The Village Board is being asked to write "data center" permanently into Hallam's zoning code. Under this board's normal practice, that ordinance can be introduced and given final passage at the same meeting — no second reading, no second chance. If you wait to see how the first vote goes, there is no second vote.
Nebraska law normally requires an ordinance to be read on three separate dates before it passes. That rule can be waived by a vote of the board — and this board waives it as routine practice.
At the June 1, 2026 meeting, the board introduced fifteen ordinances, voted to "waive the statutory rule requiring reading on three separate dates," and passed all fifteen the same night. Every vote was 5–0.
Assume this ordinance gets introduced and finally passed at a single meeting. Everything — the phone calls, the turnout, the testimony — has to happen BEFORE that gavel.
The practical deadline is not the vote. It's the meeting before the vote.
Phase 1 is the door. Phase 2 is what walks through it — and we are fighting both.
That's it. That's the ask. Not a delay, not a compromise, not a list of conditions — a no vote on September 14, and then real rules written before anyone comes back.
The noise study hasn't been done yet — it's been commissioned. The operator who would run it isn't named. And the site plan is stamped "test fit subject to change." Hallam's code puts the burden of proof on the applicant. It hasn't been met.
Our code doesn't define a data center, set a setback for one, or say a word about its water or its cleanup. Twelve-plus Nebraska counties paused this year to write those rules first. Our comprehensive plan is from 2011.
The amendment permits a data center on the same parcel as an industrial use "or on a parcel adjacent to" it. That's the code changing, not one site being approved — and it's written broadly enough to reach ground nobody is talking about tonight.
Three of five trustees can pass this. Two persuaded trustees stop it. We are working all five, and we are asking every one of them for the same thing: vote no.
Monolith filed on July 15. Some questions got answered. The ones that matter most didn't.
| Question | Where it stands |
|---|---|
| How many megawatts will it draw? | ANSWERED — up to 35 MW |
| Who pays to remove it if it's abandoned? | ANSWERED — the owner. But no bond posted. |
| How loud will it be at the nearest homes? | Study commissioned. Not finished. |
| Who will actually operate it? | Not named. "Active conversations." |
| How many gallons of water per day? | Not disclosed |
| Air-cooled or liquid-cooled? | Both kept open. "Where practicable." |
| How large is Phase 2? | Not disclosed |
| What tax incentives are being sought? | Not disclosed |
Page 12 of the application makes a series of written commitments, citing Nebraska's new data center law. We are not disputing a single one of them. We're pointing out that not one of them appears in the ordinance the Board will actually vote on.
Every one of those promises lives in a letter to the Village Clerk. A letter binds nobody after the vote. None of it carries a dollar figure, a deadline, or a posted bond, and none of it appears in the ordinance the Board is being asked to adopt.
A community benefit agreement with no terms is an agreement to negotiate later, from a much weaker position — after approval, when we have nothing left to trade.
A board can only vote on what's written. What's written deserves a no.
This is the clearest reason to vote no on the amendment itself — and it comes from the Monolith's own materials, not from us.
In those materials, the operator's Iceland facility is offered as a reason for confidence. The detail given is that it scaled from 33 megawatts to 57 megawatts as demand grew.
That's not our claim about expansion. That's their case study.
The modular design is marketed on exactly this quality — units arrive prefabricated and get added as demand requires. That's a sound business model, and nobody should fault them for it. But it means the ten acres in front of the Board is a starting point, not a ceiling. The only moment a community gets to set that ceiling in writing is before the first approval, not after.
Approving the door is approving what comes through it.
The site plan attached to the application is labeled "TEST FIT SUBJECT TO CHANGE." The application says building placement, orientation, quantity, and layout may all change during design.
And the proposed ordinance language says plans submitted for approval "may be preliminary with final as-built drawings submitted after completion of construction."
Approve a sketch now. See the real drawings after the concrete is poured.
That is not a small drafting detail. It means the Planning Commission approves one thing and the Village receives documentation of another, with no review in between and no opportunity to object. Ask that final construction drawings be required before a building permit issues — not after the building exists.
Everything below comes from the Village of Hallam's published board minutes and agendas. Read together, they show a project moving steadily through our village for months — while still being described publicly as undecided.
Long-term planning for a second route out of town, east toward 42nd Street. The minutes record that Monolith agreed if it involves land they own, and that a survey was needed — 70 feet requested. Approved 5–0. Also discussed: identifying land for a future well site "should we ever need one."
Burns & McDonnell booked the room, then asked for ongoing standing approval with a rolling deposit. They appear again in May.
The Chairman summarized: 2025 was a bad year, the company sought investors to expand the carbon black plant and did not get them, so it changed direction — one reactor built of twelve planned, now needing four more, construction running to 2030.
Monolith brought new leadership to the board. Per the minutes, the CEO "thanked the village board for being supportive." The minutes also record that the company Monolith may partner with "has an interest in paving 42nd street to the Sprague highway," and that Monolith is willing to let the village use their property to test for another well site.
In the same meeting, the board introduced fifteen ordinances, waived the three-separate-readings requirement, and gave them all final passage. 5–0.
The June minutes list an auditorium rental by the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, 6–8 p.m., "anticipating a Public Hearing need on an air quality construction permit."
Monolith appeared under "Petitions–Communications–Citizens Concern," where the agenda states no action can be taken. The agenda lists "RESOLUTIONS & ORDINANCES: NONE."
A 15-page application arrives at the Village Clerk's office: a text amendment making data centers a principal permitted use in the I-2 district, plus site plan approval. It confirms up to 35 megawatts on roughly 10 acres, with backup diesel generators, fuel storage tanks, and battery storage. The operator is described only as "a digital infrastructure operator" the company is "in active conversations" with.
The letter requests the Planning Commission act August 19 and the Board adopt the amendment September 7.
Aug. 3 — regular board meeting.
Aug. 19 — reported target for the Planning Commission hearing and vote.
Mon. Sept. 14, 7:00 p.m. — the Board vote. Confirmed with the
Village Clerk. Hallam Auditorium, 315 Main Street.
From Hallam's zoning ordinance (Village Code Chapter 11), the Lancaster County Assessor, and public reporting. The details matter, because this is where it gets fought.
Monolith's Olive Creek campus on SW 42nd Street, about half a mile north of the village. Roughly ten acres on the northeast portion, on ground already zoned for industry.
Section 11-204: the Village Board controls zoning for all land inside the village and within one mile of it. This is a village decision, not a county one.
Section 11-104(B): uses "may be added to a district upon application by a landowner and upon proper amendment of the district regulations." The change attaches to an entire zoning district — not to one parcel.
The parcel east of the campus is zoned AG — Agriculture District, classed as agricultural and unimproved, per Lancaster County Assessor records. It was acquired by a Lincoln limited liability company in August 2025.
Because it's zoned agricultural, a data center there requires its own rezoning — with a hearing, notice to neighbors, and a vote. Unless this amendment takes that away.
And the filed amendment reaches further than one parcel. By its own words, it permits a data center on the same parcel as an industrial use "or on a parcel adjacent to" it. The 135 acres east of the campus is one such parcel — the one everyone is watching. It is not the only one. That language reaches any ground that adjoins a parcel with an industrial use on it, whether or not anyone is talking about it tonight. On every one of those parcels, the next data center would arrive as an administrative site plan review — no hearing that matters, no notice to neighbors, no vote. Nobody should be asked to give that up in a single meeting, which is reason enough to vote no.
Hallam's ordinance already contains a mechanism for exactly this situation. Sections 11-604(B)(14) and 11-605(B)(33) allow the Village Board to approve "any similar use that is determined by the Village Board of Trustees after referral to and recommendation by the Planning Commission to be of an industrial nature similar to the above listed uses."
The board can already consider this one project, on its own merits, without writing "data center" into our code forever. Ask them why they won't.
There is already a very large permitted groundwater draw at this site. In 2021 the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District approved three wells at Olive Creek estimated to pump about 420 million gallons a year, used primarily for cooling. That was approved after nearly a year of testing and study.
A data center cooled by evaporation runs roughly 2.6 million gallons per megawatt per year. One closed-loop campus reports peak use around 22,000 gallons a day — against about 5,000,000 a day for a comparable evaporative campus.
Same size facility. The difference is a design decision, and right now it is unwritten.
At the 35 megawatts stated in the application, evaporative cooling would run roughly 91 million gallons a year — on top of the 420 million already permitted, and roughly ten times the water every household in Hallam uses combined.
If it's genuinely closed-loop, it's a rounding error. The application keeps both options open.
The application commits to water-efficient practices "including a closed-loop water cooling system or air-cooled system, and water-saving fixtures where practicable."
Two escape hatches in one sentence. "Or" keeps both designs available. "Where practicable" means the commitment applies only when the applicant decides it does. Meanwhile the same application acknowledges there will be wastewater discharges from cooling operations, regulated under a state permit — which is not what "closed loop" suggests to anyone reading it plainly.
Strike "where practicable." Name the cooling system. If the plan really is closed-loop, writing it down costs nothing.
Before those 2021 wells were approved, the Natural Resources District commissioned an independent review of the groundwater modeling, held a public open house in Hallam, held a separate public input session, and took written comment. It then attached conditions: flowmeters on every well, quarterly reporting, groundwater monitoring before and after startup, and authority to add requirements if the operation diverged from the application.
That was good enough for their own wells five years ago. It should be good enough now.
Hallam's code does set a noise limit. Section 11-603(E) caps industrial noise at 55 Leq where the receiving property is residential, measured at the property line nearest the source. For scale, 55 is about steady rain, or a conversation ten feet away. A vacuum cleaner is around 70 — and because decibels aren't a straight scale, that's roughly three times as loud, not a little louder.
The 55 Leq standard is just another line in the same ordinance being amended right now. Nothing makes it permanent. A future board can raise it, write an exception, or grant relief — through the same process being used to add "data center" in the first place.
A limit only means something if somebody measures it. Who drives out at 2 a.m. with a sound meter? Who buys the meter, hires the consultant, pays the attorney when a violation is disputed? Those costs land on a village with a general fund of roughly $344,000.
A promise you have to sue someone to collect isn't a protection. It's a hope.
Hallam Auditorium, 315 Main Street. This is the first chance to hear it directly and ask questions in front of your neighbors. If you do one thing on this page, do this one.
Bring these questions, and write down the answers:
Be courteous, be specific, and get the answers in front of witnesses. Anything said at a public meeting is something we can hold to.
Not opinions — assignments. Most take under fifteen minutes.
Three of five can pass this. Two persuaded trustees stop it. These are neighbors — be courteous, be specific, write down what they say.
| Trustee | Committee | Term ends |
|---|---|---|
| Gary Vocasek — Chairman | Finance / Personnel | 2026 |
| Jason Burianek | Park / Auditorium | 2026 |
| Brad Niemeyer | Utilities | 2028 |
| Sheila Taylor | Public Safety | 2028 |
| Bob Wink | Streets | 2028 |
Nebraska law lets the owners of 20% of the land next to a proposed zoning change file a formal protest, forcing four of five trustees instead of three. That protection exists for a future rezoning of agricultural ground — and disappears if this amendment reaches those districts.
Groundwater here is regulated by the Lower Platte South NRD, and large wells need a permit. In 2021 that board put flowmeters, quarterly reporting, and monitoring on the existing wells after a year of study and two public meetings.
Under the Nebraska Public Records Act (§84-712) the village must respond within four business days.