Palo Mayor Bryan Busch fielded questions from members of the community during a busy town hall Tuesday about Google’s expressed plans for a new data center in the area.
“We’re going to be really transparent and really open and honest from the very beginning, as early as possible,” Busch said.
All eyes are on Palo after Google's plans to build the data center on land annexed into the city rather than in an unincorporated part of Linn County were made public.
The proposed site remains roughly the same — just south of the Duane Arnold Energy Center — though the exact location has not been shared. But building the data center in Palo would allow Google to bypass the county’s brand-new data center ordinance.
“Palo — in our early conversations, early discussions with Google — has been really upfront about the fact that we’re going to have ordinances in place,” Busch said. “Now, are there ordinances already for projects and these types of things that have never existed? Nope, just as there weren’t for Linn County or any other municipality that has gone through this same process.”
Busch said the city will eventually put protections in place to ensure the proposed development ends up being in Palo’s best interest, leaning on much of the work the county did in creating its ordinance.
“I think what most people are looking for [is]: how do we have as local of control as possible, and how do we have as local a financial benefit as possible," Busch said.
He added that the idea that Google would pursue development in the city to bypass regulations is insulting.
“Any suggestion or insinuation that anybody would come to Palo to skirt regulation, or to bulldoze Palo, I think is insulting and offensive to me, personally,” Busch said.
Busch wants Palo to be a good partner in discussions with Google, which are already underway, as well as with Linn County.
“Google’s been a great partner to work with,” he said. “Early discussions, Google’s been very upfront with us. We’ve been very upfront with Google. So, I absolutely want to extend my respect to Google’s team that has reached out and that we’ve had discussions with.”
Busch pointed to the potential upside of the development, framing it as an opportunity for the city.
“If anything happens within those blue lines, it falls under Palo’s jurisdiction,” he said. “And that really means two big, important things: One, whatever the development might be, they're subject to Palo's city ordinances, to our regulations. The other is that the bulk of the financial upside falls under Palo. Think about property taxes, for example.”
Residents raise concerns about resources and economic benefits
Earlier this month, when the county shared Google’s plans, Linn County Supervisor Sami Scheetz accused the tech giant of pitting the two jurisdictions — Palo and Linn County — against one another.
“I just want the public to remember that this board of supervisors and this body worked diligently to ensure that there are water protections for residents, basically as much as we could, given state code, in terms of reporting requirements,” Scheetz said on the heels of the county’s eight-month process of drafting its ordinance. “It’s unfortunate that a huge company like Google is trying to pit jurisdictions against each other for their own favor.”
At the town hall, Busch said otherwise.
“When the opportunity presented itself, when Google said, ‘Hey, do you have interest in annexing this land so that we can work directly together,’ it was never about pitting two municipalities against each other in any way,” he said.
But many residents who attended the meeting Tuesday said they weren’t so sure. Ann Brown, who published an op-ed about the proposed data center in the The Gazette on Sunday, said Google stands to gain from building within the city instead of the county since Palo does not currently have an ordinance regulating data center development.
“If Google was negotiating with Linn County for eight months and then came to Palo and said, ‘Actually, we want to annex this,’ there is absolutely no way that this big, successful company did that unless they thought or knew they would get a better deal with Palo than they would with the county,” Brown said, to applause from the crowd. “There’s no reason.”
Other residents had questions about Google's specific plans for water and energy use, economic benefits and possible impacts on traffic, lighting and noise associated with the development.
“This is not a one, or two or three-year project,” said resident Kathy Hance. “This is a decades-long project. So, how is it going to impact our kids today? How is it going to impact our property values? What is it going to do to our water system?”
The mayor could not provide many specific details in answering residents’ questions, saying it’s too early in the process. But Busch said that he wanted to hold the meeting to establish transparency with the community early in the process.
Residents still urged him to get more details.
“We need you to find out these answers for us before you get too far along in this, because we can’t make an informed decision unless you bring us information to make that decision,” said Palo resident Dawn Drake. “I think that’s what the county supervisors did when they came up here and did their meeting, and I was kind of expecting the same thing from you.”
Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance Vice President Ron Corbett, who is set to retire at the end of the month, spoke in favor of the development. He said Google has a lot of history in Iowa and has been a good partner to Cedar Rapids, where the company is actively building a separate $576 million data center.
“Most of the time, mayor, economic development isn’t a public process like this, so I don’t know if I concur that everything needs to be so public, because the negotiations and stuff are taking place, and negotiations come to a conclusion when both sides agree,” Corbett said.
Busch said the community must allow Google to work through its own process.
"I don’t want to vilify Google,” he said. “They’re a company no different than anyone else. They’ve been a great company to talk with and work with so far, and I have no reason to believe that’ll change. But we still have to allow them to go through that process, right?”
Busch said the city will continue to hold public meetings and engage in dialogue with the community as it drafts its data center ordinance, though he was unable to provide an exact timeline.
Any requests for annexation or possible rezoning would have to be approved by the Palo City Council.
Google has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
