A Cedar Rapids City Council discussion of an otherwise routine indemnification agreement with Google turned into a larger discussion on data center developments Tuesday night, with council member Ashley Vanorny suggesting the city consider a moratorium on future data centers.
The indemnification agreement with Google, which was approved by the Cedar Rapids Airport Commission Monday, grants Google a temporary occupancy permit for the first of its data center buildings in southwest Cedar Rapids.
In explaining the agreement, city attorney Vanessa Chavez said the airport commission serves as the zoning administrator for the Google data center, based on its proximity to the Eastern Iowa Airport, and that the agreement allows Google to occupy the building “while ensuring the commission retains full authority to take any action necessary to maintain its operations,” including the potential for water vapor plumes from the data center’s evaporative cooling process.
The item was moved from the council’s consent agenda to the regular agenda at the request of council member David Maier, who cast the lone vote against the agreement.
Mr. Maier said he was concerned with language in the agreement indicating that “the nature and extent of potential impacts of Building 1 through 6 have not been fully identified.” He argued it was premature to issue even a temporary occupancy permit without a fuller understanding of risks and potential consequences.
He also raised a philosophical objection to the agreement. “I believe it is morally wrong to say, in effect, that we are OK moving forward with a data center to go live, even though those operations may harm our community, as long as we say you can’t come back and hold the city responsible,” he said.
Mayor pro tem Tyler Olson, who led Tuesday’s meeting in the absence of Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell, said the indemnification agreement is different from others approved by the city, in that it “specifically calls out the airport as the zoning administrator to take the lead on these kinds of questions,. He said approving the agreement allows the airport’s review process to proceed.
“The agreement includes a number of things, the main item of which is the process by which the airport is going to go about determining the answer to that very question,” Mr. Olson said, “and so the agreement actually puts in place that process that the airport will use to determine whether or not there is an impact on operations.”
Even as she voted to support the agreement, Ms. Vanorny raised a broader concern about the pace of data center developments.
While praising city staff for careful negotiations on the Google and QTS data center projects in recent years, she said the council should resist enthusiasm for adding more data centers beyond the two already under construction.
“I would encourage us in a separate conversation to pursue perhaps a moratorium and hold with these two projects and see how they hold up, ensure that accountability, that they do what they said that they were going to do for us,” Ms. Vanorny said.
She framed the proposal as a way to monitor whether the projects deliver on promised efficiencies around water consumption and energy demand before the city commits to more data center projects.
Council members Dale Todd and Scott Olsen agreed that the Mr. Maier’s concerns about data centers are valid.
Mr. Todd said he would support the agreement given significant progress between the city and Google during construction. He also expressed optimism that data center design practices are rapidly evolving in ways that will further reduce strain on the electrical grid, water supply and “the impact on the airport.”
Mr. Olsen said he sees the dual-oversight dynamic of the agreement as a benefit – because the campus is adjacent to the airport, the data centers must satisfy both city review and a separate federal aviation approval process, providing an additional layer of scrutiny beyond normal city oversight.
“That means they’re getting double watched,” Mr. Olsen said, “so I’m that’s why I support the fact that we want them to do that.”
As the pace of data center developments accelerates, the projects are facing a rising tide of opposition across the country, and several governmental bodies – including some in Iowa – have raised the possibility of implementing moratoriums on approving new data centers.
