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On Thursday evening, August 27, the Marshalltown Planning & Zoning Commission will hold a "Community Roundtable" at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum (20 W. State St., 2nd floor), beginning at 5:30. Doors will open at 5, so come early and get a good seat at one of the tables.
Yes, there will be actual tables to sit around and discussion zoning regulations with Commission members. The zoning regulations to be discussed are those that will apply to any future data centers built in the city of Marshalltown after the moratorium ends.
In July, the City Council voted to implement a 4-month moratorium on data center development and directed Clayton Ender, the Zoning Administrator, to "prepare amendments to the Marshalltown Zoning ordinance establishing regulations specific to data center development".
And if you recall, the Zoning Administrator makes recommendations to the Commission which then directs the Administrator's actions and makes recommendations to the City Council.
The Zoning Administrator has been drawing up proposals for amended regulations that will be in the best interest of the community, and he and the P&Z Commission will present those to the community on Thursday night for discussion and community input.
Neither the Zoning Administrator nor the P&Z Commission has the legal authority to ban data centers in Marshalltown. Only the City Council can do that.
Thursday night's discussion will focus on the proposed amendments to the current zoning regulations.
Currently, data centers are lumped in with Major Utilities in the Marshalltown zoning regulations, and the specifics regarding development are all covered by Special Permits that are reviewed by the Board of Adjustment.
The new regulations for data centers will provide clear zoning guidelines with which developers will be required to comply.
So the community's best use of the Roundtable process will be to bring thoughtful concerns and suggestions about the regulations necessary to protect the community and its resources. And, in turn, to respectfully discuss them with the Commission members.
The Zoning Administrator and the Commission members will provide materials for guided discussion about community concerns and possible solutions. You will also be able to write down your thoughts and comments to provide them with the chance to continue reviewing the community's concerns and ideas after Thursday night.
Many communities around the country are going through this process right now. I have gathered regulatory information from Iowa cities and counties, as well as a few neighboring states, along with discussion questions that have been compiled for use in Iowa when thinking about our state's resources, needs, and communities.
All of these resources are available at my website, getyourdatahere.org. The first three links on the homepage are "Iowa Data Center Moratoriums" (current resolutions from around the state), the "Iowa Data Center Decision Tool" (an excellent list of discussion questions to consider beforehand and bring to the Roundtable), and "Mitigation Suggestions" (other documents that might be helpful).
The point of all this is to protect Marshalltown and its resources while also taking advantage of new economic opportunities that could benefit the community. Those potential benefits will depend in part on the regulations that the Zoning Administrator develops in consultation with the Commission.
And you are invited to be part of that process of developing regulations to help take care of your community. That's what the "Community Roundtable" is all about.
After Thursday night, the Zoning Administrator will use the community's recommendations and the Commission's recommendations to continue developing regulations with that information as a guide.
The Planning & Zoning Commission will meet on September 17 (the agenda has not been published yet, but data center regulations will be included).
And in mid-October, the Zoning Administrator and the P&Z Commission will hold an Open House at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum to present the final draft of the data center regulations to the community.
And this will all get rolling Thursday night, when you can be part of the process as an active player. Reading what other communities are doing and what the topics are that need to be addressed to create good regulations to protect Marshalltown will help you prepare for the conversation.
I'm looking forward to this discussion, hoping that the community will come prepared to have a useful discussion with the Zoning Administrator, the Planning & Zoning Commission, and each other.
Annie Grieshop has lived in rural Marshall County for nearly 20 years. Having spent decades working as an historian of technology as well as for multiple technology companies (including 7 years in platform security at Microsoft), her involvement with many parts of technology and public policy is wide-ranging.