Linn County staff outline data-center zoning priorities as residents raise water, noise and jobs concerns

Linn County planning staff on Oct. 20 told the Planning and Zoning Commission that draft zoning language for data centers will be returned for discussion on Nov. 17, 2025, after outlining a range of land-use considerations commissioners should weigh.

Charlie Nichols, planning and development director, framed data centers as physical, land-based facilities that convert electricity into computation and heat. "Data centers are turning electricity into this pattern work, and they are outputting heat," Nichols said, explaining that two constraints — how much power can be put into a building (power density) and how effectively heat can be removed — shape land-use effects.

Nichols walked commissioners through planning issues other jurisdictions have faced: distinguishing small-scale from hyperscale facilities in code; whether data centers should be allowed by right or require conditional or Board approval; phasing and multi-building campuses that unfold over six to eight years; setbacks (commonly 75–200 feet) to reduce visual and noise impacts; and utility implications because sites often require significant water and power. He cited experience in Loudoun County, Virginia, and Prince William County on noise rules and noted some counties now measure both A- and C-weighted decibel ranges to capture low-frequency, low-pitch humming from cooling equipment.

On power and water, Nichols said charts show data centers are consuming a growing share of state electricity in some places; a staff slide cited an Iowa figure of 18% of electricity used in the state attributed to data centers in the chart, and a Department of Energy report slide in staff materials showed U.S. data centers used 4.4% of electricity in 2024 and were projected to use 6.7–12% by 2028. Nichols also noted that a Google data center in Council Bluffs has high water use equivalent on staff slides to about 9.4 golf courses per year. Nichols said jurisdictions are exploring caps, transparency rules, and closed-loop cooling requirements.

Nichols described construction impacts, including large laydown yards and heavy truck traffic that can damage county roads, recommending road-use agreements and construction-management plans. He warned that data centers commonly use on-site diesel or gas backup generators; the industry is also watching small modular reactors as a possible future on-site power source but Nichols said those are several years from broad deployment.

When asked about local interest, Nichols said public reports and a separate public meeting indicated Google is considering a location near the Duane Arnold Energy Center. He said a hypothetical campus proposed in Linn County could use 200–400 megawatts of power, a sizable local demand.

In public comment, Michael Schmidt of Cedar Rapids said he attended because of data-center concerns and urged the commission to weigh the long-term community impacts. "They don't bring in jobs," Schmidt said, adding construction jobs are temporary and that data centers tend to produce few permanent positions. Schmidt also asserted figures about electricity impacts — including that data centers could cause a 260% increase in consumer energy use and that one building could equate to the power for 100,000 households — statements that were made as public comment and not verified during the meeting record.

Nichols and staff answered procedural questions: cooling strategies and specific designs for any proposed local data center were not decided, and those technical details would be specified when a developer filed site plans. Nichols said the commission would see draft code language on Nov. 17 and then any developer would apply for site review and be evaluated under the adopted code.

No regulatory decisions on data centers were made at the Oct. 20 meeting; staff said more public comment is likely once draft zoning language is available.