Environmental groups sue Hermantown over data center review process

HERMANTOWN —Two groups are takingtheHermantownCity Councilto court over a proposed data center.

Grassroots group Stop the Hermantown Data Center joined forces with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, the state’s largest nonprofit environmental law firm. They are asking the court to require further environmental review for a large-scale data center.

J.T. Haines with the MCEA’s Duluth office said the lawsuit filed Wednesday, Nov. 5, is pushing back against the approved Alternative Urban Areawide Review, or AUAR, for the proposed development.

"What we are asserting in our lawsuit is that this AUAR process that Hermantown and other cities have undertaken is not an adequate environmental review," Haines said. “We are seeing a pattern of the usage of this AUAR very recently. There's been like an unusual number of them this year, and they're all in relation to these data center proposals.”

The court case attempts to appeal the Hermantown Council's environmental study on the basis that the large-scale data center was not disclosed.

“Meanwhile, documents unveiled through public data requests document that the city has known for over a year that this was a data center proposal, but kept this secret from the public until September 2025,” stated the MCEA in a news release.

An alternative urban areawide review differs in many ways from the environmental assessment worksheet and the even more rigorous environmental impact statement processes that are typically part of massive infrastructure projects.

The Hermantown City Council approved a zoning change for the project on Oct. 20, but an Oct. 17petitionprompted the pause of any permits until the Hermantown Council decides its next steps: whether to conduct further environmental review or reject the petition.

“There needs to be a real environmental review here that complies with state law. That's first,” Haines said. “Second, we have asked the court to halt construction and stop the issuance of any permits while that environmental review is taking place.”

In the permits currently in limbo, the project site spans 400 acres with plans to develop 1.8 million square feet across four communications buildings and other facilities. The project’s owner has still not been disclosed, with public officials recently coming under scrutiny for signing nondisclosure agreements with the unnamed Fortune 50 company.

“The 403 acres of densely wooded, rural residential properties in the [southwest] corner of Hermantown include environmentally sensitive aspects such as trout streams, wetland, watershed, and floodplains," said the grassroots group, Stop the Hermantown Data Center, in a prepared statement.

“We believe Minnesotans, including the 250 immediately impacted neighbors who call the area home, including those currently living within the footprint of the proposed hyperscale data center, deserve a more thorough and appropriate Environmental Assessment Worksheet or Environmental Impact Statement.”

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City of Hermantown

Joe Wicklund, Hermantown’s communications director, confirmed receipt of the lawsuit.

“The city will conduct the appropriate review and due diligence and follow the legal process,” he said.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday is the MCEA’s fifth in the last two months challenging environmental studies of data center proposals, according to a release.