St. Cloud Weighs First-Ever Data Center Zoning Rules At Tuesday Planning Commission Hearing

(KNSI) – The City of St. Cloud is trying to write its data center rules before anyone proposes building one.

The St. Cloud Planning Commission holds a public hearing Tuesday evening at 6:00 at city hall on draft amendments to the Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code that would, for the first time, define what a data center is in St. Cloud and specify where the largest ones could go.

The city itself is the applicant. In a September 1st memo, Community Development Director Matt Glaesman writes that the city’s current position leans on general industrial language and “a dated zoning definition with no specific site design standards.” Acting now, before a site-specific proposal lands, is “the best practice to establish appropriate standards based on community goals,” he writes.

The drafts split data centers into two categories. Enterprise or on-site facilities, the kind that have quietly operated inside businesses for years, are capped at 2,000 servers, 10,000 square feet and 50 megawatts of peak electrical use. Anything bigger is considered hyper-scale.

Enterprise data centers would be allowed by right in the C3 and C5 commercial districts and all three industrial districts. Hyper-scale facilities would be allowed only in the I3 planned industrial district, and only with a conditional use permit, which requires its own public hearing and notice to neighboring property owners. Their buildings, transformers and generators would have to sit at least 1,320 feet, a quarter mile, from any residentially zoned property, and the site would have to hook up to city water and sewer.

Every data center application would have to include studies on land use compatibility, noise, environmental impact and community impacts on emergency services and schools. Developers would also have to document projected energy use, confirm with the electric utility that the added demand won’t knock it off its renewable energy targets, and commit to on-site solar, water conservation measures, EPA Tier 4 backup generators and a decommissioning plan. Anything at or above 450,000 square feet would trigger a state Environmental Assessment Worksheet, and Glaesman notes those findings can become grounds to deny a permit.

The Planning Commission would forward a recommendation to the city council, which holds its own public hearing before either document can be amended. Because the city is the applicant, either body can postpone action to gather more information.

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