The Minneapolis City Council has imposed a 5 month data center moratorium for new developments outside of downtown to study their impacts.
The council approved the measure Thursday to temporarily halt the development of larger facilities amid warnings that unregulated growth could impact local power grids and worsen environmental injustices.
"I think this is really important because it signals to our community, which has resoundingly reached out to us to say that they want to see strong regulations on data centers, and want to see a pause in a moratorium, that we are taking their voices seriously," says Ward 12 councilmember Aurin Chowdhury.
This does not apply to smaller data centers located downtown that are less than 350,000 square feet.
Opponents warn the move could discourage future investment in the city, but the council said they still want to examine regulations surrounding energy use and public safety.
"Where do they want these data centers at? It's very clear that there's this big target on other places outside of downtown, and as someone that represents the Phillips neighborhood, part of the South Side green zone, I am very concerned that there's a strategy meant to bring more of these facilities into these already polluted neighborhoods in Minneapolis," explains Ward 9 council member Jason Chavez.
This decision follows growing local and statewide pushback from residents, though labor groups says there could be a potential loss of construction jobs as well.
