116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Fairfax power plant proposal prompts pushback from airport, questions from city leaders
The Eastern Iowa Airport Commission says proposed site could jeopardize future runway, seeks alternative location and public meeting
Jul. 28, 2025 6:45 pm, Updated: Jul. 29, 2025 9:52 am
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Members of the Cedar Rapids Airport Commission raised sharp concerns Monday after an apparent plan by Alliant Energy to construct a gas-fired power plant on land adjacent to Fairfax.
The proposed facility — which airport staff said would include stacks of 190 to 250 feet tall — is located too close to the airport and would be just over a mile from the end of a long-proposed third runway.
The Eastern Iowa Airport director Marty Lenss said the airport staff was made aware June 18 of a desire by Alliant Energy to build a gas fired power plant in Fairfax adjacent to the Travero Logistics facility. The land is already owned by Iowa Land and Building Company, a subsidiary of Alliant.
The site is adjacent to the data centers on the southwest side of Cedar Rapids.
In the commission meeting, Lenss said “an alternative site is certainly preferred by the airport.” Data shared with the airport showed exhaust would have plumes of air at temperatures significantly higher than the surrounding ambient air.
“Given the information we have received to date, our determination of an airport hazard, the existence of alternative project sites, and Alliant’s expressed urgency to move the project forward, we request the proposed site near The Eastern Iowa Airport be removed from further consideration,” Lenss wrote in a July 14 letter to Alliant obtained by The Gazette. “Additionally, we ask Alliant further explore the alternative sites you had designated as potential options for this project, which would not pose the negative impacts to the safe airport operations.”
Members of the airport commission on Monday agreed to pay Foth Infrastructure & Environment about $67,000 for a study looking at potential impacts of the proposed plant on the airport. The study was needed because Alliant had indicated wanting to present the project to the Iowa Utilities Commission for approval in about 60 days.
Commission members also said they want an public meeting with Alliant as soon as possible so commission members could ask questions in public. A meeting had not yet been set.
In an email to The Gazette on Monday, Alliant spokesperson Taylor Adams said that company is in the “early stages” of selecting a location for the natural gas facility.
“At this time, we are working with the cities of Fairfax and Cedar Rapids and reviewing the proposed facility’s compatibility with airport operations,” Adams said. “We intend to work with the airport to provide necessary information and continue to seek their input as we do with any local stakeholders on generation location and potential site decisions. Our timeline remains fluid to ensure we can conduct proper conversations with local communities and stakeholders.”
Jo Ann Beer, the mayor of Fairfax, said the city is in the early stages of gathering information about Alliant’s proposal.
“The Eastern Iowa Airport Commission must express their approval for this to go any further. If they approve the proposed plan, a rezoning request and Public Hearing would be the next step in Fairfax’s processes,” Beer told The Gazette in an email on Monday. “At this point in time, we do not have enough information to determine concerns or support.”
Alliant first met with City of Fairfax staff on June 16, Beer said, to share the proposal and the concept of the project. She said this meeting was followed by a tour of a similar Alliant facility in Marshalltown on July 7. Alliant’s 650-megawatt Marshalltown generating facility became operational in 2017 after more than two years of construction and a cost of more than $600 million.
Beer said Alliant Energy personnel then provided an overview of the project to the City’s Planning and Zoning Commission on July 15.
As of Monday, Beer said Alliant has not yet presented their proposal to the Fairfax City Council.
Airport Commission chairman Barry Boyer said past commissions and airport staff had been thorough in their planning and have worked hard to make the airport successful. That meant that future airport construction had been included in strategic plans “for decades.”
“This feels like a red line to me,” Boyer said in Monday’s meeting as he asked for a public meeting to discuss the project.
While Alliant told the airport staff there are additional sites that are possible, Lenss said it is clear they are not really in play. Because of the tight timeline, Lenss said the airport cannot conduct adequate studies of potential impacts of a facility on their own.
“This site, because it’s a permanent facility — and there are long-term ramifications for the airport, we really need to bring in experts. We need help, based on this timeline, to get this done,” he told members of the commission.
The proposed facility would be four miles from the end of the main east-west runway, less than three miles from the current secondary runway and just over one mile from the proposed future third runway.
Alliant officials did not detail the project to the media on Monday. However, the airport letter noted the facility was expected to have two combustion turbine engines and a steam engine, plumes that would be created from the exhaust of natural gas combustion.
“If the script were flipped and the power plant was sited first, we would not be siting the airport at its present location,” Lenss said.
In a letter to Alliant on July 14, Lenss said the power plant would be considered an “airport hazard” and that “support for its construction cannot be provided by the Cedar Rapids Airport Commission.”
Lenss also asked Alliant to explore alternative sites that were other potential sites for the project which would “not pose the negative impacts to the safe airport operations.”
“CID is a significant economic driver to the Eastern Iowa economy,” Lenss said in the letter. “While we have shared interest in seeing the region flourish, please know our determination of an airport hazard may seem as inconvenient, the long-term protection of airport operations at CID ultimately benefits Alliant Energy.”
Alliant did not provide details of the proposed facility on Monday.
“This potential facility underscores Alliant Energy’s ongoing commitment to a balanced energy approach that delivers safe, reliable and cost-effective energy to customers through the integration of traditional and renewable energy resources,” Adams said.
Additionally, the commission adopted a lease amendment to QTS for an additional 86-acres of land at the intersection of land at 76th Ave. SW and Cherry Valley Rd. The additional leased land — now totaling 226 acres — translates to about $700,000 in additional revenue for a total of about $1.9 million. The land is being used as a staging area for QTS construction, and because the project is being built out quicker than first expected, additional land was necessary, said Caleb Mason, Director of Properties & Business Development for the Eastern Iowa Airport.
Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. She is also a contributing writer for the Ag and Water Desk, an independent journalism collaborative focusing on the Mississippi River Basin.
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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com
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