Minneapolis City Council members voted 7-6 Thursday to impose new restrictions on data centers, requiring larger facilities to buy renewable power and forcing all new projects into existing downtown buildings.
The ordinance now heads to Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey’s desk.
Under the new rules, a data center can use up to 50,000 square feet for servers — or up to 150,000 square feet if the operator agrees to buy renewable power for all electricity used.
“Democrats spent the election promising affordability and are already finding new ways to make their communities poorer. The AI boom represents an enormous opportunity to attract private investment, expand the tax base, and finance new power generation. Minneapolis Democrats seem determined to make sure somebody else gets all of that.”
That’s American Energy Leadership Institute President Chris Johnson’s response to the vote.
The restrictions go further. New data centers must occupy buildings that existed as of Jan. 1, 2027, share space with at least one other main use, and stay off the first two floors. Servers must sit at least 100 feet from any nearby home. Applications have to disclose expected water, electricity, and generator use.
Council members who wanted a full ban fell short on a 6-6 tie Monday. The compromise passed Thursday by one vote.
Yesterday, Council Members brought forward a ban on data centers in Minneapolis. We also fought to strengthen the ordinance, including an amendment to protect residents’ voices in deciding whether data centers belong in their communities. Both amendments failed by just ONE vote. pic.twitter.com/pt8RpAGECE
— Robin4mpls (@robin4mpls) November 11, 2026
Council Member Soren Stevenson made clear what he thinks belongs downtown.
“We don’t need more computers in our downtown,” he said. “We need people down here, and so I want to fight for a vision where people are thriving in our city, not for a vision where stockholders are thriving in our city.”
Council Member Elizabeth Shaffer, who helped write the rules, argued data centers beat vacant space for the city’s construction workers who face a job shortage.
“Do data centers drive a lot of permanent jobs? No. Do they drive more jobs than vacant space? Absolutely,” she said.
All Minneapolis City Council members are Democrats except Robin Wonsley, who sits as an independent affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America.
The final version limits data centers to two overlay districts downtown and requires council approval for each new facility. Members added that approval requirement Thursday and plan to meet Nov. 20 to handle a possible mayoral veto.
The city’s current moratorium — which paused most new data centers for six months — expires Nov. 21.
Xcel Energy pushed back on the premise that data centers hurt ratepayers.
“New loads on the grid, such as data centers, can actually put downward pressure on customer rates by spreading fixed system costs across a broader number of customers,” the utility said in a statement.
Darren Nelson, a policy fellow at Minnesota’s Center of the American Experiment, called the move self-inflicted damage.
“The City of Minneapolis is once again making a bad situation worse,” he said. “They are trying to force data centers into ’empty office and commercial buildings,’ that their Woke policies created.”
Nelson cited research from the Electric Power Research Institute estimating that data center growth lowered average residential power rates by about 6 percent from 2019 to 2024.
“People in the Twin Cities, and state of Minnesota, should be worried about affordability, but not because of data centers,” he said.
Minneapolis isn’t alone. Oakland’s City Council voted Tuesday to extend its own pause on new data centers until October 2027. Council Member Carroll Fife, who wrote the extension, said the 10 months will give the city time to study how data centers affect Oakland and draft permanent rules.
“We’re seeing an uprising across the country when it comes to how data centers are operating,” Fife said during the meeting.
Richmond and San Francisco have also paused new data centers.
Some Minneapolis council members who backed a ban saw the midterms as a referendum on data centers. Democrats who ran for governor in four states this fall said they wanted to pause new data centers. Texas elected a Democratic governor who vowed to freeze data center construction.
The city received about 1,600 written comments on the rules. Almost half asked for an outright ban.
