Legalectric

AUAR – Cannon Falls Data Ctr – Comments due 6/26

June 18th, 2025

The Cannon Falls Draft Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) was released and published in the EQB Monitor on May 27, 2025. That means Comments, due within 30 days, are due June 26, 2025.

GET TO WORK!

Send comments to the “Responsible Governmental Unit” which is the City of Cannon Falls:

From the AUAR:

Once more with feeling — here’s the AUAR:

Cannon Falls Draft Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR)

The process for AUAR:

Minn. R. 4410.3610 ALTERNATIVE URBAN AREAWIDE REVIEW PROCESS.

Here’s the part from Minn. R. 4410.3610 about commenting:

Notice of availability, per Minn. R. 4410.1500, is to include, among other things, the deadline for comments:

Yet here’s the full Cannon Falls web page — NOTHING on commenting, deadline for commenting:

The AUAR openly names TRACT as the “project proposer.” TRACT is all about data centers, with multiple proposals, multiple tenticles, reaching across our part of Minnesota:

To get an idea what might be coming to Cannon Falls, it makes sense to look at other TRACT projects. There are two TRACT projects comparable to the land size of the Cannon Falls AUAR, first the Medina Technology Park, a San Antonio, Texas project:

The other is the “Pony Express” near Salt Lake City, Utah:

Note that one is 500MW and the other 120MW. Why the significant difference? The Pony Express project seems intended to be divided up into smaller projects, increments of 45-90 acres within the 225 acres. The Medina one seems to be larger, and undivided. But ???

My bet is that because the Cannon Falls site seems more restrictive, with an odd shaped extrusion to the east, and right up against homes to the north, the acreage for any facility would be limited. Also note that right below where it says “City of Cannon Falls” is the natural gas plant, and across the road up against the blue and yellow county dividing line is the substation.

The gas plant:

And the substation:

And don’t forget, there’s more transmission set to roar north to south through Cannon Falls… AGAIN! It’s MISO #25, a 345kV from Hampton down to Pleasant Valley (note the existing Hampton-North Rochester CapX 2020 345kV line, and the OLD Prairie Island-Byron-Adams 345kV line). That’s Public Utilities Commission docket CN-25-120. The red is 345kV, and the green is 765kV (unheard of in MN, so this is a big deal!).