GARNER — A proposal that could bring a sprawling data center development to Hancock County is moving into the public zoning process, with more than 724 acres of agricultural land targeted for possible conversion to industrial use.
The Hancock County Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing Wednesday, September 9, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Hancock County Public Safety Center, 875 State Street in Garner.
According to the county’s official public notice, MCNI, LLC has submitted a Petition for District Change covering 724.26 acres in Sections 16 and 21 of Concord Township. The company is asking that the land be rezoned from A-Agricultural to I-Industrial for development of a data center.
Readers can view the Hancock County Planning and Zoning Commission’s official notice here.
The amount of land involved gives the proposal considerable scale. The requested rezoning covers more than one square mile of Hancock County property.
So far, however, the public notice provides few details about what ultimately could be built there.
It does not identify the company that would operate the data center, how many buildings could be constructed, the projected value of the development, the anticipated number of permanent jobs or the amount of electrical and water capacity the operation could require.
Those questions have become increasingly important as data-center proposals spread across Iowa and elsewhere.
NIT examined the growing data-center boom earlier this year and the difficulty communities can face in obtaining detailed information about proposed facilities, including their power demands and infrastructure requirements:
North Iowa has already seen similar discussions.
In March, NIT reported that Mason City officials were preparing zoning standards covering issues such as noise, vibration, setbacks and lighting while acknowledging discussions involving a possible data center. At that time, city officials said no specific data-center project had formally been submitted.
The Hancock County situation has now reached a more concrete stage: a specific company has formally requested a zoning change for a specified amount of land and identified a data center as the intended use.
MCNI, LLC is a relatively new Iowa company.
Iowa Secretary of State business records show MCNI, LLC, Business No. 856606, became effective January 26, 2026. It is listed as an active domestic limited liability company.
The company’s principal office is listed at 913 N. 14th Street in Clear Lake.
Its registered agent is Laird, Heiny, McManigal, Winga, Duffy & Stambaugh, P.L.C., the Mason City law firm located at 11 4th Street NE.
Those corporate filings do not identify the ultimate data-center operator or reveal whether MCNI is acting on behalf of another company or investment group.
Iowa has attracted several enormous data-center developments over the years.
NIT reported in 2017 that Apple planned a more than $1.3 billion Iowa data-center investment near Waukee, illustrating the enormous amounts of land, capital and infrastructure that can accompany these projects.
Whether the Hancock County proposal approaches that kind of scale remains unknown.
Among the unanswered questions are who presently owns the land involved in the zoning request, whether MCNI already controls the property, how the facility would obtain sufficient electricity, whether significant water use would be necessary and whether county or state economic-development incentives could eventually be sought.
The September 9 hearing will give residents an opportunity to hear more about the zoning request and offer comments to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
The county has scheduled the public hearing from 6 to 8 p.m. Residents may attend in person or participate remotely.
Online participation:
https://meet.goto.com/912351141
Telephone participation:
+1 (408) 650-3123
Access code: 912-351-141
The zoning request represents an early stage in what could become a much larger development process. Rezoning the property would establish industrial land-use authority, but additional approvals, agreements and infrastructure decisions could follow before a data center could actually be constructed.
NIT will continue following the proposal as additional information about the land, developer and planned facility becomes available.