A Sioux City farm was marked as a future data center site, and the family who owns it found out from a map, not the city.

Right now, the city is asking its council to approve a new study that touches this same land, along with six other areas. Nothing in that vote stops officials from marking farmland for industrial use again, without asking the farmer first.

City officials call the data center label a mistake. They say there is no active project. But the label sat on an official map for five years before anyone told the Petersons, the family who has farmed this land and plans to keep farming it. If it happened once without anyone noticing, it can happen again, to this family or another one.

The council vote on this new study is coming up soon. That is the moment to demand a real fix, not just an apology after the fact.

Sioux City Council should act now to stop staff from marking farmland for future development without telling the farmer first. It should also remove the data center label from the Petersons' farm for good.

Sign and tell Sioux City Council to protect farmers before the next map goes public, not after.