The Hermantown City Council voted unanimously on October 30 to approve key measures allowing Google’s proposed data center to advance, including a development agreement, a special-use permit, and a decommissioning provision, according to MPR News. Covering more than 200 acres in a rural residential area outside Duluth, the project calls for three buildings totaling roughly 1.66 to 1.7 million square feet, with each building larger than six football fields.
Google’s Concessions Before the Vote
Facing sustained community opposition, Google reduced the project’s scope and dropped an $80 million tax-break request before the council cast its votes.
Google reduced the plan from four buildings to three, capped building heights at 33 feet, and agreed to monitor private wells near the site. The company also withdrew its request for up to $80 million in property-tax breaks; the revised project is expected to generate approximately $3 million per year in property-tax revenue for Hermantown, according to MPR News. A separate decommissioning agreement provides the city with protections if construction is abandoned or the facility eventually closes, with the arrangement reported to carry a value of approximately $210 million.
What the Vote Left Unresolved
Local approval does not authorize construction, and several independent legal and regulatory obstacles remain.
Three lawsuits remain pending, according to the Star Tribune. They challenge the environmental review, the city’s zoning process, and ownership of approximately 80 acres within the proposed site. Google also needs approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission for its power-supply contract with Minnesota Power, a state utility review entirely outside Hermantown’s control.
A Power Draw That Dwarfs Its Neighbors
Projected to require up to 500 megawatts, the facility would place electricity demand on the regional grid that far exceeds the scale of the local approval.
The Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota has estimated that figure as roughly equivalent to the combined residential electricity demand of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Rochester. That comparison underscores what the Public Utilities Commission review will weigh: grid capacity and the terms of Google’s service agreement with Minnesota Power will face scrutiny well beyond Hermantown.
Residents Pushed Back, and Kept Pushing
Opposition from residents shaped the timeline and continued through the final meeting.
The council postponed votes twice amid protests before the October 30 meeting, which the city capped at 85 in-person attendees and which ended shortly before midnight after several hours of public comment; a virtual option was also available. Residents raised concerns about the project’s scale, noise levels, water use, environmental effects, and potential impacts on property values, according to Tom’s Hardware. Some also criticized the in-person attendance cap and the way the process unfolded.
How the Council Framed Its Decision
Council member John Geissler drew a clear line between the vote’s legal scope and the broader arguments surrounding it.
Geissler addressed those broader arguments directly after the vote. “What we’ve done tonight is not about AI. It’s not about big tech. It’s not about software. It’s about a project here in Hermantown, a land use application, and agreements that are associated with that,” he said, according to MPR News.
A Case Other Minnesota Communities Will Watch
The Hermantown decision is likely to become a reference point for data-center debates elsewhere in the state, given its combination of projected tax revenue, high infrastructure demand, and unresolved opposition.
Litigation, wetland permitting, land-ownership questions, and state utility review can each delay or reshape the project independently. The case combines substantial projected tax revenue with infrastructure demand of an unusual scale and legal opposition that has not dissolved with the council’s approval. The central question has shifted from whether Hermantown will grant local permission to whether Google can satisfy everything else.
