Project West is a proposed $12 billion, 282-acre hyperscale data center campus on the western boundary of Norwalk — described by the City itself as designed to "streamline and expedite" industrial development. It is being built to generate tax revenue for local government and returns for its developer. What the entire community deserves to know is what was agreed to on their behalf — and what binding protections, if any, exist for the people who will live with it for decades.
The families living immediately adjacent to Project West on Delaware Street will bear the most direct consequences. But this development's impacts — noise, light, heat, traffic, and public infrastructure costs — extend well beyond the fence line. Residents of Norwalk, the rural properties of unincorporated Warren County, and the community of Cumming to the northwest all fall within documented impact zones for light pollution, skyglow, and the thermal footprint that research now associates with hyperscale data center operations.
This development is being built because it generates an estimated $15 million annually in tax revenue across all taxing entities and returns on investment for its developer. Those financial incentives are real — but the health and environmental costs are being externalized onto the surrounding community indefinitely. The City's own development marketing describes the NTI Overlay District as designed to "streamline and expedite the development and regulatory process." Streamlining development is not the same as protecting the people who live near it.
The City of Norwalk signed a Development Agreement with Tract in March 2026. That agreement reflects the City's and developer's financial interests. It does not contain binding protections for the health and quality of life of Norwalk or Warren County residents. We are working to change that.
The site was annexed by Norwalk in January 2026 — meaning unincorporated Warren County residents, including those on Delaware Street and in Cumming, had no vote in that decision and have no representation in Norwalk's approval process. Yet they will live with the consequences.
Continuous low-frequency sound from cooling equipment and generators never stops. Research links chronic low-frequency noise to sleep disruption, cardiovascular stress, and cognitive impairment. A 282-acre facility operating around the clock generates acoustic impact far beyond its fenceline.
45 dBA / 55 dBC nighttime limit requestedDownward-facing fixtures alone do not eliminate light pollution. Research confirms roughly half of all skyglow comes from light reflected off ground surfaces, hardscape, rooftops, and cladding. Iowa's snow cover dramatically amplifies this in winter, scattering reflected light across surrounding areas and into the night sky. Cumming and rural Warren County residents are within this zone.
Dark-by-default · low-reflectance surfaces requiredA 2026 University of Cambridge study using NASA satellite data found land surface temperatures surrounding hyperscale data centers rise an average of 3.6°F after operations begin, with extreme cases exceeding 16°F. Thermal effects extend up to 6.2 miles — a radius that encompasses Cumming, rural Warren County properties, and farmland surrounding the site.
Pre-construction baseline study requestedThe setback standards established for this project become the baseline for all future industrial development in Norwalk's NTI Overlay District — a district the City has explicitly designed to attract more large-scale development. Weak setbacks now mean weak setbacks for every project that follows.
1,200 ft minimum setback requestedHeavy construction vehicles routed through residential streets and inadequate county roads affect every family along those routes — including school children on 50th Ave and Delaware Street. The gravel western sections of Delaware Street were never designed for industrial traffic loads.
Hwy 28 / east Delaware entry onlyThe Development Agreement reveals the true financial picture. Tract reimburses the City approximately $6.45 million for water main and sewer construction — but the City in turn reimburses Tract up to $6.1 million in TIF payments — but only if Tract elects early construction of the North River Interceptor Phase 2 sewer extension. That $6.1 million ceiling is stated in the Council's approving resolution; the agreement itself ties the cap to actual project costs. The City is applying for a public RISE grant to pave Delaware Street along the property frontage; if the grant fails, the City pays 50% of road costs itself. The City also acquires Warren Water District rights at its own expense. Iowa state law provides qualifying data centers a 100% sales and use tax abatement on equipment and electricity — a state subsidy not disclosed in the City's public statements about "no tax incentives."
Net public subsidy · RISE grant for road · TIF reimbursement to Tract · state tax abatementSection 1.4 of the Development Agreement contains a provision that the current City Council has agreed that no future zoning amendments or ordinance changes — including any noise, lighting, or setback standards the community succeeds in passing — will apply to the Data Center Campus Project without Tract's consent. Any ordinance protections Norwalk residents win after today cannot be applied to Project West. This makes the NTI Master Site Plan review not just important — it is the only remaining opportunity.
Future ordinances cannot apply to Project West without Tract's consentNorwalk's development website actively markets the NTI Overlay District to attract more large-scale data centers. How Project West is handled sets the standard for every facility that follows. Critically, Section 1.4 of the Development Agreement means future ordinances cannot reach this project — making the NTI Master Site Plan review the one and only moment to embed protections for this specific development.
NTI Master Site Plan review is the last windowThe Gregg Young Sports Campus and Fareway Fields at Norwalk Central were championed by the City as a draw for youth sports tourism and a community gathering place. That may be true. But the neighbors surrounding that development also inherited consequences that were never fully negotiated before construction began: tournament traffic on residential streets, bright field lights burning late into the evening, and crowd noise on weekends that wasn't part of the community conversation.
Project West is categorically more intensive than any sports complex. A hyperscale data center doesn't host weekend tournaments — it operates every hour of every day, every day of the year, indefinitely. The comparison isn't to suggest the sports campus was wrong. It's to ask: if Norwalk didn't get the community protections right for a seasonal recreational facility, what makes us confident we'll get them right for a 24/7 industrial campus covering nearly half a square mile?
The time to negotiate protections is before the site plan is approved — not after the concrete is poured. Norwalk learned that with the sports complex. We have a chance to do better this time.
We have communicated these standards to the City of Norwalk and directly to Tract, the project developer. These are the binding commitments we are asking for before the NTI Master Site Plan is finalized. They reflect established health standards and regulatory precedents from other Iowa municipalities — including Linn County, which adopted comparable standards for similar facilities.
Our asks are grounded in peer-reviewed science and established regulatory standards. Below are key studies and frameworks informing our position.
Recommends nighttime noise below 45 dB to prevent high sleep disturbance. The basis for our 45 dBA nighttime limit.
EPA identifies 55 dB outdoors / 45 dB indoors as thresholds to prevent activity interference and annoyance from continuous noise sources.
Chronic low-frequency noise linked to sleep disruption, stress hormone elevation, and cardiovascular effects — even at levels below standard thresholds.
DarkSky's official guidelines for commercial and industrial luminaires — fixture ratings, CCT limits, uplight restriction, and glare control applicable to a facility like Project West.
Study of 19,136 U.S. residents found greater outdoor nighttime light linked to delayed bedtime, shorter sleep, increased daytime sleepiness, and higher rates of circadian rhythm disorder.
The Backlight-Uplight-Glare rating system developed jointly by IES and DarkSky International. U0 means zero lumens emitted above horizontal — the standard we require facility-wide.
Qualifying Iowa data centers (minimum $200M investment) receive a permanent sales and use tax exemption on servers, computers, networking equipment, cooling systems, and physical plant. Electricity and backup fuel are exempt for 15 years for facilities in cities under 30,000 population. Project West qualifies. This state subsidy was not disclosed in the City's "no tax incentives" public statements.
Research confirms roughly half of all skyglow is generated by light reflected off ground surfaces — not direct uplight. Even fully shielded fixtures produce skyglow when light bounces off hardscape, rooftops, and cladding. Iowa's seasonal snow cover dramatically amplifies this effect throughout winter months.
Using 20 years of NASA satellite land surface temperature data, University of Cambridge researchers found land temperatures surrounding hyperscale data centers rise an average of 3.6°F after operations begin — with extreme cases exceeding 16°F. Thermal effects extend up to 6.2 miles, creating localized microclimate zones affecting surrounding communities, agriculture, and regional welfare.
The Development Agreement between the City of Norwalk and IALCO Warren County Two, LLC was approved March 5, 2026 and drafted by Dorsey & Whitney LLP, whose attorneys specialize in representing Iowa municipalities on TIF and urban renewal agreements. The 63-page document contains provisions that were not disclosed in the City's public statements before the Council vote. Every Norwalk resident and Warren County neighbor deserves to know what was agreed to on their behalf.
The City's public statement before the March 5 vote said the developer "will be responsible for building infrastructure at their own cost" and that "no tax incentives are being offered." The Development Agreement tells a more complicated story.
Section 1.4 states that the current City Council has agreed no future zoning amendments or ordinance changes will apply to the Data Center Campus Project without Tract's written consent. This includes any noise limits, lighting standards, or setback requirements the community succeeds in passing after today. Future elected Councils are bound by this agreement. The NTI Master Site Plan review is the only remaining opportunity to embed protections for this specific project.
Section 1.4 — locks out future community ordinancesThe agreement requires the City to apply for a RISE grant (Iowa DOT's Revitalize Iowa's Sound Economy program) to fund construction of approximately 3,900 linear feet of new concrete road along the project's Delaware Street frontage. If the grant is obtained, Tract pays only the local match. If the City fails to obtain the grant for any reason other than its own breach, the City pays 50% of road costs — and Tract pays the other 50%. The City bears the entire grant risk. This public road serves a private development.
Section 2.4 — RISE grant · City pays 50% if grant failsWhile Tract reimburses the City approximately $6.45 million for water main and sewer infrastructure it builds, the City in turn reimburses Tract up to $6.1 million via TIF payments — but only if Tract elects to build the North River Interceptor Phase 2 sewer extension ahead of schedule. The $6.1 million cap is stated in the Council's approving resolution; the agreement itself ties the cap to the lesser of actual project costs or the Urban Renewal Plan budget for that work. The City also acquires Warren Water District rights at its sole cost and expense. The net public financial commitment is substantially larger than the figure cited in press coverage of the March 5 vote.
Article III + Council Resolution — up to $6.1M TIF payments authorizedThe agreement dedicates 400,000 gallons per day of City water capacity to this development by July 1, 2028 — Phase 1 only, with provisions for requesting additional capacity beyond that. If the developer fails to apply for a building permit by April 1, 2032, the City may reduce this allocation — but only after 30 days' written notice, and the developer can preserve the reservation by paying $40,000 per month.
Section 2.6 — 400,000 GPD guaranteed by July 2028Section 2.3(c) requires the City to acquire all necessary accounts and rights from Warren Water District by October 31, 2028, so the City exclusively holds water service rights to the property — at the City's sole cost and expense. The cost of this acquisition was not disclosed in City public statements.
Section 2.3(c) — City bears acquisition cost, deadline October 2028Section 1.1(a) waives all sewer trunk fees, water district connection fees, sewer district connection fees, and other connection fees that would otherwise be payable. North River Interceptor Extension Service Area connection fees are also waived — provided Tract applies for a building permit by April 1, 2032. These waivers represent real dollar value that other developers and property owners pay.
Section 1.1(a) — all connection fees waivedThe 281.83 acres that became the Project West site were annexed into the City of Norwalk in January 2026 through a process designated CDB Case No. UA26-05. The full record of that annexation — the City's submission to the Iowa City Development Board, the Board's Findings of Fact, and the recorded instrument — is now public. What it reveals is significant.
The City of Norwalk's own submission to the Iowa City Development Board states that "development opportunities have been presented to the City that kicked off the annexation process." This is an explicit admission in a state regulatory filing that the data center deal — not the City's Comprehensive Plan, not a planning study, not community need — initiated the annexation. The land was annexed for the developer.
A much larger 3,200-acre "Southwest Annexation 2024" — approved by the City Development Board in February 2025 — had been under active legal appeal at the time UA26-05 was filed. City Clerk Lindsey Offenburger's email to the Warren County Auditor dated December 15, 2025 states explicitly: "That annexation is being delayed through the appeal process. Therefore, two landowners of the original annexation, Sheplers and Pattersons, would like to proceed with 100% voluntary annexation." The 282-acre UA26-05 territory is a subset of the larger appealed annexation area.
UA26-05 filed December 2025 · 3,200-acre appeal ongoingThe Iowa City Development Board's own Findings of Fact state: "The Board received no response from any governmental unit, business or individual." The public hearing notice was published once in the North Warren Town & County News on December 18, 2025 — a single publication in a weekly paper, with a January 8, 2026 hearing date. The land affected Delaware Street property owners directly, yet the CDB record contains no public comment whatsoever.
Finding of Fact 16 — zero public responses received by the CDBIowa Code §368.5 requires that the Warren County Attorney be notified prior to City Council action on the annexation. The City failed to do this. The CDB's own Findings of Fact acknowledge the lapse (Finding of Fact 13), noting the City later obtained a written acknowledgment from the County Attorney after the Council vote — which the Board accepted as "substantial compliance." The procedural failure was cured only retroactively.
Finding of Fact 13 — §368.5 notice missed, cured after the factThe annexation was recorded in Warren County on March 23, 2026 as Instrument #2026-02259. The cover page of the recorded instrument states: "The City of Huxley and the City Development Board (Grantor) are granting the right of annexation into the City of Norwalk..." The City of Huxley is in Hardin County, Iowa — approximately 100 miles from Norwalk. It has no connection to this annexation. This appears to be a template error by the CDB that was recorded verbatim in the Warren County land records.
Instrument #2026-02259 · recorded March 23, 2026 · Warren County RecorderOn January 8, 2026 — the same day the Norwalk City Council voted to approve the annexation — IALCO Warren County Three, LLC was named as a third-party beneficiary to the Patterson annexation agreement, and IALCO Warren County Two, LLC was named as a third-party beneficiary to the Shepler annexation agreement. The developer's entities were embedded in the annexation agreements on the day of the Council vote, before the Iowa City Development Board had reviewed or approved anything.
Findings of Fact 3 & 4 — IALCO entities added January 8, 2026Resolution 26006, passed January 8, 2026, annexed the territory and simultaneously rezoned all parcels to M-2 Technology Industrial District. There was no interim zoning review, no separate rezoning hearing, and no community input on the M-2 designation. The site went from unincorporated agricultural land to industrially zoned city property in a single Council vote — the same vote that approved the annexation.
Resolution 26006, Section 3 — M-2 rezoning simultaneous with annexationThe annexation record — the City's own submissions to the state, the Board's findings, and the recorded instrument — is available as a public document. Norwalk residents and Warren County neighbors are entitled to read it. The three PDFs below contain the full record.
For years, cities and states competed to attract data centers with the largest possible incentive packages. In 2026, that era is ending. Across the country, communities are discovering that the financial promises made to hyperscale developers came with costs that were never fully disclosed — and residents are pushing back.
Iowa Code § 423.3(95) provides qualifying data centers a permanent sales and use tax exemption on servers, computers, networking equipment, cooling systems, and physical plant — and a 15-year exemption on electricity and backup power generation fuel for facilities in cities under 30,000 population. Norwalk, at approximately 13,000 residents, qualifies for the 15-year energy exemption. The qualifying investment threshold is $200 million; Project West is a $12 billion investment. This is a substantial state-level public subsidy — separate from anything the City of Norwalk offered, and not mentioned in the City's public statements about "no tax incentives." The residents of Norwalk deserve to know the full picture.
Altoona Mayor Dean O'Connor — whose city hosted Meta's data center for over a decade — told a county legislative committee in early 2026: "When Meta came to us, it was brand new. Now, they're chasing you. You can negotiate a lot differently than we did back then." Norwalk negotiated as if it still had to chase.
What the Development Agreement actually says: The City agreed that no future zoning amendments or ordinance changes will apply to the Data Center Campus Project without Tract's consent (Section 1.4). Tract receives up to $6.1 million in TIF reimbursements — but only if Tract elects early construction of the North River Interceptor Phase 2 sewer extension (a cap stated in the Council's approving resolution, not the agreement body). The City is applying for a public RISE grant to pave Delaware Street — if the grant fails, the City pays 50% of road costs itself. The City must also acquire Warren Water District rights at its own sole expense. These terms were not disclosed in the City's public statements before the March 5 vote.
In Buckeye, Arizona, Tract contributed $15 million toward a highway interchange and $3.5 million toward public facilities — in addition to building its own water campus. In Altoona, Iowa, the city reserved 80 acres for its own future development as part of the deal. In Norwalk, Tract reimburses approximately $6.45 million in infrastructure costs — but receives up to $6.1 million back in TIF payments if it elects early construction of the North River Interceptor Phase 2 sewer extension, and the City funds 50% of Delaware Street road construction if the RISE grant fails. The net public contribution is far larger than the City's public statements acknowledged.
Buckeye: $18.5M Tract contribution · Norwalk: net TIF reimbursement to TractIn the first six weeks of 2026 alone, more than 300 state data center legislation bills were filed across 30+ states — shifting from incentive-focused policies to regulatory oversight. Virginia, Georgia, and Oklahoma are moving to reduce or eliminate data center tax credits. At least 18 states have introduced bills requiring data centers to fund infrastructure improvements and demonstrate benefits to ratepayers. Norwalk is acting in the opposite direction.
National regulatory shift underwayIowa Code § 423.3(95) provides qualifying data centers a permanent sales and use tax exemption on servers, computers, networking equipment, cooling systems, and physical plant — with no expiration date. Electricity and backup power generation fuel are additionally exempt for 15 years, given Norwalk's population is under 30,000. The qualifying investment threshold is $200 million; Project West is a $12 billion investment. For a facility of this scale, the cumulative value of these exemptions over 15 years is substantial — and was not mentioned in the City's public statements about "no tax incentives."
Iowa Code § 423.3(95) · permanent equipment exemption · 15-year energy exemptionNorwalk's Economic Development Director, Hollie Zajicek, has championed Project West as a transformational win for the community. She has built her professional identity — and now a state senate campaign — around the claim that she brings "high quality jobs" to Norwalk. That record deserves scrutiny, starting with what that phrase actually means.
"High quality jobs" is not a colloquial phrase meaning well-paying work. It is a defined term in Iowa's economic development statutes, administered by the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA).[1] Under Iowa Code Chapter 15, a "high quality job" is one that pays at or above the local laborshed wage — the mean wage for the area from which workers commute to an employment center, excluding retail, healthcare, and food service wages. The City of Norwalk operates its own local High Quality Jobs grant program, administered by Director Zajicek, using this same state threshold.[2]
For FY2026, IEDA has set the Norwalk laborshed wage at $35.23 per hour ($73,278 annually). To qualify for the standard state HQJ program, a job must pay 120% of that figure — $42.28 per hour ($87,942 annually). That is the official Iowa definition of a "high quality job" in Norwalk.[3]
For context: workers in the Des Moines–West Des Moines metro area — which includes Warren County and is where most Norwalk residents work — earned an average of $31.09 per hour in May 2024, itself below the national average of $32.66.[4] The laborshed wage is higher because it excludes lower-wage sectors. But the underlying reality is the same: the region Director Zajicek is responsible for developing economically pays workers less than the country does on average.
Iowa's "high quality jobs" threshold is pegged to the local laborshed wage — a figure that, in the Des Moines metro, sits below the national average across all occupations. A job that qualifies as "high quality" in Warren County may not qualify in a higher-wage region. This is what Director Zajicek means when she says she brings high quality jobs to Norwalk.
Against that backdrop, consider Director Zajicek's own compensation. According to public payroll records, her 2024 salary was $151,857 — 54 percent above the Iowa average for economic development directors.[5] That figure is more than twice the Norwalk laborshed wage ($73,278 annually) and nearly twice the "high quality" wage threshold ($87,942 annually) that her own program requires employers to meet.[3]
For comparison, here is how she is compensated relative to economic development directors in other Des Moines metro cities, per public payroll records:[5]
| City | Director | Salary (2024–25) | City population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ankeny | Derek Lord | $178,958 | ~75,000 |
| Des Moines | Carrie Kruse | $163,863 | ~215,000 |
| West Des Moines | Ryan Moffatt | $163,595 | ~70,000 |
| Norwalk | Hollie Zajicek | $151,857 | ~15,000 |
| Waukee | Jennifer Brown | $128,785 | ~30,000 |
Director Zajicek is paid at roughly the same level as the economic development directors of Des Moines and West Des Moines — cities with five to fourteen times Norwalk's population. She earns more than Waukee's director despite Norwalk having roughly half Waukee's population.[6]
Her salary has grown 56 percent since 2020 — from approximately $97,282 to $151,857. Over the same period, Iowa's average annual wage grew from $52,131 to $61,099, an increase of 17 percent.[7] Director Zajicek's compensation grew at more than three times the rate of the average Iowa worker's wages during her tenure.
None of this is secret. All of it is public record. The question Norwalk taxpayers deserve to ask is simple: what has that investment returned — and for whom?
You don't have to live on Delaware Street for this to matter to you. Whether you're a Norwalk resident, a rural Warren County property owner, a Cumming neighbor, or simply someone who cares about the standards this region sets for large-scale industrial development — your voice belongs in this conversation.
Developers and municipalities respond to organized, documented community voices. The NTI Master Site Plan review is the last window to get binding protections into the project record. That window won't stay open.
To get involved or stay updated on City meetings, Tract communications, and next steps, reach out to us at hello@ournorwalk.org