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Google exploring data center project near Palo
Linn County is taking several steps to inform discussions around how data centers could affect things like zoning, water availability.
Oct. 6, 2025 11:59 am, Updated: Oct. 7, 2025 7:24 am
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Tech giant Google has approached Linn County officials about a proposed data center project near Palo.
The project was discussed Monday during the Linn County Board of Supervisors’ work session, where supervisors also approved conducting a study to better understand how the project might affect the county’s water resources.
The project as proposed would include up to six buildings built on land near the Duane Arnold Energy Center, which sits in unincorporated Linn County near Palo. No set timeline has been established, as the proposal still is in its early phases.
“This is the first time the county is considering a data center, and the board wants to make sure that all of the things surrounding it are discussed in public,” said Darrin Gage, the county’s director of policy and administration. “Google has been nothing but receptive” to that.
Linn County Planning and Development Director Charlie Nichols said the county was approached several months ago by a consultant interested in the county’s rules and regulations pertaining to data centers — large facilities that house computer servers, data storage and other technical equipment.
As conversations progressed, Google was identified as the company behind the inquiry. No exact location has yet been identified for the development, although Google has expressed interest in land near the Duane Arnold site where NextEra Energy is working to restart the nuclear power plant.
Nichols said that the site is attractive to data center developers like Google because it could potentially provide quick and easy access to the power generated by Duane Arnold should the plant reopen.
Neither Google nor NextEra Energy immediately responded to The Gazette’s request for comment.
Linn County to study potential impacts from data center development
For its part, Linn County is taking several steps to better understand how a data center project could affect the county.
The first is a data center zoning code currently being drafted by county staff to formally outline how and where data centers could be constructed in Linn County. Nichols said the plan is to have that code ready by the end of the year.
Before it can take effect, however, the code must be approved by both the county’s Planning & Zoning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. Opportunities for public feedback will take place prior to any formal vote on the matter.
The county also intends to conduct a water resources and water balance study, which will be paid for by Google but completed by an independent contractor. That study will gather the available data on Linn County water resources, usage rates and overall availability.
Supervisors on Monday approved issuing a request for proposals to seek candidates to complete that study with hopes of having results for review by spring. Those findings will be made publicly available, once complete.
“Water is a part of our critical infrastructure, and we want to take into consideration where data centers would be getting their water from (and) how much they would need,” said Supervisor Kirsten Running-Marquardt. As such, “it became obvious we needed to perform (this study).”
Data centers in general use large amounts of water to cool the servers stored within the facilities. The results of the Linn County study will be used to evaluate how any economic development project — including the Google proposal near Palo — could affect the county’s water resources.
The proposal follows a nationwide increase in the number of data center projects cropping up to meet demands associated with the rise of artificial intelligence and cloud-hosted data. Already, two large-scale data center projects are underway in southwest Cedar Rapids.
The first is from Google, which is constructing a $576 million data center campus in the Big Cedar Industrial Park. Construction is also underway nearby on a separate, $750 million data center project from QTS.
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