Despite Linn County’s 18-month moratorium on data centers, county leaders are still considering their options for the possibility of allowing one.
The moratorium is for data centers in virtually all zoning areas, but officials are weighing whether to allow them -if- they’re attached to a nuclear power plant.
Planning and development director Charlie Nichols introduced the idea to the Planning and Zoning commission earlier this week.
“There is a moratorium on all data centers right now,” Nichols says, “but the board wanted to ask the question, do data centers that are supporting nuclear deserve extra consideration or is it important enough to bring those forward before the moratorium ends.”
The decommissioned Duane Arnold Energy Center is the only nuclear power plant in Iowa. Google is eyeing adjacent land for a new data center and investing in recommissioning the plant.
“It’s hard to say it’s not project-specific because there is only one nuclear power plant in Iowa,” he says, “but the intent would be, if Linn County is going to permit a data center project anywhere before this 18-month moratorium, does it make sense to permit something that is enabling the restart of a nuclear power plant?”
A rezoning decision will likely take months.
