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Residents urge St. Louis County to tighten zoning rules for data centers
Summary
Several residents told commissioners the county's Ordinance 62 fails to distinguish "hyperscale" data centers from ordinary light-industrial uses and urged a new, more restrictive land-use category with conditional permits, reporting requirements and limits near homes and sensitive ecosystems.
Residents urged St. Louis County commissioners during the public-comment period to create a separate, more restrictive zoning category for data centers, saying the county's proposed changes to Ordinance 62 treat large-scale facilities like ordinary industrial uses.
''"I'm here to respectfully urge you to classify data centers in a more restrictive category within the county's zoning ordinance," Jackie Dolence of Hermantown told the board, arguing that hyperscale data centers bring "extraordinary electrical demand, large cooling systems, backup generator fields, continuous noise" and often have "very limited on-site employment for very large land footprint." She urged the county to allow conditional or special-use review, setbacks and ongoing reporting for water and energy use.
Dolence said a targeted land-use definition would let the county decide where these facilities belong and attach performance standards "that don't apply to any other building type." Joanne Bates of Hermantown echoed that call, saying the ordinance currently "defines a data center as light industrial" but "does not define hyperscale data centers" and urged a definition and limits on the number of such facilities permitted in St. Louis County.
Speakers raised a set of specific regulatory tools they said the county could add to Ordinance 62: a distinct land-use category for data centers, mandatory conditional-use review, enforceable noise limits, setbacks and buffering from residential areas and water- and energy-use reporting tied to approvals. Bates warned of ecological risks and potential difficulty holding large corporations accountable if expansion is unchecked.
Bates told commissioners she would submit written material with footnotes to support her remarks. The public-comment record in the transcript contains no board response or formal action on Ordinance 62 during this portion of the meeting.
