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Duane Arnold Energy Center rezoning heads to Linn County supervisors
The county’s Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended to rezone land around the nuclear energy plant.
Dec. 16, 2025 11:49 am
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CEDAR RAPIDS — The Linn County Board of Supervisors will soon consider a request to rezone land around the Duane Arnold Energy Center after unanimous recommendation to do so from the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
The commission on Monday recommended the rezoning for approval after hearing presentations from county staff and from nuclear plant owner NextEra Energy, as well as several comments from the public.
The vote was a small procedural step in NextEra’s much larger effort to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo. The 615-megawatt nuclear plant entered service in 1975 and was decommissioned in 2020.
“This is one step in a long process that NextEra will have to take to try and get this plant restarted, (and) most of that process will flow through the federal government,” Linn County Planning and Development Director Charlie Nichols stressed during Monday’s meeting.
NextEra is seeking approval from federal, state and local regulatory agencies to restart plant operations by early 2029 to help meet growing U.S. energy demand. The largest of those bodies is the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is responsible for regulating commercial nuclear plants.
As part of its restart process, NextEra is seeking to have the land around the Linn County plant rezoned to an exclusive use district meant solely for nuclear energy generation and/or waste storage. The county created the new zoning district earlier this year.
The rezoning requires three rounds of approval from the Linn County Board of Supervisors, the first of which will take place Jan. 5, following a public hearing during which public comment will be heard.
Before the rezoning takes effect, NextEra must first enter into a host community agreement with the county to establish an annual, inflation-adjusted payment to the county to support the various government functions and public services associated with hosting a nuclear facility.
NextEra’s application documents state discussions are currently underway with county staff to finalize that agreement ahead of supervisors’ final vote.
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