LEE COUNTY – A rather calm room of about 50 people spoke to Lee County Supervisors Tuesday morning about data centers during the public comment portion of the agenda.
The regular meeting, usually held at the Lee County office building’s board room in Fort Madison, was moved to the Meller Family Health Center to accommodate the expected turnout.
Supervisors estimated the meeting would have a larger attendance after a group of close to 200 descended on Fort Madison’s Planning & Zoning Commission last week in a spill-over turnout that had close to 100 people live streaming the meeting from the parking lot.
Those attendees turned out to express opposition to the proposed AI data center project on Burlington Hill just outside the city’s jurisdiction in county territory. The city does have two small parcels in the development area, but City Manager Laura Liegois said attempts by development owner Dustin Wolgemuth of Octopus Investments, LLC out of Florida, to annex the parcels were rejected by the city.
On Tuesday morning, more people spoke to Supervisors about the impact of data centers. They also thanked the county for its considerations on data centers and the one-year moratorium it put in place in June. Several also thanked Lee County Attorney Ross Braden who issued a cease-and-desist order Friday on any construction in earnest at the site.
The moratorium is just a one-year moratorium as it stands now and doesn’t disqualify projects from coming to the area once the moratorium is lifted. However, supervisors have said they want more information about the impacts of the projects, including utility rates, community impacts, and environmental impacts.
As part of the meeting, Lee County Supervisor Garry Seyb had an agenda item included that will result in the county hiring specialized legal counsel to help the county navigate investigations into the data centers and nuclear power sites, as well as other economic development projects. The county already has an ordinance in place dealing with solar, wind, and battery storage systems, but is investigating adding data centers and nuclear power projects to the zoning codes. The resolution was approved 5-0.
“It would be good to have a specialized firm on retainer to be able to do that. I have spoken to our attorney. Ross does a great job handling our bread-and-butter county stuff, but we’re really getting into a special niche area of the law,” Seyb said.
Supervisor Chuck Holmes asked Seyb if Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission, who helped create the other zoning ordinance, couldn’t assist the county over paying for an outside attorney.
“I spoke with them and they expressed that they aren’t attorneys specializing in that. We’re getting complicated enough now that it would be in the best interest of the board and the best interest of the county taxpayers to have a firm that that’s what they do,” he said.
Braden said he supported the move and said it could be helpful to have someone on retainer to advocate for the county when it comes to future development and negotiating what is the best advantage along with incentives that provide the biggest bang for the county.
“I do a lot of things, but that is something that is not in my exact wheelhouse. So, I would be supportive of it and think it’s the best for the county,” Braden said.
Liegois was also on hand Tuesday morning and said a lot of things have come to light in the last few days. She said the city gets project ideas all the time.
“Businesses come and talk to economic development, to cities, and to counties. They want the opportunity to put plans together before it becomes public. I understand there is a lot of frustration in this room based on the topic of what it is,” she said.
Dave Taylor, a resident who lives next to the project at 108 2nd Street in Fort Madison said the developer’s playbook doesn’t match up with taxpayer reality after the fact.
“The windfall elusion, they're promising millions in taxes from high tech equipment, but he said Iowa code 423.395 exempts all the equipment inside the building and there is no sales tax inside that building,” he said.
“The only taxes you’re going to get are off the property. That’s it.”
He said the project is just a warehouse with equipment and will have less than 15 employees who probably won’t live in that area. Taylor said utility companies are struggling with the demand of data centers after just two years.
“Those are socialized rate hikes to citizens, and they are averaging between 18% and 258% within three years. That power has to be consistent.”
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