The Clinton City Council, in a 5-2 vote during their regular meeting on Tuesday, June 9th, is dropping a proposed moratorium on data centers following hours of residents mostly urging their representatives to put one in place.
Third Ward Councilwoman Janet Turpen spearheaded the moratorium ordinance, asking fellow council members to place it on the agenda for the first June meeting during their May 26th meeting. The vote to place the ordinance imposing a 120-day moratorium on data center development on the agenda passed unanimously. Two weeks later, a majority of the members voted down the moratorium, stating it would send the wrong message to Quality Technology Services that they are closed for business.
“There are things we have to work through,” Second Ward Councilman Cody Seely said towards the end of the meeting during council discussion on the ordinance. “No one's doing this without you guys. I know you're scared. I would be scared, too, if I were you. I'm nervous about it all. I have the same concerns you guys have. But I think a moratorium says we're closed for business. And I think we should be at a fact-finding stage where we are open for business, and we're willing to work with people and learn about what they can bring to our community. We can talk about the pros and the cons.”
The ordinance went through three votes. The initial vote was to accept Councilwoman Turpen’s amendment to her moratorium ordinance, clarifying that it would last at least 120 days or until a zoning ordinance was adopted, whichever was later. That vote passed 6-1, with First Ward Councilman Connor Lee being the sole no vote.
Councilwoman Turpen then moved to suspend the rules and pass the moratorium ordinance on first reading. That vote failed 5-2, with At-Large Councilman Gregg Obren joining Councilwoman Turpen voting yes.
“The motion fails to waive the two prior reading requirements of Iowa Code 380.3. We still have the first reading of the ordinance on the table as amended, but we will not be passing it in full this evening, with that being a failure on the vote,” Mayor Scott Maddasion said.
Councilwoman Turpen then left the dais to speak at the mic, facing the council, stating her frustration.
“Last year, you were used to seeing me over here. This is where I stand. These people [are] who elected me,” Councilwoman Turpen said. “You're going to start seeing a different part of me tonight. I can promise every one of you, I promise to stand up for these people. What the hell are you guys doing? Honest to God, we made a promise two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, we told these people we were going to move that moratorium, that paper forward.”
Multiple council members responded that the ordinance was not dead and that the council needs to follow the three required readings before adoption. Then, the council voted down the first reading 5-2, again with At-Large Councilman Gregg Obren joining Councilwoman Turpen in voting yes.
Prior to the council’s votes, the public crowded into the chamber and overflow rooms to urge their leaders to impose a moratorium, some even suggesting a two-year moratorium, while others asked the council to deny any data center development within the city.
One resident supporting the moratorium is Theresa Andrews, who lives in Brandon Hills, near the potential data center site.
“Many points of this project continue to tout job creation and tax revenues that seem to be missing the consideration of public health and environment,” Andrews said to the council. “The reality, the site will take years to reach full build. The influx of jobs is temporary. Very few will be local, and only a handful will remain once complete. Have you considered how many jobs AI will destroy? Far more than will be created. Will the tax dollars gained be worth the trade of your community, environment, and our limited resources? And lastly, a healthful life is priceless. I hope the decisions you will be making are done in good conscience and implore that you do so, valuing the safety and quality of life and health as a whole over any financial gains.”
Of the 52 speakers, one resident supported the development of a data center: Joe Hoinkis, who has lived in the city for four years. He is a site manager at the LyondellBasell plant in Clinton located near the proposed data center site. He is also a voting member for Grow Clinton, a nonprofit focused on economic growth. Grow Clinton is advocating for the construction of a data center.
“So what I've seen is this project will be a huge financial benefit to this community,” Hoinkis said. “There'll be a cash injection into our schools. We'll have additional taxes that we can use for infrastructure and revitalizing this city. It brings more people into the area because it's a nice place to live, and small businesses get to grow. They [QTS] basically said no power generation on site. All the infrastructure generation and transmission is to be paid for by QTS. That translates to a businessman. That translates to more sales, spreading my fixed costs across. Across more sales, my price, my costs go down. They don't go up. They've said that it's a closed-loop water circulation system. There will be no water used other than to just initially charge this thing.”
Hoinkis said he spent a day visiting the QTS data center development near Cedar Rapids.
“And it was impressive,” Hoinkis said. “The electrical substation was very large, well-constructed, and off from the rest of the buildings. Very well done. The fire detection systems that they have in this place can pinpoint and detect exactly where they have a problem immediately. And there are automatic shutdowns. They've paved miles and miles of public roads that were gravel. I saw this. They have a strong community involvement.”
There were four other speakers who claimed the rumors of resource depletion and higher costs were unfounded. They work for companies involved in data center construction.
“In Cedar Rapids, the QTS project has driven significant economic activity with over 8,000 workers on site daily, supporting local businesses and strengthening the broader tax base,” said Cheri Monahan, who works for ITC Midwest, an electric transmission company. “We're also seeing long-term benefits with workers choosing to stay and establish careers in the community. Their safety manager just purchased a house right down the street from me. From an energy perspective, projects like this help address affordability as demand grows. Fixed transmission costs are spread across more customers, reducing pressure on rates.”
Another speaker who claims that energy load growth is beneficial is Kiley Miller, a manager of economic development and data center services for Alliant Energy.
“My role tonight is to demystify how large energy loads, such as data centers, are served by Alliant Energy and why energy load growth can benefit all customers,” Miller said. “As a regulated utility, Alliant Energy is required to serve all customers within our service area. We must work with all customers, big and small, to provide energy and enough power to meet their needs. When a data center or other large energy user connects to the energy system, that customer covers the cost of the infrastructure needed to serve them. Let me say that again. These large energy-use customers fund the energy system upgrades required to connect their energy load. But they are not the only ones who benefit. Investment in the energy grid, whether generation, transmission, or local infrastructure, increases energy capacity and improves energy reliability for everyone.”
Ian Buschbom, who works for M.J. Electric and lives in Marshalltown, said the data centers could provide opportunities for him and fellow contractors.
“There's a lot of data centers in the Des Moines area, and those electricians have had jobs at those data centers for going on 10 years or longer now,” Buschbom said. “So it's not just short-term with building them. There's a lot of maintenance, other things, and upgrades. Everyone knows technology changes by the day, there's constant work there. So this would provide the opportunity for some of my co-workers and others who work for other contractors to have jobs here locally.”
Scott Hinton works for Iowa American Water. He stated he originally was not going to speak, but after dozens of residents voiced concerns about water usage, he changed his mind.
“This data center, as it was said earlier, is closed loop,” Hinton said. “That doesn't mean it doesn't use any water, but it uses a very small percentage of water compared to what the data centers did when they first started building them a few years ago. The technology has changed. The amount of water that's projected to this data center to use is less than 1% of what we treat currently. So it's not going to have any effect on the amount of water we pull out of the aquifer, the amount that we treat or push out, it's not going to have any effect on the water rates.”
On QTS’s website for the Clinton project, the company states: “As industry leaders in water preservation, we’re proud to save billions of gallons of water annually. Our data centers use a closed-loop system that doesn’t consume water for cooling, once operational.”
One resident, Stephen Figg, who has worked on data centers across the Midwest, pushed back on claims that the data center will use a small amount of water.
“I have worked directly on multiple hyperscale data centers throughout the Midwest. One of the most recent was the 1200-acre hyperscale data center AWS built out in New Carlisle, Indiana. I'm here tonight representing the residents of Clinton and the City of Clinton who want accountability for our infrastructure,” Figg said. “Because I have actually worked in these facilities and built these facilities, I have a complete understanding of how they work. The misconception that QTS has given you for what a closed-loop system is is false. It is not accurate. A closed-loop system is a two-part system where the internal system does recycle water. However, the external system evaporates anywhere between 1 million and 5 million gallons of water every day.
“The reality is that these projects do not create massive local wealth. While they do create local temporary jobs. We saw upwards of 3,000 to 4,000 construction workers at AWS on any given day. However, the reality is that after this facility was turned over, there were less than 100 full-time employees in any building,” Figg said. “Now, while that is a significant amount of jobs that could be created, the reality is these jobs do not go to our citizens. How many people here in this room today have an AWS data center certification? That's staggering. These jobs go to international and outside technicians.”
Before adjourning, Councilwoman Turpen voiced concerns about doing business with QTS. She mentioned that a group of residents in Fayetteville, Georgia, where QTS is currently building a data center, is threatening to sue over allegations that the company is discharging sediment-laden stormwater and other pollutants, in violation of the Clean Water Act. The same development faced further controversy with QTS using nearly 30 million gallons of water without initially paying for it. The company retroactively paid nearly $150,000 for the action.
The company is also appealing litigation in Virginia, where residents sued to halt a proposed 2,100-acre mega development adjacent to a state forest, alleging that local authorities failed to provide proper notice to property owners within 500 feet of the proposed development. Authorities claim a planned notice was not published due to failures of the local paper. The case is headed to the state’s supreme court.
Councilmembers stated that QTS has not submitted a site plan and that any development would require approval from the council and the city planning commission. QTS has suggested a 5-million-square-foot facility on nearly 1,000 acres costing $10 billion. The council meets again on June 23rd.
UPDATE: (06/12/26) The report has been updated to reflect that Joe Hoinkis is a site manager for the LyondellBasell plant in Clinton and a voting member of the Board of Directors for Grow Clinton.
CORRECTION: (06/11/26) An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated QTS was fined for using nearly 30 million gallons of water without paying in Fayetteville, Georgia. They were retroactively charged for the water usage and not penalized.
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