Meta Rosemount data center, Rosemount, Minnesota

Meta's data center at UMore Park in Rosemount, in Dakota County, Minnesota, is still under construction and due to be finished later in 2026, and the city has already said it wants to see how it runs before allowing another. On April 21, 2026 the city council voted unanimously for a one-year moratorium on new data center development, which does not touch the building going up now. "This pause gives us the opportunity to evaluate actual performance, things like water usage, noise levels, and overall community impact based on the one project already in motion," council member Tami Klimpel said.

Residents had pressed for it because Meta has bought land north of County Road 42 that appears earmarked for a second data center, though no formal development application has been filed. At a March 3, 2026 council meeting a resident named Jeremie read a statement asking the council to reject it, and two others spoke with similar concerns. The worry is water: the city's Well No. 8 already tests above state limits for gross alpha radiation, and residents are wary of a facility that could use millions of gallons of water a year. They asked the council to wait for real operating data from the first building, and pointed to neighboring Eagan's one-year moratorium, passed unanimously on February 17, 2026.

Meta says the first building is an $800 million-plus investment that will support about 100 jobs once completed, after 1,000 skilled trade workers on site at the construction peak. It says the Rosemount data center uses a closed-loop, liquid cooled system that will use zero operational water. It says it worked with Xcel Energy so the data center pays the full cost of its power, and with the city so it pays the full cost of its own water and wastewater service. At the state level, a bill by Senator Jen McEwen for a two-year statewide pause never gained momentum, and the 2026 session ended without new restrictions. Tom Dicklich of the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council argued the buildings will go up somewhere: "If we can do them in Minnesota, where we have labor standards and we can build these more efficiently than anywhere else in the country, we should be bringing them here."

Under the interim ordinance, city staff, consultants and the planning commission are studying data centers and will recommend to the city council whether and how to amend Rosemount's zoning; the moratorium lasts one year unless the council adopts data center rules sooner.