Land rezoned for potential data center outside Duluth
The short version: Hermantown's council unanimously rezoned land for a nearly 2-million-square-foot data center outside Duluth despite residents showing up to object.
Our Take
Credit to KARE 11 for getting cameras in the room for this one, because these rezoning votes are where the buildout actually gets decided — not in some future public hearing, but in a routine council meeting most residents never hear about until the dirt is already moving. A unanimous vote despite visible pushback is a pattern we're seeing play out in small towns from Minnesota to Georgia: a single agenda item quietly reshapes a community's water demand, electric load, and tax base for the next 30 years.
Nearly 2 million square feet is not a modest facility — that's the footprint of a small industrial city, and it comes with the substation upgrades, water-cooling contracts, and noise complaints to match. The people of Hermantown deserve to know who's actually leasing that space, what utility ratepayers elsewhere in the region will front for the grid upgrades, and whether the tax abatements being floated will ever pencil out for local schools and roads. 'Unanimous' should not mean 'unquestioned.'
If you live near a project like this, or think one might be headed your way, check our facility map to see what's already been approved nearby, and hit our take-action page for how to actually get in front of a council before the vote, not after.
This is GridWatch the USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of KARE 11, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.