Data-center law in Iowa

Iowa Code ch. 414 (414.1)

Applies to both

For the purpose of promoting health, safety, morals, or the general welfare, or preserving historically significant areas, a city is empowered to regulate and restrict the height, number of stories, and size of buildings and other structures, lot coverage, yard and open-space dimensions, population density, and the location and use of buildings, structures, and land for trade, industry, residence, or other purposes.

A data center sited within city limits proceeds through this enabling authority and the city's own zoning commission, board of adjustment, and comprehensive-plan procedures for its rezoning, conditional use, or site-plan approval. The provision's own amendment history in the Iowa Code names the amending Acts by year only, without a single commencement date for its current form.

Source: Full text of law

Iowa Code ch. 335 (335.1, 335.3)

Applies to both

A county board of supervisors that opts to apply this chapter may by ordinance regulate and restrict the height, number, and size of buildings and structures, lot coverage, yard and open-space dimensions, population density, and the location and use of buildings, structures, and land for trade, industry, residence, or other purposes, but only outside the corporate limits of any city.

A county board of adjustment hears variance petitions and appeals from administrative decisions under a locally adopted zoning ordinance. A data center sited in unincorporated Iowa proceeds through this enabling authority for its rezoning, conditional use, or variance approval. The provision's own amendment history in the Iowa Code names the amending Acts by year only, without a single commencement date for its current form.

Source: Full text of law

Iowa Code 476.1

Applies to both

The Iowa Utilities Commission regulates the rates and services of a public utility furnishing electricity, gas, communications, or water by piped distribution system to the public for compensation, and its jurisdiction includes promoting energy-efficiency strategies at rate-regulated gas and electric utilities. A data center's distribution-level electric interconnection and service agreement runs through the utility the Commission regulates.

No provision specific to a data center's or another large electric load's interconnection or tariff terms was located in this chapter as of the date shown. The provision's own amendment history in the Iowa Code names the amending Acts by year only, without a single commencement date for its current form.

Source: Full text of law

Iowa Code 455B.265, 455B.268

Applies to both

A person may not take water from a natural watercourse, underground basin, or drainage ditch other than for a nonregulated use of less than twenty-five thousand gallons per day without a Department of Natural Resources permit authorizing the diversion, storage, or withdrawal, limited as to quantity, time, place, and rate; permits are ordinarily granted for a ten-year term.

A data center's own well or surface-water withdrawal for cooling above the nonregulated threshold requires this permit, separate from any municipal water utility connection. The provision's own amendment history in the Iowa Code names the amending Acts by year only, without a single commencement date for its current form.

Source: Full text of law

Iowa Code 455B.103A, 455B.197

Applies to both

The Department of Natural Resources administers the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program under the federal Clean Water Act, including general permits for stormwater discharge from a class of facilities such as construction sites. Construction of a data center that disturbs land above the department's threshold requires NPDES construction stormwater coverage before site work begins.

The provision's own amendment history in the Iowa Code names the amending Acts by year only, without a single commencement date for its current form.

Source: Full text of law

Iowa Code ch. 103A (103A.7)

Applies to both

The state building code commissioner, with the advisory council's approval, adopts rules that establish minimum safeguards for the erection and construction of buildings and structures, including installation of equipment, material standards, factory-built structures, accessibility, energy conservation, and standards for safe rooms and storm shelters, comprising the state building code.

A data center's building permit issues under this code as adopted and enforced locally, and a data center business claiming Iowa's sales tax exemption must separately comply with the sustainable design and construction standards the commissioner establishes under section 103A.8B. The provision's own amendment history in the Iowa Code names the amending Acts by year only, without a single commencement date for its current form.

Source: Full text of law

Iowa Code 455B.133, 455B.134

Applies to both

The Department of Natural Resources grants, modifies, suspends, revokes, or denies permits for the construction or operation of a new, modified, or existing air contaminant source, and no such source may be installed, altered so that it significantly affects emissions, or placed in use without a construction permit; a source that meets the applicable emission threshold also needs an operating permit before continued operation.

A data center's backup diesel or gas generator fleet is an air contaminant source and permits under this authority. The provision's own amendment history in the Iowa Code names the amending Acts by year only, without a single commencement date for its current form.

Source: Full text of law

Iowa Code 423.3(95), 423.4(7)-(8)

Applies to private

Iowa exempts from sales and use tax the sale of computers and related equipment, including cooling, power, and racking infrastructure, necessary for a data center business, plus backup power generation fuel and electricity purchased for the business, conditioned on a physical location of at least five thousand square feet and a minimum two-hundred-million-dollar investment within the first six years; a business that leases its facility can also qualify.

A data center business that began operating before June 6, 2025 keeps the fuel and electricity exemption with no time limit, while new construction or additions completed on or after that date receive it for ten years in a city over thirty thousand population and fifteen years elsewhere.

A separate refund provision at section 423.4 lets a data center business that does not qualify for the full exemption apply annually for a fifty-percent refund of sales or use tax on the same categories of equipment, fuel, and electricity, capped at five percent of the sales price, under similar investment and lease-term conditions.

A data center business must register annually with the department and comply with the sustainable design and construction standards the state building code commissioner sets under section 103A.8B; falling short of eighty percent of the required investment within six years forfeits the exemption and triggers repayment of the tax that would otherwise have been due, with penalty and interest.

This exemption is Iowa's principal data-center-specific incentive; the state's separate high-quality-jobs and mega-project incentive at Iowa Code chapter 15 expressly excludes a data center business from qualifying. The provision's own amendment history in the Iowa Code names the amending Acts by year only, without a single commencement date for its current form.

Source: Full text of law