AUG. 10, 2026

The City of Dubuque has gone through an extensive public input process over the last several weeks to collect information from the public about data centers. The Dubuque City Council will hold a work session on Monday, Aug. 17, to receive information from City staff, to review that public input, and consider development of a data center ordinance.

The work session is open to the public and will be held in the City Council Chambers on the second floor of the Historic Federal Building, 350 W. Sixth St. It will begin at 5:15 p.m. and end by 6:30 p.m. for the regular city council meeting that will follow.

Unlike a regular council meeting, no official action can be taken by city council during a work session and no public input is accepted. Work sessions are held to allow the city council to receive detailed information on topics, ask questions, and provide staff direction before any course of action is taken.

During the Aug. 17 work session, City staff will present the results of the data center ordinance community survey, feedback gathered at public input sessions held on July 21 and July 27, and other input received from residents and stakeholders. The city attorney will also present information on the legal considerations involved related to data center ordinances. Work session materials will be posted online Friday morning as part of the meeting agenda at cityofdubuque.org/agendas, Based on direction from the council at the Aug. 17 work session, City staff may prepare a draft ordinance for consideration by the city council at a later date.

The Aug. 17 work session is open to the public but there will be no public input opportunities during the work session. It will also be streamed live and archived at cityofdubuque.org/media and broadcast live on CityChannel Dubuque (Mediacom cable channel 8 and ImOn channel 5). It will also be livestreamed on the City of Dubuque Facebook page (facebook.com/CityOfDubuque) and the City website at cityofdubuque.org/livestream. The work session will also be presented as a virtual meeting at cityofdubuque.org/virtualmeeting

No formal annexation petition, site plan, request for utilities, or development agreement regarding a proposed data center within the Dubuque city limits has been presented to the City of Dubuque at this time.

If the city council directs staff to create an ordinance, the intent will be to propose rules and regulations which a data center would have to abide by to be considered for development in the city of Dubuque. If any project were proposed or submitted to the City while the ordinance is being developed, the City would take no action until an ordinance is in place.

The process to adopt a data center ordinance would be for it to be on a city council agenda after Aug. 17 as an action item and it would require three readings at three consecutive city council meetings before adoption. The city council meets on the first and third Monday of each month so that process would take six weeks. During that six-week period, residents would have the opportunity to communicate with city council members and provide their thoughts on the proposed ordinance.

Additional information is available at cityofdubuque.org/datacenters

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