Sioux Falls just cleared rezoning for its first hyperscale data center, a greenfield 164-acre site tied directly to Xcel’s Split Rock substation and Angus Anson power station.
The developer, Gemini Data Center SD (a California family office), is positioning this as powered by dedicated utility build-out on their dime, not ratepayers’, with end-user likely a large cloud or AI tenant but not yet named.
The city added conditions that matter for AI infra footprint: wide setbacks, buffer yards, conservation land, noise constraints, and a key restriction that water use is effectively closed-loop and limited to domestic consumption.
This site was not in the near-term growth plan, so the city is accelerating utilities and growth boundaries specifically to capture hyperscale demand, signaling they are open for more large data center and AI builds.
Local opposition focused on power draw, climate impact, and distrust of AI growth, while proponents emphasized “millions” in property and utility tax revenue and the 50-150 permanent technical and facilities jobs.
Given the direct substation adjacency and rezoning now locked in via a 7-0 vote, this parcel becomes a likely candidate for GPU-heavy AI capacity if a hyperscaler or large cloud customer steps in.
The article is worth a read for how a smaller market is rewriting growth plans to compete for AI-scale data center workloads despite community pushback.
Source: Hyperscale data center gains rezoning vote after hours of opposing testimony – SiouxFalls.Business
