If you are a Hermantown resident and you treasure your rural lifestyle, PLEASE READ THIS POST, then share it with anyone you know that also treasures their rural lifestyle.
The data center is the catalyst, but the changes that will be decided at the Monday (6/1) City Council meeting at 6:30 PM will change ALL of Hermantown permanently. The City of Hermantown changed the 2045 Comprehensive Plan without the Steering Committee’s involvement in late 2024 and early 2025. The city staff has now been instructed that the sneaky changes they made did not go far enough, so they need to change the plan again. This time they are identifying the entire City of Hermantown as either a “Urban Service Area” or an “Urban Growth Area”. The maps posted here are just the easiest way to describe the most egregious changes. They are actually proposing to change dozens of pages in the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. One example of a drastic change from the current plan to the proposed plan is on page 52:
Current Plan: “4.1.4. Limit the extension of urban services (city sewer and water) to the western portion of the city for residential development while there is sufficient developable land available within the current urban services boundary to accommodate the city’s projected population growth.”
Proposed Plan: “4.1.4. Expand the urban services (city sewer and water) to encompass the entirety of the City, however phase the expansion in order to provide short term and long term growth opportunities.”
The community has not been involved in any of these decisions. As a Steering Committee we met for over 18 months discussing and molding the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. The plan that was ultimately approved in April of 2025 was changed dramatically from our last meeting in July of 2024 and now they want to change it again without any community dialogue.
Please read the agenda packet for the Planning and Zoning meeting that was held on Tuesday (5/19), There is a lot of interesting information in this agenda packet, but if this is the issue that concerns you, save some time and go directly to page 42. The pages that include the most significant changes are: 54, 57, 59, 74, 75 and 82.
Please send messages to the City Councilors. Show up on Monday (6/1) at 6:00 PM, meeting starts at 6:30 PM and talk directly to the city councilors about your concerns. The decisions that are made the June 1, 2026 city council meeting have the potential to permanently change the character of Hermantown. We need everyone’s voice! It’s time to protect the rural character of Hermantown.
