(Estherville)– Estherville’s Planning and Zoning Commission Thursday began the process of establishing regulations for data centers.
Members heard from Gyles Uhlenhopp, chief investment officer with PathOne Data Centers, which designs such facilities. Uhlenhopp says Estherville would make an ideal location for a center, with infrastructure already in place, adding they do not yet have a tenant lined up for a potential project in Estherville.
Uhlenhopp says they’re proposing a small scale facility for Estherville, in the range of 25 megawatts about 100,000 square feet in size. He says they’ll actively pursue a project in Estherville once regulations are established, provided they are acceptable to them.
The Planning and Zoning Commission will meet again next week and will then bring recommendations to the city council for a public hearing.
Those in attendance at Thursday’s meeting asked questions about water usage, noise, and decommissioning of the facility at the end of its lifespan.
The Emmet County Board of Supervisors have implemented a one year moratorium on data centers, but it’s only for the unincorporated areas of the county.
