Marshalltown can get data centers right
An opinion by Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO John Hall supports using the city’s pause on new data center approvals to complete zoning, noise, water and other development standards. Proposed rules would limit sites to industrial land, establish setbacks and buffers, restrict private wells, and require projects to meet water and noise requirements before approval.
Marshalltown is using a pause on new data center approvals, scheduled to run through late November, to develop local standards for the industry. The Planning and Zoning Department has produced five drafts of a data center zoning ordinance and related noise, water-connection and private-well rules. The proposals would limit facilities to General Industrial land, require setbacks from homes, create landscaped buffers, reduce building heights near residential areas, and require connections to Marshalltown Water Works.
John Hall, president and CEO of the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce, argues that the city should adopt firm but workable rules rather than reject all projects. He cites potential construction jobs, permanent employment and property-tax revenue from a formally presented 30-acre project, while acknowledging concerns about water use, electricity demand and environmental impacts. The article also references data center developments elsewhere in Iowa as examples of potential tax and economic benefits, but no specific developer has formally been identified for the Marshalltown proposal.