Google’s Response to an Iowa County’s New Data Center Requirements? Annex the Land.

Google is seeking to bypass new data center zoning rules in Linn County, Iowa by annexing land for its proposed data center campus into the nearby city of Palo. This would free Google from water-use and economic agreements that the county developed with input from the company. The county views this as a "fundamentally wrong" workaround, but Palo officials say they plan to adopt a new zoning code for data centers that will be different from the county's. The annexation will likely be a slow process, but it would mean the loss of a $500,000 commitment from Google for a regional water study that the county had anticipated.