Lawsuit alleges Hermantown kept public in dark over data center proposal
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Two groups are suing a city in northeast Minnesota over a controversial data center proposal.
The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and a grassroots group of area residents called "Stop the Hermantown Data Center" filed the lawsuit Wednesday in St. Louis County District Court.
They're challenging the city of Hermantown's environmental review of a proposed massive development called “Project Loon,” and they accuse city officials of a lack of transparency.
The lawsuit alleges the city's review didn't describe the proposal as a data center, and failed to provide details about the project's water and energy use, and potential noise and light pollution. The suit also names Harmony Group LLC, the project’s developer.
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“Efforts to keep the proposed Hermantown data center a secret, revealed in documents obtained by public data requests, are some of the most extreme examples we’ve found of keeping the public in the dark about a data center,” stated Kathryn Hoffman, CEO of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.
Nearly 300 people attended a Hermantown City Council meeting last month, when the council voted 4-0 to approve rezoning more than 200 acres in the town about 8 miles west of Duluth for the data center.
In a news release, Anna Estep of the Stop the Hermantown Data Center group said people were “shocked to learn of the ways the city of Hermantown has been keeping people in the dark on a proposal of this magnitude.”
“People want to know, how can such an important decision be made without proper assessment and without involving the people it affects the most?” Estep said.
Recently, the city has posted information about the project on its website. But officials won’t identify the company that would build, own and operate the data center, saying only that it is a U.S.-based Fortune 50 company. Hermantown is working with Twin Cities construction firm Mortenson on the development.
The proposal includes four buildings, each 300,000 square feet – about the size of five football fields per building. Officials say it would take 8 to 10 years to build out the $650 million project, which would be the largest development project in the city’s history.
At least a dozen “hyperscale” data centers have been proposed across Minnesota. Just one, a Meta facility in Rosemount, is under construction.
Data center developers promise the projects will bring jobs, economic growth and tax revenue. But opponents have voiced concerns about their vast electricity and water needs, as well as air, noise and light pollution.
The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy has also challenged cities' reviews of proposed data centers in Lakeville, North Mankato, Faribault and Pine Island.
