We're calling on Kanabec County, Minnesota to halt all new data center construction and let residents decide the future of our community at the ballot box - not behind closed doors. 

Data centers are being sited in communities like ours across the country, drawn by cheap land and light zoning rules. What follows is a familiar pattern: constant, 24/7 industrial noise from cooling systems, transformers, and backup generators that doesn't stop for sleep, work, or daily life.

Residents near data centers in Virginia, New Jersey, and Mississippi report sleep disturbance, anxiety, and falling property values. In many cases, the noise falls just under legal decibel limits — meaning outdated local ordinances offer no real protection. Communities are increasingly forced into lawsuits just to be heard.

We don't want to wait for a sleepless summer or a long, drawn out courtroom battle to act.

We are calling on Kanabec County to:

1) Enact an immediate, absolute moratorium on the permitting, approval, or construction of any new data center within county limits.

2) Suspend all pending data center applications for the duration of the moratorium.

3) Place the question on the next ballot, letting voters — not developers — decide whether data centers should be allowed here, and under what conditions (e.g., requiring two-thirds voter approval before a data center could be built). 

4) Provide independent, non-industry-funded public information on noise, water, and energy impacts before that vote.

5) Close off any zoning variances or workarounds that would let a project proceed while the moratorium is active.

This is our community. We should be the ones who decide what gets built in it.

Sign this petition to demand a moratorium and a direct vote.