North Mankato council weighs moratorium on data centers amid community concerns

The North Mankato City Council on July 6 discussed whether to adopt a temporary moratorium to study the potential local impacts of new data centers, including water consumption, electrical demand, and noise and light pollution.

City Administrator McCann said Council Member Steiner requested the City explore a moratorium and that Attorney Mark Kennedy and Community Development Director Fischer provided background and a draft ordinance. Kennedy told the council that "depending on the scope of the study, estimated costs could range from approximately $5,000 to $50,000." He said any moratorium would need to clearly identify the issues to be examined.

Council Member Oachs said she supported a study but objected to a 1,500-square-foot threshold in the draft ordinance, calling it a placeholder and urging definitions tied to measurable factors such as electrical or water consumption so existing businesses and small data centers would not be unintentionally restricted. "That was a placeholder and would be a discussion point," Kennedy said in response.

Several council members said they were most concerned about standalone facilities. Council Member Peterson said the ordinance should focus on standalone data centers to address potential noise, light and unusually large water or electrical demands while not preventing expansion of current businesses. Council Member Steiner made similar points.

Council Member Whitlock said his primary question is whether a project would create meaningful employment and that without substantial job creation he had little interest in attracting large data centers. Mayor Carlson said he would "be willing to consider data centers rather than just say no to them," but added he was not in favor of a hyperscale data center and supported a moratorium to allow additional study.

Attorney Kennedy noted staff could draft a moratorium and a review process and cautioned that State or Federal regulations could affect local authority. Carlson suggested council members visit a large data center at night to observe lighting and noise impacts and said he liked the idea of categorizing data centers into tiers to establish consistent definitions. The attorney and staff said they would update the draft ordinance by removing the 1,500-square-foot threshold and adding language to address standalone uses and conversions of large properties into data centers.

Next steps: staff will revise the proposed moratorium ordinance for council consideration and public comment. No formal moratorium was adopted at the July 6 session.