Shifting Power in Linn County

Mar. 21, 2024

Google is named in Cedar Rapids

Cedar Rapids publicly identified Google as the company behind a proposed data center project tied to a development agreement and a state incentives application. City officials said the project involved a minimum investment of $576 million for one or more data centers.

Sources: City of Cedar Rapids; Corridor Business Journal

Jan. 28, 2025

A second major player enters Cedar Rapids

Cedar Rapids City Council approved a development agreement with QTS (Quality Technology Services), a national data center operator, bringing a second large-scale campus to Big Cedar Industrial Center, an industrial development area in southwest Cedar Rapids. With a planned investment of more than $750 million, the QTS campus occupies 612 acres of the Big Cedar Industrial Center, the same industrial center planned for Google's data center. Corridor Business Journal reported it as the largest economic development investment in the city's history. Epoch AI's data center tracker lists the QTS Cedar Rapids campus among sites it projects to reach about 1.6 GW of facility power, with the first 1 GW projected in late 2027.

Sources: Corridor Business Journal; Epoch AI, AI data centers (CC BY 4.0)

May 30, 2025

Google scales up its Iowa ambitions

Google said it would invest an additional $7 billion in Iowa over the next two years in cloud and AI infrastructure. The announcement reflected both a new data center in Cedar Rapids and expansion of its existing facility in Council Bluffs.

Source: Google Blog

Jan. 14, 2026

Power demand shapes the energy picture

Linn County supervisors approved rezoning for NextEra Energy's proposed restart of the Duane Arnold Energy Center, a shuttered nuclear plant near the small city of Palo, northwest of Cedar Rapids. The decision moved the plant one step closer to reopening. In a separate agreement announced in October, NextEra agreed to supply Google with a majority of the plant's energy output. The plant still needs approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and other agencies.

Source: Iowa Public Radio

Feb. 2026

Linn County writes new rules

Linn County approved an ordinance creating new zoning rules for data centers in unincorporated areas (land outside city limits where the county has direct zoning authority). For large projects, the county required a water study, a Water Use Agreement, and an Economic Development Agreement, along with rules covering setbacks, noise, traffic, and emergency planning.

Sources: Linn County; Approved ordinance (PDF)

Mar. 4, 2026

Google shifts toward Palo

Linn County officials announced that Google had decided to pursue data center development in Palo, a small city northwest of Cedar Rapids near the Duane Arnold site, by seeking to have the land incorporated into Palo's city boundaries, a move Palo's mayor said the city did not solicit or recruit. By building within a city, Google would no longer be bound by the county's new ordinance.

Source: Iowa Public Radio

Mar. 4, 2026 (continued)

Water becomes the central fight

The county's ordinance would have required a water availability study, an assessment of whether the Cedar River could sustain the proposed draw, and binding agreements on water use. County Chair Kirsten Running-Marquardt said Google had previously told her the data center buildings would use roughly 12 million gallons of water per day. By moving to Palo, those requirements no longer applied.

Source: Iowa Public Radio

July 1, 2026

The county pauses new development

Linn County approved an 18-month moratorium on new applications to rezone property for large-scale data centers in unincorporated areas, passing 2-1 after nearly three hours of public comment and debate. The moratorium does not apply to cities, including Cedar Rapids and Palo, because the county has no zoning authority there. Supervisor Sami Scheetz, who voted against it, said the county's February ordinance already provides strong protections. Corridor Business Journal reported he also warned the moratorium could send projects toward jurisdictions with fewer protections. The moratorium runs through Jan. 1, 2028, and the Board can extend or end it early.

Sources: Linn County; Corridor Business Journal

July 1, 2026 (continued)

A gas plant and open questions

Alongside the moratorium debate, a proposed 720-megawatt natural gas plant by Alliant Energy in Morgan Valley, a rural area in western Linn County, added air quality concerns to a debate that had centered on water and land use. Supervisor Running-Marquardt said Alliant told her the plant is intended to power data centers, but Alliant representatives declined to answer project-specific questions at a June 24 public meeting. The moratorium is a pause, not a resolution. The underlying questions about water use, energy infrastructure, regulatory authority, and the pace of development remain open.

Update, Oct. 8, 2026: Alliant filed a rezoning application for the plant on July 16 and an air permit application on July 21. On Sept. 28, the county Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-2 to table its recommendation after more than four hours of public comment, and it will revisit the request Oct. 19. The Board of Supervisors would then hold a public hearing Oct. 20, and the Iowa Utilities Commission has scheduled its hearing for Dec. 7. Separately, on Oct. 5 the board created a Data Center Advisory Committee to review the county's data center rules during the moratorium. Applications are due Oct. 19.

Update sources: Alliant Energy, July 16; The Gazette, July 21; Corridor Business Journal, Oct. 2 (John Lohman); Corridor Business Journal, Oct. 5 (Richard Pratt and John Lohman)

Sources: Corridor Business Journal, July 1; Corridor Business Journal, June 25