First Woodbury County town hall meeting concerning data centers takes place Monday
Woodbury County, Iowa is holding the first of three town hall meetings to gather community opinions on its current 12-month moratorium on data centers in unincorporated areas. The county zoning commission is studying potential requirements and regulations to guide the Board of Supervisors once the moratorium expires in 2027. This comes as Google is evaluating a site in Salix for a potential data center.
Woodbury County, Iowa, is commencing a series of three town hall meetings to gather public input regarding a county-wide moratorium on data centers. The first session is scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. at the Sloan Community Hall in Sloan. These listening sessions are being organized by the Woodbury County zoning commission, which is currently studying data center impacts to provide administrative guidance to the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors by 2027, when the current 12-month moratorium is set to expire.
The moratorium, approved by the Board of Supervisors in June, specifically halts data center development in unincorporated areas of the county. Supervisor Matthew Ung anticipates high attendance at these meetings, noting strong community interest and passion surrounding data center development, prompting the need for security. The zoning commission plans to use these sessions, which will also take place in Moville and Salix, to explain potential requirements, regulations, zoning districts, and application processes.
The wider Siouxland region has seen several counties implement similar moratoriums. Separately, the Salix City Council opted not to impose a moratorium, following an announcement in early August by Google that it is in the early stages of evaluating a site in Salix for a new data center.