Minneapolis City Council approves regulations for data centers, but fails to pass complete ban

The Minneapolis City Council on Thursday narrowly approved new rules for data centers, but failed to pass an outright ban. 

In a 7-6 vote, the City Council passed a compromise policy that would create two downtown districts and give council members the opportunity to allow or deny development of specific data centers. 

The regulations say that the facilities cannot be bigger than 150,000 square feet if it uses renewable energy, or 50,000 square feet for non-renewable energy. The data center must also operate in an existing space, and it cannot be the primary use of a building.

Council members Elliott Payne, Robin Wonsley, Soren Stevenson, Jason Chavez, Aisha Chughtai, Jamison Whiting and Aurin Chowdhury approved the regulations.

"I think it gives us the conditions to ask a developer what are the things that they're going to put in place to ensure they're going to be a good neighbor?" Chowdhury said.

The Council at first considered a full ban on data centers, but the measure failed to pass with six yes votes and seven no votes. Whiting voted against the ban but cast a vote in favor of the compromise policy.

The city put a five-month moratorium on data center development back in June. That pause expires on Nov. 21. 

The measure will head to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's desk. Frey and other city staff have said data centers give the city a chance to use vacant buildings and help boost the tax base.

The City Council said approximately 1,600 residents weighed in on data centers in comments. 

Earlier this week, a group rallied outside City Hall in opposition to centers. 

"They have not proven to be of benefit to the well-beings of regular residents," Wonsley said at the rally. "When we're talking about environmental impact, noise pollution, when we're talking about their consumption of energy that raises residents' utility bills, when we're talking about the contamination of their water sources."