In September 2025, it was publicly revealed that a massive development project in Hermantown, Minnesota, is a hyperscale data center (Project Loon). The proposed data center would be located on 400 acres in the rural southwest corner of Hermantown, adjacent to Midway and Solway Townships. This includes the Adolph area community along Midway Road and Morris Thomas Road.
     Through a Minnesota Government Data Practices Act request, it was learned that Hermantown City staff were working on this proposal as early as 2024. Using Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), Hermantown city staff, together with a number of St. Louis County Commissioners, and Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD) officials, along with Minnesota Power, were quietly working with a developer, Mortenson Development, Inc., for a yet-to-be named Fortune 50 corporation. This resulted in a fast, behind the scenes process to push the project through without plainly describing the project for citizen input.
     The long-range plan for the area, referred to as the Adolph Neighborhood Small Area Plan was started in 2014 and emphasized the need to preserve the rural character in the area of Midway Road and Highway 2. In September of 2022, the city of Hermantown set out to create the City’s 2045 Comprehensive Plan with help from a consulting firm and a citizen-led steering committee. The citizen-led steering committee had their last meeting on July 11, 2024.
     Sometime between July 2024 and March 2025, changes were made to the final 2045 Comprehensive Plan, without participation from the Steering Committee or the public. The Comprehensive Plan was presented to the City Council in April 2025. These changes included a proposed rezoning of the Adolph neighborhood to allow for Business Light Manufacturing (BLM). The definitions for Business Light Manufacturing were also changed to allow for the development of a “communications facility.” The rezoning was approved by the Hermantown City Council on October 20, 2025, effectively scrapping the Adolph Neighborhood Small Area Plan.
     To address the environmental impact of the proposed project, the City of Hermantown conducted an Alternative Urban Area Review (AUAR), however did not disclose the project was a data center. Hermantown’s AUAR can be found here. More information on the AUAR process can be found at the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board webpage here. 
     As part of the AUAR process, several state agencies and environmental organizations provided comments back to Hermantown as the responsible government unit (Appendix G). As stated by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) “the AUAR lacks an adequate level of detail to evaluate the actual and potential environmental impacts and resulting effects created by the development. It is at the environmental review phase where important details such as site design, layout and scale are necessary to consider the project impacts in totality.” (MPCA Comments to AUAR, August 26, 2025).  
     Stop the Hermantown Data Center (SHDC) has partnered with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) to appeal the City of Hermantown’s environmental study of “Project Loon.” The Complaint was filed in St. Louis County District Court on November 5, 2025 and asks the court to halt the project, enjoin any permits or other decisions for the proposal, and send the environmental review study back to the City of Hermantown to be redone in accordance with Minnesota law. Read the press release here: https://loom.ly/GzlbMFI
Overall, given the lack of transparency, the impacts to citizens and the environment, we believe this project should be stopped.