Commenting on the Revised AUAR

Take Action: There is an opportunity to comment on an updated environmental review for the proposed Google Hermantown Hyperscale Data Center. The first opportunity to comment begins on March 31, 2026 and comments are due by April 30, 2026. We strongly encourage EVERYBODY who has concerns about this project to comment! The updated environmental review document to comment on is posted here on the City’s website.   

Send comments to:

RGU: City of Hermantown
Eric Johnson
5105 Maple Grove Road
Hermantown MN 55811

AUARcomments@hermantownmn.com

Background: The City of Hermantown recently published a schedule to revise the Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) for evaluating the environmental impacts of the proposed Google Hermantown Hyperscale Data Center. The City has indicated there is additional information and analysis, so it is redoing the AUAR. However, we also think the re-do indicates the original AUAR was fundamentally deficient, because for example, it failed to even name the project as a data center, failed to adequately describe the specific project, failed to adequately analyze the environmental impacts, and failed to provide adequate mitigation for the project. This is what many of us have been pointing out for some time.

Now that the City is re-doing the AUAR, it is important to engage and offer comments. Comments can influence if and how a project occurs. The first comment period on the revised AUAR is to solicit input on the scope of the environmental review. This means comments will inform what issues and resources would be analyzed in the AUAR: 

• You can comment on the project description and design (the “development scenarios”). Is it adequately described?
• You can comment on project location. Where (if anywhere) should a hyperscale data center be located, including outside the proposed site? 
• You can comment on:
  • ecological concerns (e.g. water quality, wildlife habitat, air quality, etc); 
  • social concerns (e.g. quality of life impacts from sound and light, etc); 
  • and economic concerns (e.g. costs potentially borne by the public, tax consequences, etc). 

Describe your particular concerns and recommendations in your comments. Comments that simply state “against” or “for” the data center, while important, do not directly inform the scope of environmental review.

We believe the City should not be initiating this revised AUAR at this time. Instead, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) should be prepared. Further, we support state legislation to place a two year moratorium on data center permitting, and a statewide environmental review to consider if, where and how hyper scale data centers might be permitted. A key issue the City’s revised AUAR may not adequately examine is siting-if hyper scale data centers would be built in Minnesota, where are the optimum sites? In our view, the site proposed by Hermantown is far from that. All that said, it is key to comment so YOUR concerns are shared.