Independent Iowa House District 4 candidate Garth Van Donselaar is calling for statewide data center regulations and raising concerns about PathOne Data Center following the company’s community meeting last week.
Van Donselaar, who is challenging Republican Representative Skyler Wheeler in November, said in a social media post that he appreciated PathOne holding the meeting and allowing residents to learn more about information technology. However, he remains skeptical of the company and its possible plans in Sioux County.
PathOne has advocated for establishing rules governing data center power and water consumption, noise and zoning. Van Donselaar said he supports statewide standards in those areas while also seeking greater protection for Iowa farmland.
“Regardless, we must protect our farmland, and that’s what I’m committed to do as State Representative,” Van Donselaar wrote.
Questions About PathOne
Van Donselaar accused PathOne of previously attempting to advance a data center project without sufficient public awareness. He also cited the company’s limited operating history, reported nondisclosure agreements and use of artificial intelligence-generated graphics as reasons for questioning whether it would follow through on its commitments.
“Like many tech companies, I question their integrity and if they’ll keep their promises regarding regulations and paying taxes in the future,” Van Donselaar wrote.
PathOne has said it wants to develop smaller “edge” data centers rather than the significantly larger facilities being proposed elsewhere. During an August 10 meeting with the Sioux County Board of Supervisors, the company discussed a potential facility using approximately 10 to 25 megawatts of existing electrical capacity. PathOne representatives also said the intended end user had changed after Sioux County enacted its moratorium.
The county’s one-year moratorium temporarily pauses new data centers and industrial battery-storage projects in unincorporated Sioux County.
At last week’s community meeting in Hull, PathOne said it did not have a specific project to present and discussed learning more about the computing needs of area businesses. Van Donselaar said that raised questions for him because the company had previously discussed having an end user for a project.
“Frankly, my impression is that there isn’t much of a local need for businesses to have additional datacenter space,” he wrote.
Van Donselaar argued that more efficient servers and the movement of software and business operations to cloud-based services have reduced the amount of physical server space many companies require.
District 4 Campaign
Van Donselaar grew up in Sioux Center and attended Dordt University. He currently works as a systems administrator for AmBank Company Incorporated, the holding company for American State Bank, Perspective Insurance, and American State Bank Investment and Trust.
He launched his independent campaign for Iowa House District 4 earlier this year. In addition to farmland protection, his previously announced platform includes preserving Iowa’s education savings account system, protecting libraries and freedom of speech, eliminating Iowa’s beverage-container redemption program, and ending the state’s seasonal clock changes.
Wheeler, the Republican incumbent, is seeking another term in the November general election.
