Harwood, North Dakota voters reject data center restriction proposal

Harwood, North Dakota, has found itself in a position that is increasingly rare in the American landscape. While the rest of the country grapples with a massive wave of industrial expansion, this small community is serving as the singular outlier in a broader national trend. On Election Day, voters across 10 states weighed in on 41 different ballot measures aimed at placing restrictions on data centers. Forty of those measures were approved, signaling a clear, widespread desire for tighter oversight. Harwood was the only place where the momentum stalled; about 76% of its voters rejected a proposal that would have altered the community’s home rule charter to grant more control over industrial projects, including a large-scale data center currently under construction, InForum reported.

The Infrastructure Tension

The pushback seen in those other 41 measures isn’t happening in a vacuum. It is a direct response to the immense strain that modern, high-intensity computing facilities place on local resources. These sites are notorious for their massive demand for electricity and water, often requiring upgrades to power grids and local utility infrastructure that can leave communities footing the bill for years to come. For many, the question is not whether these facilities should exist, but whether they should be allowed to operate without paying the full price for the local services they consume.

Harwood Voters Crush Data Center Restrictions in Landslide: Small Town Chooses Jobs Over Red Tape Voters in Harwood, North Dakota just delivered a decisive rebuke to efforts that would have imposed new review requirements on major industrial projects, including data centers. The… pic.twitter.com/3znKkdESeZ

— https://x.com/NathanielSami/status/2119061817595150649

This reality creates a complex dynamic for local leaders. In North Dakota, business advocates argue that the economic upside is too significant to ignore. Andrea Pfennig, vice president of government affairs for the Greater North Dakota Chamber, suggests that the narrative often misses the forest for the trees. According to Pfennig, the investment, new jobs, and tax revenue generated by these facilities provide the necessary funding to maintain essential services like schools, parks, and even the timely plowing of local roads.

Weighing Growth Against Quality of Life

For residents like Eric Sinner, however, the promise of tax revenue does little to offset the immediate, tangible impacts on daily life. For those living in the shadow of these massive cooling systems—like the one operated by Applied Digital, which was photographed in Harwood on August 27, 2026—the primary concern is how these developments shift the character of a community and affect property values. The Dakota Resource Council, which advocates for residents in these disputes, argues that the current model for development often leaves local voices out of the room until it is far too late to make a difference.

Data center growth meets a different response in North Dakota - InForum — Photo: europesays.com

If you’re going to affect people’s lives and people’s home values are going to go down and disrupt the quality of life, then what’s it worth if you’re going to lose people from that?

Ishauna Jacobberger, a rural energy and data organizer for the Dakota Resource Council, believes the tension could be de-escalated if developers adopted a more collaborative approach. She argues that instead of imposing projects on unwilling towns, developers should seek out sites where their presence is welcomed and work directly with residents to ensure the facility fits within the existing footprint of the city.

The Statistical Divide

The appetite for data centers in North Dakota remains deeply divided, according to polling data from October. When 625 North Dakotans were asked about their support for traditional data center development, 57% expressed approval, while 43% remained opposed or undecided. That support fluctuates wildly depending on the conditions attached to the projects. When the prompt specifies that developers must cover the full cost of infrastructure improvements, support jumps to 74%.

Yet, the “Not In My Backyard” phenomenon is clearly visible in the data. When citizens were asked specifically about the prospect of building a data center in their own immediate community, support plummeted to 36%, with 40% in opposition and the remainder undecided. This gap between the abstract approval of economic development and the concrete reality of industrial neighbors is the core conflict that will continue to define the conversation in North Dakota and beyond.

Controversial data center coming to North Dakota: Harwood mayor responds

As construction continues in Harwood, the town remains a case study for a national dilemma. The question of whether the economic benefits of digital infrastructure can ever truly be balanced against the concerns of local residents remains wide open. For now, Harwood has chosen to move forward with the current development, but the underlying friction—the demand for more oversight, the anxiety over utility costs, and the desire for a seat at the planning table—is unlikely to fade away.