Mandan residents submit petition to City of Mandan

Susan Beehler and Sheila Froehlich submitted a petition to ban data centers over 25 megawatts with 706 signatures to the city on September 22.
The petition is to have a special election on an ordinance that would ban data centers over 25 megawatts. Beehler said the reasoning for having a limit on data centers over 25 megawatts is based on research on what other communities have done across the country and on having the petition stand against legal challenges. The petition will be discussed at the Mandan City Commission meeting on October 6 along with the petition for a special election for a new city Commissioner.
The 706 signatures were collected over eight days since the first press conference hosted by Beehler and Froehlich on September 14. A majority of the signatures were gathered by Beehler and Froehlich as people came to them to sign the petition.
Froehlich stayed at different businesses for people to meet her while Beehler would park and have her trunk open to make a mobile station for people to sign the petition.
“Mandan really came out,” Beehler said. “They were seeking us to sign this petition because they felt so strongly about it.”
Beehler said the residents are exercising their First Amendment rights to share a petition, sharing their grievances with the government. She said that there was a good reception to the petitions, but four people declined to sign the petition. She said that the people who didn’t want to sign the petition for reasons including not understanding the petition, not doing enough research on the issue and personal reasons.
The decision to have a petition to ban data centers over 25 megawatts came from Froehlich submitting a petition for a moratorium on data centers with 1,460 signatures at the Mandan Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on August 24 at the Mandan High School auditorium with 600 people. Froehlich submitted the petition to Mandan City Administrator Jim Neubauer.
Beehler said that Froehlich spent the summer collecting those signatures, and Beehler said they barely got a mention in the meeting on August 24.
The Planning and Zoning Commission meeting resulted in a draft of the data center ordinance being approved with six changes from public feedback gathered through comments. The six changes to the ordinance included reducing decibel thresholds for noise, banning NDAs, requiring PFAS-free chemicals in coolant systems, supplementary minimum setbacks, strict school thresholds and monitoring location numbers.
During the meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commissioners discussed why they didn’t want a moratorium on data centers because they wanted to keep local control over data centers.
Feedback on the data center ordinance can be provided at the City Commission meeting when the draft of the ordinance will be reviewed. The City Commission will announce when they will review the ordinance. The dates are still being determined because of the availability of Dakota Media Access and the Mandan High School Auditorium. Mandan wants to have the meeting in the Mandan High School Auditorium because of the expected number of people attending the meeting.