*Opinions expressed in Letters to the Editor are not necessarily those of The Messenger.
The City of Hampton is looking at options for how it would like to grow in the coming years. Brought before the citizens of the surrounding area are two current proposals, both seeming to involve annexation of Hampton Township land. Scenario 1 is to zone out an industrial and commercial area South of Little Oscars towards Co.Rd 50, with annexation of township land to the East, towards Lewiston Blvd for Agriculture. Scenario 2 is to create a technology park within this roughly 140-acre area.
As of this writing, all that seems to be known is that a Twin Cities based, national property development firm named Oppidan desires to build, presumably a data center, in this proposed area. Is Oppidan a front company that is possibly representing another builder? That has still not been made clear to the citizenry. All we can hope is that Oppidan upholds the company values listed on their website that of “respect” and “above all, community”.
Though we are on the rural edge of Dakota county, in time this rural land will become more built up and land prices and usages will certainly change along with this growth. For the city to re-zone and offer building up of a commercial zoned space within current city limits is one matter all on its own. To want to annex land from the township to put in a technology park and potential data center, (similar to the one Meta and Facebook are building by DCTC in Rosemount, and which Farmington is looking at building as well), warrants us, residents of the City of Hampton and Township of Hampton, to ask, “Is this the growth we desire? And what genuine benefits will such growth provide our community?” Then we need to give that feedback to our elected officials as the direction we the people want them to pursue on our elected behalf.
My concern, and seemingly a concern of many who were at the recent AUAR (Alternative Urban Areawide Review) meeting that the City of Hampton held on October 1, is a desire to know what resources, especially water pumping resources, that this potential data center might utilize on a daily and yearly basis. We don’t know if this potential technology park might be aimed at being a hyperscale data center or something smaller like a wholesale/retail sized data center. The average amount of water usage between these different types of centers is significant, ranging between 15,000- 500,000 gallons per day. One resource I utilized in my research for writing this was: https://dgtlinfra.com/data-center-water-usage/. Before being able to make a reasonable and informed decision on which we as a community can hold a discussion on, we need to know the specifics of what is being proposed. To this point, why, if a company desired to move into our community and provide genuine benefit to the surrounding area, would they desire to remain a secret and not talk openly with the community?
Talking with and expecting open and honest discourse with our elected officials doesn’t seem unreasonable, so why aren’t they able to answer these questions? Maybe they themselves haven’t asked these questions, maybe they genuinely don’t know what this potential builder desires to build in our community, I personally find this hard to believe, but I leave the possibility open. If disclosure of who our potential neighbor might be, what their intent and impact might be, and what genuine benefit might be brought to us as a community, then there is a need for everyone who is interested in this matter to push the issue and request more information from the City and Township. If our elected officials won’t or don’t answer forthrightly the questions and concerns of the community, then we the citizens need to seek out that information and make it known. Chapter 13 of the Minnesota statutes provide us citizens the way to do this, through the Government Data Practices Act. Anyone can submit a data request and there is no cost for inspecting such data that a government entity has. Find out more at: https://mn.gov/admin/data-practices/data/
A sample request that a person might write out looks something like this:
Date:
To the Responsible Authority of the City of Hampton, Mayor John Knetter
Government Entity: City of Hampton
Address: 5265 238th Street East, P.O. Box 128, Hampton, MN 55031
To the Responsible Authority:
I am writing to you as the responsible authority of the City of Hampton. This is a formal request for access to government data under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13.
I am requesting to inspect data… (stating a request for “inspection” of data allows a person to come in a review the data you request without having to pay for it up front. I highly recommend reading through the state’s website about what data a person can request and how to word a request. Answering questions, in not something the government needs to do by law.)
I look forward to arranging a time to review the data.
If you have any questions or need clarification, please contact me. I can be reached at… (email or phone)
Name
There are many stages of this AUAR review and study spanning the next few months. I am not saying that I am taking a position for or against development of this potential data center in our community, I would simply like all the information possible in making up my decision for or against its support. And I think that government transparency is a necessity for the citizens to make a knowledgeable and informed decision on how we want to be governed.
