Impressive debate around proposed data center

It’s the story that won’t stop – and shouldn’t stop.
As earth movers continue scraping and shaping the hillside of the property Jon Heyland used to own on the city’s east side, commonly known as Burlington Hill, residents are getting more and more full-throated in their approach to getting local governments involved in stopping the work.
In a letter to Fort Madison City Manager Laura Liegois, property owner Dustin Wolgemuth confirmed for the first time a “proposed AI data center” on the estimated eight acres on the hillside.
Fort Madison resident Fred Newkirk, who lives a stone’s throw from the property, was the most full-throated when he yelled at a meeting Tuesday with Fort Madison Planning and Zoning commissioners. But he wasn’t yelling in anger. He told the commissioners he was simulating the higher decibels associated with data centers and drew a pretty clear, and funny, picture of how annoying it will be to live next to the facility. And then commission chair Barb Asay calmly thanked him and asked him to have a seat. Newkirk walked out to cheers from about 100 people standing outside City Hall after they were stopped at the door by Fire Chief Chad Hannum, who had the unenviable responsibility of enforcing occupancy limits.
But the people outside got techy and fired up phones and speaker phones and livestreamed the meeting so they could hear. Several of them pressed their faces against the window like little kids at a toy store, to get a view of what was happening in the standing room-only gathering.
It was very clear that opposition was the majority in the room. Paul Wilkerson, a former Fort Madison School Board member and city park director, spoke quietly about how the project has had little to no transparency and if it was so good for the city’s economic future, as Wolgemuth referenced in his letter – where was the groundbreaking celebration?
Following the meeting, former Fort Madison Mayor Brad Randolph sent a letter to Lee County Supervisors, who implemented a moratorium on data centers in the county last month.  However, supervisors said at the time that anything currently underway wouldn’t be affected by the moratorium, specifically citing Wolgemuth’s project.
Randolph offers legal citations, including Board of Supervisors of Scott County v. Paaske (1959), Quality Refrigerated Services, Inc. v. City of Spencer (1998), and Stone v. City of Wilton (1983). All three citings reference local government’s ability to restrict development in the absence of brick-and-mortar construction. The legal discussion Randolph provides says site preparation isn’t sufficient to establish construction in all three court hearings. He also cites Iowa Supreme Court rulings that “consistently hold that preliminary site preparation, grading, and planning costs do not establish a vested right to complete a project—even if significant funds were spent—unless a valid building permit was issued beforehand.”
On Friday afternoon, Lee County Attorney Ross Braden said he also found case law that substantiated the project being subject to the moratorium. Braden then issued a cease-and-desist order against any construction in earnest. The site preparation will be allowed to continue.
No permits have been issued on Wolgemuth’s project to date and Wolgemuth had declined to comment for any articles or provide any details other than he would like to hook up electricity to the former ISP site transformer down the hill and across the street.
However, on Friday at about 7:25 a.m. Wolgemuth sent a letter to Fort Madison City Manager Laura Liegois, who he said has been his point of contact since the project started. The letter outlines a new site in Wisconsin that has his attention and he will be visiting the site next week.  He said that could result in a pivot for the Lee County plans.
Wolgemuth sent that letter to Pen City Current on Friday at about 5:15 p.m.
Wolgemuth told supervisors that all-in the project could close in on $100 million in investments, which is certainly noteworthy. It’s also worth noting that Lee County residents have historically frowned at any rural or county zoning intentions, so this could rest in the idiom lap of chicken’s coming home to roost. We believe the property rights are a critical component of population retention and growth, and Wolgemuth certainly picked the right piece to try to build this center. It’s unknown if that’s even what he had originally planned. He referenced bitcoin mining at the supervisors' meeting, but city officials said conversations have been around housing development and other ideas. It can be speculated Wolgemuth doesn’t yet know the specifics of the project because he admitted during the supervisor meeting that investors would be involved. Maybe the decision on what kind of facility it will be also rests with them. If Wolgemuth does know what’s going there and won’t discuss it openly then we, by nature, have to be suspicious on those grounds.
Wolgemuth's letter does provide more transparency in the wake of the community's demand for it, and that's to be commended. And even if it's a tactical threat to move the investment elsewhere, the community wouldn't be disappointed. However, Wolgemuth's letter also points to technology that could be moved in that is mobile, quiet, and more environmentally responsible. That needs full consideration, as well.
Environmental impacts are real and he didn’t score any points along those lines in his publicized information in how those would be mitigated. 
The great illustration here is this. This is how the system works - and is supposed to work. Conversation, debate, research, information, communication, and leadership is what will get us to an informed decision. It isn’t something that gets decided and then everyone screams about why it was done.
Our stance has been to respect Wolgemuth’s rights to develop his property and ultimately his right to earn a buck. However, we must consider the apparent disproportionate impact on the community we live in, the neighbors we love, and the environment we need.
Other than that, we stand firmly behind the debate – but that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current, and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com .