This legislative bill, SF No 608, proposed in Minnesota, addresses restrictions on where data centers can be built within local municipalities. Specifically, the bill seeks to prevent the development of large-scale enterprise data centers in most zoning districts, with the exception that they may be considered as conditional uses in areas zoned as industrial districts.

To clarify, an enterprise data center, as defined by the bill, is a facility or group of facilities on one or contiguous parcels, encompassing at least 800,000 square feet total, primarily used for the storage, management, and processing of digital data. The proposed legislation details that these centers include the necessary IT equipment and infrastructure, such as servers, cooling systems, and power systems for their operation.

The rationale behind this bill is to control the placement of these large facilities, which can have significant impacts on local infrastructure and resources, by limiting them to industrial districts where similar manufacturing and processing facilities are located. The intent is to mitigate potential negative effects on residential and other less compatible areas.