The Minneapolis City Council adopted its data center use regulations ordinance on 12 November by 7 votes to 6, according to the city’s legislative record for file 2026-00639. MPR News reported that the final version requires council approval of each new data center and limits new centers to existing buildings in two zoning districts downtown.
The city’s record lists the ordinance under mayoral review. The 7 ayes are 2 short of the 9 votes MPR News says the council would need to override a veto by Mayor Jacob Frey. The temporary moratorium on most new data centers expires on 21 November.
Business Pill · Grid Cost Allocation
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on who pays when new grid capacity is built for large loads such as data centers. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss Minneapolis.
The key insight: The same council voted 12-0 for the ordinance in committee on 9 November and 7-6 on 12 November, after the case-by-case approval rule was added, per the city record and MPR News. The 7 ayes are 2 short of the 9 needed to override a veto, by our arithmetic.
The ordinance, number 2026-041 with Elizabeth Shaffer listed as primary author, amends five chapters of the zoning code. Its title covers data centers along with electric or gas substations, backup generators, utility boxes and battery energy storage systems.
FOX 9 and KSTP described the version discussed at the Committee of the Whole on 9 November. Data centers would be allowed only downtown or in the North Loop, in existing buildings with minimal modifications, and capped at 150,000 square feet. KSTP reported that a data center could not be the primary use of a building or sit on its first two floors.
FOX 9 reported that computers would have to be 20 feet from exterior walls, to address noise, and that companies would have to disclose energy and water use to the city. FOX 9 also reported that cities cannot cap that use.
Ayes for the Minneapolis data center use regulations ordinance at the Committee of the Whole on 9 November (12, one member absent) and the full council on 12 November (7 to 6), against the 9 votes MPR News reports are needed to override a mayoral veto. Source: City of Minneapolis LIMS, MPR News.
How the Vote Split
The record shows a 12-0 committee vote on 9 November, with Jamison Whiting absent. Three days later the full council split 7-6. Payne, Chughtai, Wonsley, Stevenson, Chavez, Whiting and Chowdhury voted aye; Osman, Rainville, Vetaw, Warren, Shaffer and Palmisano voted nay.
MPR News reported that the case-by-case approval rule was added on 12 November. KSTP reported that an overlay district requiring council approval had failed on 9 November, and that Frey’s office said he did not support that step but supported the ordinance.
Council member Aurin Chowdhury told the meeting: “This would allow us to have an up or down vote that evolves with the industry”. Shaffer, who voted nay, said: “There’s a gap between a downtown tower nobody invests in and one somebody did”.
The Moratorium Clock
The council imposed a six-month moratorium in May, with an exception for downtown data centers with less than 350,000 square feet of new or expanded space, MPR News reported then. The 150,000 square foot cap described on 9 November is 57% below that threshold, by our arithmetic.
MPR News reported that the council plans to reconvene on 20 November to address a possible veto, one day before the moratorium ends. FOX 9 reported that data centers could again move in with little oversight if new rules do not pass.
FOX 9 reported that, according to the city, downtown has eight data centers serving tech companies, and that council members heard from Xcel Energy of interest in up to eight more projects.
The Structural Read
As we read the two roll calls, the split came with the approval rule: KSTP reported that a council-approval overlay failed on 9 November, and MPR News reported the rule was added on 12 November.
As we read the timing, the council plans to reconvene on 20 November, MPR News reported, one day before the moratorium ends on 21 November.
Aurin Chowdhury, Minneapolis council member, 12 November (MPR News)
“This would allow us to have an up or down vote that evolves with the industry”
Three Implications
FOR DATA CENTER DEVELOPERSFOX 9 and KSTP reported the 9 November version allows only existing downtown or North Loop buildings, capped at 150,000 square feet.
FOR THE MAYOR MPR News reported that Frey told council members he does not support case-by-case votes; the record lists the ordinance under mayoral review.
FOR THE MORATORIUM The six-month pause expires on 21 November; MPR News reported the council plans to reconvene on 20 November.
The framework describes Layer 1, Energy & Physical, as “Gigawatts, transmission, cooling, land, water, rare-earth magnets. The bedrock everything else stands on.”
As we read it, a city zoning code decides where that bedrock can sit: which buildings, which districts and how many square feet. The analysis does not discuss Minneapolis.
What Is Not Established
We could not open the amended ordinance text, which the city site served behind a browser check, so the terms above come from local reporting on the 9 November version and the 12 November vote. The legislative record we read shows no signature or veto by Frey. MPR News reported that his office did not immediately respond to its request for comment. We did not contact the mayor’s office for this piece.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
The Great Convergence of Capital, Power, and Geopolitics
This week’s issue: for two years the AI build-out was priced as a supply story, and last week as a credit story. This week it was priced as a permission story, and the answer arrived as a cost, not a ban.
Minneapolis adopted data center rules 7-6 on 12 November, including council approval of each new project, and the ordinance is with the mayor. An override would need 9 votes, 2 more than the measure received, with the moratorium ending on 21 November.
A note on sourcing. We read the City of Minneapolis legislative file 2026-00639, including the 9 and 12 November roll calls, and reporting by MPR News (13 November and 22 May), KSTP and FOX 9 (9 November). The amended ordinance PDF was behind a browser check and could not be opened, so its terms are as those outlets described them. The vote gap and the size comparison are our arithmetic. We did not contact the mayor’s office for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
