Inver Grove Heights taxpayers are off the hook when it comes to allowing a new, multi-million dollar lawsuit despite a recently approved data center moratorium.
During a Monday evening meeting, the Inver Grove Heights city council approved a plan to exclude data center developer Qlevr from the one-year moratorium after it sued the city.
The city passed a one-year data center moratorium back in June.
A move by the city council last night means Qlevr is no longer included in the moratorium, opening the door for the company to again pursue building a 54,000 square foot data center within the city.
Council member Tony Scales says the city simply ran out of options.
"I really struggle with the idea of continuing this fight, and because continuing the fight doesn't mean it won't happen," he says. "It actually means the city and the residents are going to pay a lot of money, and it's still going to happen."
Now, the Inver Grove Heights City Council will consider a data center development plan during its September 28 meeting.
"We take it out of the moratorium, we get the data center," Scales explains. "We leave it in the moratorium, we get sued. We've been sued, so we're going to pay a lot of money. The residents can pay a lot of money, and we get a data center. I haven't been able to hear anything that has gotten us on a different path."
A number of communities in Minnesota have been resistant to new data centers due to issues with electricity and water demands. Data Centers require large amounts of both resources.
Last week, a company that develops data centers decided to withdraw their proposal to purchase the old Star Tribune printing facility in the North Loop of Minneapolis. That came after pushback from residents concerned about power, water and noise impacts.
