In Farmington, a homeowner battles a data center and lack of information
By Mike Kaszuba
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Nancy Aarestad had lived in Farmington for 22 years, and suddenly found out in April of this year that a data center was being proposed one street over from her three-acre home. Worse, she quickly learned that city officials had signed a non-disclosure agreement, allowing the city and the developer to work on the project while most residents had no knowledge of it. Large, sprawling data centers are increasingly being built in Minnesota – and nationwide – by users such as Meta and Google to store digital data. The Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development, a citizens group that includes Aarestad, has now filed a lawsuit against the project. The project’s end user remains unknown. Here is a question-and-answer (Q&A) with Aarestad on what she and her group have faced:
Q. You mentioned that -- before now -- you have had not had much interaction with local governments. As you began to find out about the proposed data center in Farmington, what struck you most about this process and how residents were treated by the city?
A. I was very surprised how little information residents are given, and are required to be given, prior to city officials making huge decisions. I was also surprised to learn how infrequent and passively the city actually seeks genuine public input before reaching major decisions. In our situation, it was clear that public hearings were merely requirements, not actual sharing and listening sessions for the city officials. The plans had already been decided by city staff, already supported by the city officials -- the public hearings are merely for show. I was very naive.
Q. Several cities in Minnesota have signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) related to proposed data centers. Public officials have said the agreements, which are often pushed by unknown users, are needed by companies for competitive reasons and to protect trade secrets. Can you understand that reasoning?
A. Yes, I can understand that some specific information might need to be kept quiet for a time. However, I believe that they use that excuse to then apply these NDAs in a very broad way that quickly becomes abusive. This is a convenient way for the city to prevent sharing very important information to the public, restricting knowledge of potentially negative community impacts and undermining public transparency.
Q. In this case, officials in Farmington signed a non-disclosure agreement six months before the project became known to local residents in the Spring of 2024. How did that put residents like you at a disadvantage?
A. The city had been working with Tract (a company representing an unnamed data center user) for months prior to any of us knowing the enormous scope of this project. They had all the pieces of the puzzle in place long before we even heard a word of it, putting the city staff, officials and Tract at a huge advantage, [and] creating an instant power imbalance. Rather than be upfront and present this project to the residents with all the information as they should have in good faith, the city tried to sneak it through the back door. This was intentional. There is a huge learning curve regarding these hyper-scale data centers and we were at an instant disadvantage.
Q. When cities sign non-disclosure agreements for these type of projects, some city officials are put in the position of voting to advance the project without knowing all of its details. Has this happened in Farmington, and what have you been told when you have questioned this?
A. Yes, absolutely this happened in Farmington, the members of the Planning Commission received very little information prior to their intended vote on May 14th, 2024. We have correspondence from one of the planning commission members admitting that she knew very little about the project before she was asked to vote to rezone the intended land on May 14th. She was going by a city staff recommendation as "they are the experts", per her words. She was being asked to vote to rezone the land without knowing that [potentially] the biggest data center in Minnesota was being planned for the property. "We did not get the additional information about what could potentially be built until September" is what she wrote. Does that sound like an honest and transparent way to run a city? Only after public outcry did Tract provide the Planning Commission and the City Council a joint informational presentation, at which the public could only listen (not comment).
Q. How would you characterize how city officials cooperated in making documents related to this project available to you and other members of the public?
A. Unfortunately, the Farmington city officials have not been cooperative in making public documents [easy] to obtain, prompt, or affordable. My request for documents is now almost at the two month mark, and it has been a lot of back and forth because I had to get a state official involved.
Q. At one point, you said that city officials attempted to charge you for information regarding the project. How much did they want to charge, and how was that resolved?
A. My initial quote by the City of Farmington was $8,000. They wanted to charge over 109 hours of employee time at over $73/hour. I was forced to call the Data Practices Office at the State of Minnesota and get help from an analyst there. That state official called the City of Farmington and went over the rules regarding the Minnesota Data Practices Act with Farmington's development director. I shouldn't need to call the State of Minnesota for help in order to be treated fairly by the city.
Q. What specific information have you asked for using the Minnesota Data Practices Act, and have you received it? How long did it take to get it? While you were waiting for the information, did the project move further toward completion?
A. I requested all NDA's between all technology [entities] and the City of Farmington since 2018 and I asked for these to be provided as quickly as possible, which I did receive after 10 business days. However, 11 of the agreements have no final pages/signature pages, and when I inquired about these missing signature pages, I was told that the City does not have fully executed copies of these documents in their records. I find that a little concerning -- these are very important documents to not have full copies of. The additional information I am still waiting for: I requested all emails, documents, memos and meeting notes between Tract and the City of Farmington. While I wait for this information, Tract’s project and plans continue to move forward.
Q. What is the most important information concerning the project you still do not have?
A. I am interested in all of the correspondence and documents between the city and Tract to learn as much about this project as I can learn.
Q. As a resident with a full-time job, how difficult is it for you and others to aggressively pursue information on this project knowing that the developer is pushing this forward with resources you do not have? How many hours a week are you spending on this?
A. That is what is at issue, right? The developer and the City of Farmington have all of the information, and they don't have to share important elements with us, the people. Knowledge is power, and this gives them the power. By signing these NDA agreements with developers, cities can keep critical aspects of their relationship with the developers quiet, excluding the citizens and reducing and even eliminating any meaningful participation from us. The residents who will be negatively impacted by the resulting project are completely left out. [It was] a very unfair imbalance of power. I spend at least 8-10 hours a week on reading, meetings, phone calls.
Q. Even now, the identity of the company behind the data center has not been disclosed. What have you been told by city officials regarding that?
A. City officials continue to tell us the end user is unknown.
Q. Farmington residents like yourself have been actively involved in questioning the project since it was made public in the Spring of 2024. Was there a moment when you realized how much of a fight this would be for you and other residents? What was that moment?
A. For me, the moment that I realized the magnitude of this fight was while sitting in the audience and watching the joint meeting on June 4 between the Planning Commission and the City Council, during the Tract presentation. The city staff and officials talked in terms of when the project [would be] built, not "if". They talked as if the deal was already decided. On June 4th, it was clear to me these plans had been in the works for a long time and that the city officials were not only convinced to go forward, [but] were actively and openly providing their support directly to Tract officials.
Q. What would you tell residents in other cities who come across similar situations?
A. Request NDAs from your city and find out how many agreements you are likely working with; get organized as quickly as possible, and keep asking questions of your city officials, even though you will likely not get straight answers. Use sunshine laws and get as much public information as you can from the city -- that is your right as a resident. Contact your state officials when the city doesn't play fair. [Contact] other community groups [through social media] who just went through a similar fight and ask for help and advice from those other organized groups. Find a good attorney. Research as much as you can, there are so many articles out there to learn from. Educate the residents in your community, (and your city officials, if they will listen). Share with anyone who will listen about the negative environmental impacts of these hyperscale data centers, especially when put next to residential homes like in our case. Understand as much as you can about the predatory tactics these developers use and how their tactics manipulate city officials.
(Supporting documents for this article can be accessed by contacting Public Record Media at admin@publicrecordmedia.org, or at 651-556-1381)