People voiced considerable opposition to data centers during a community meeting in rural Woodbury County on Monday evening.
About 140 people turned out at the community center in Moville, Iowa. People said they opposed data centers because they would spoil the enjoyment of rural living, and consume huge amounts of water.
The first seven people who spoke opposed data centers. One man said that once data centers are constructed, there aren’t many lasting jobs.
Keely Bassette Purcell was one of the speakers: “I would strongly urge this zoning commission to really look into this, and say ‘No.’ “
There was a pause after those seven people spoke, and Woodbury County Zoning Commission Chairwoman Christine Zellmerv Zant urged other to speak up.
As the silence continued, a man at the back shouted out, “Does anyone have a positive?” Doug Leckband, of Moville, went to the podium and similarly asked those with a positive impression of data centers to raise their hands.
No one did.
The meeting was held as the second of three Woodbury County zoning commission sessions as they gather input from people on the ongoing 12-month moratorium on unincorporated lands of Woodbury County.
Woodbury County Community & Economic Development Director Dan Priestly set up the meeting with introductory comments, saying, “The temperature is pretty high out there nationally” concerning data centers.
Later in the meeting, people who said they were neither for or against data centers spoke. Pam Clark said productive county soil should be kept as agriculture land, not converted to industrial zoning.
The third meeting will be in Salix on November 9.
Separately outside any county governance, the Salix City Council in August declined to place a moratorium on a possible data center in town.
That same month, Google announced the company is in the early stages of evaluating a Salix site for a data center.
