Sustainable Eagan Advisory Commission Meeting - August 10, 2026
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Sustainable Eagan Advisory Commission Meeting - August 10, 2026
The Sustainable Eagan Advisory Commission (SEAC) met on August 10, 2026, at 6:30 PM at the Eagan Municipal Center. The meeting included presentations on a city sustainability award and data center regulation, discussion on the Sustainable Eagan Academy student speaker program, and staff reports on new grants and initiatives.
Presentations
- League of MN Cities Sustainable Cities Award: Sustainability Manager Gillian Catano reported that Eagan received the 2026 award for the Eagan Art House Rebuild, the first major capital project funded by the city's sustainability fund (utility franchise fee, 100% dedicated to sustainability). Key features: 100% electric facility (largest fully electric city building), 100% renewable energy through on-site solar and renewable energy credits, and a geothermal HVAC system. Estimated annual savings: avoiding 33 tons of CO2 (equivalent to 770 acres of forest over 20 years) and saving approximately $10,000 per month on energy costs. Catano credited the commission's early advocacy for sustainability staffing and funding.
- Data Center Presentation: City Planner Mike Shultz presented an overview of data center issues, focusing on sustainability and land use. He reviewed common concerns: noise (including infrasound), water use (hyperscale centers may use millions of gallons; average single-family home uses 95,000–100,000 gallons annually), power consumption, and on-site generation trends. He highlighted best practices from Loudoun County (VA), including pre- and post-construction noise studies, minimum 500–1,000 foot setbacks from residential, tier-4 backup generators, closed-loop cooling systems, and requirements for annual water use estimates and decommission plans. He also summarized ordinances from Eden Prairie (which requires a narrative addressing the city's climate action plan goals) and Linn County, IA. Shultz noted that the city cannot prohibit data centers but must regulate them, and that a moratorium extends to February 2027.
Discussion Items
- Data Center Regulation Discussion: Commissioners asked about water capacity limits, GHG goals versus new data centers, grid capacity, enforcement mechanisms for water use estimates, noise study procedures, safety and emergency response, equity considerations, and the role of state regulations. Shultz clarified that the city has limited authority on power lines, but can require data centers to provide studies (noise, water, waste, power). He invited SEAC to email recommendations by August 19 and attend the Planning Commission workshop on August 25.
- Sustainable Eagan Academy Student Speakers: Staff proposed either continuing student speakers at every session (5 sessions, January–May) or consolidating to a dedicated student speaker night. Commissioners expressed strong support for keeping students integrated regularly, citing the value of youth perspectives and inspiration for peers. Some noted staff workload concerns and suggested commissioners could help with scheduling. No final decision was made; staff will revisit during academy planning.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken on agenda items.
- SEAC members are asked to submit recommendations on data center ordinance policy questions (supplemental information, cooling systems, sustainability goals) to the Chair by August 19, 2026.
- Staff will continue developing a public engagement plan for data centers, with a timeline later this year.
- The student speaker format for the 2027 Sustainable Eagan Academy will be determined after further staff and commission input.
- Staff reports highlighted: $30,000 MPCA grant for a transit pass pilot program for renters, high school students, and faith communities in environmental justice areas; a new printed climate action community guide; a composting pilot at City Hall; and a fall Sustainable Eagan Academy series in partnership with Electrify Everything Minnesota (Aug 19, Sep 10, Oct 8, Nov 12). The University of Minnesota's Community Climate Leaders Program begins in Eagan September 8.
Meeting Transcript
Hello, and welcome to the August tenth, twenty twenty six meeting of the Sustainable Eagan Advisory Commission meeting. Uh, can we all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? Indivisible delivery for all. No, we're missing one. Yes, Jin is not here. Thank you. Uh all right. Uh, second item is the approval of the agenda. Do we have a motion to approve? So move. All in favor? Aye. Opposed. Next item is approval of the minutes from the May eighteenth meeting. Do we have a motion to approve? I did find something. It's always always when it's you, right? And um, so it's this uh the third paragraph second line where it says that uh member of course Moken nominated um member Raker. I think it was someone else. But if no one remembers okay. I'm excited to be here tonight to present um an award that the city has recently won in the sustainability category. Um each year the League of Minnesota Cities presents one city, the Sustainable City Award. And this year in 2026, the City of Egan was awarded this recognition. The recognition was awarded for the Egan Art House Rebuild and the collaboration of that project with the city's climate action plan. Um there's a couple of key things in this project that I wanted to highlight. Um our award is right here for you to see. Um this project was the first major capital project that uh took advantage of the city's newly um new uh sustainability fund, which is funded through the utility franchise fee. Um and I'll remind this commission that the uh utility franchise fee is 100% dedicated to sustainability projects. Um and this project wouldn't have been possible the way it was built without uh that that fund. Um and in order to be able to build this project the way it was, uh there were several years in the making, um, a lot of which started with this commission, um, advocating for a sustainability initiative, sustainability staff, and funding for this initiative. And that all started even prior to 2022. Uh, but I'll remind you that this initiative was launched in 2022 to make sustainability a key city priority. Uh following that, the city invested in professional sustainability staff to ensure that projects like this, uh a new build of a facility had sustainability as a priority. And as I mentioned, um this project was done in uh collaboration with the city's climate action plan. Uh, one of which the the key actions there speaks about uh new new facilities being constructed without uh the the need for uh fossil fuels and natural gas, and we were able to accomplish that in this project. Uh so we invested about two million dollars in sustainability features um into this this facility, and so I encourage each of you if you haven't been there to go visit it, not only because it's an amazing art facility and it's beautiful in the way it was constructed and designed, but also because of the um really awesome sustainability features. Uh some of the key features here are that it's a 100% electric facility. Um, it's the largest facility of the size that the city owns that's fully electric. And we also operate 100% renewable energy through a combined combination of the on-site solar generation as well as the renewable energy credits that we purchase through the electric utility. Uh, there's also a geothermal HVAC system in this facility, allowing us to heat and cool the facility very efficiently. That leads to some measurable measurable impacts annually. We're estimating that uh we're avoiding about 33 tons of CO2. Um, and over 20 years, this is about the same avoided CO2 that 770 acres of forest would sequester. And we do think that we're we're saving about 10,000 monthly uh because of the on-site solar and the geothermal HVAC system. Uh, if we had chosen to go with more traditional um heating and cooling, the uh energy utility bills would have been much higher for a facility of this size and also the type of use that it gets. So, overall, I just wanted to summarize that um this project took so much community support uh from the commissioners through uh support of our climate action plan team members through the input we got in our recreation facilities planning. Um, and that's why the facility is built the way that it is. And so we're really proud uh to present the commission and all of Egan this award. Um, and at the end of the meeting, I'd love to take a photo with all of you and our award. So thank you.
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