as a concern.

“It could put a burden on the taxpayers, a variety of concerns, as it would speed up the wearing out of the core infrastructure of water,” said Spoonheim. “I don’t want to take that risk.”

Plymouth Jeff Wosje raised potential issues with the electrical grid. 

“I have concerns, especially living in a part of town, that frequently has blackouts, because we lose power,” said Wosje. “We don’t have a good substation there.”

Plymouth City Council Member Joel Spoonheim speaking at the Sept. 8 meeting.

What Next?

The moratorium will allow city staff to further study the issue and make possible recommendations to update the city’s zoning code.

“Currently the zoning ordinance does not have the framework or specific standards to review a data center proposal,” said Lori Sommers, Plymouth’s planning manager.

There is one existing data center in Plymouth.

Sommers said the facility was approved in 1991, but started as a telephone operating company that has since converted to digital data.

Plymouth