St. Joseph city officials travel to Iowa town to learn more about data centers

ALTOONA, Ia. (KQTV) -- St. Joseph city leaders visited Altoona, Ia. on Friday to learn more about data centers and the impacts they have on a city.

Altoona has multiple data centers including a Meta data center that was built in 2013 and is part of Meta's global infrastructure. St. Joseph City Manager Mike Schumacher called it a fact finding mission and wanted to hear the pros and cons of a data center in a community that already has one.

"We were there to learn and see what other communities have experienced," Schumacher said.

In a phone call with KQ2, Schumacher spoke on what the next steps are for the City of St. Joseph.

"The next steps are going to be that we're going to select a consultant to help us navigate a zoning classification," Schumacher said. "There will be community engagement through that process as we kind of figure out what this looks like in St. Joe."

KQ2 will continue to follow any developments as they occur.