Mayor Blake Hankey, shown on a video screen, leads a special meeting of the City Council in Harwood, North Dakota, on Sept. 10, 2025. (Photo by Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor)
By: Jeff Beach
HARWOOD, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) — The Harwood City Council gave final approval for a data center Wednesday but the city of Fargo plans to continue to pursue adding the site to its city limits.
Harwood called a special meeting Wednesday to approve rezoning 320 acres from agricultural to light industrial so Texas-based Applied Digital can build a $3 billion facility where tech companies can house computers for creating artificial intelligence.
Harwood’s City Hall was filled to capacity for the meeting, with some project opponents pressing signs against the windows for council members to see. Many of the signs urged the council and Mayor Blake Hankey to allow public comment.
Hankey, who led the meeting remotely, asked council members if they wanted to take public comments but none did.
The Applied Digital building site is southeast of Harwood, outside the city limits, at the edge of its extraterritorial area. The property is adjacent to Fargo’s extraterritorial area.
Jim Gilmour, director of strategic planning and research for the city of Fargo, said in an interview before the meeting that Fargo is better suited to develop the infrastructure, such as roads and sewer lines, that the project will need.
“We’re in a better position as a city of 135,000 to kind of work with that growth versus a city of a few hundred,” Gilmour said.
Gilmour said Fargo will be mailing annexation notices to property owners, the city of Harwood, Cass County and townships of its proposal to annex three areas between Fargo and Harwood, including the Applied Digital site.
He said the Fargo City Commission will meet Nov. 10 to review any protests and make a decision on whether to push forward.
If Fargo does try for annexation, Gilmour said it may be up to an administrative law judge to decide if the area belongs to Harwood or Fargo.
On the line is tax dollars each year that Applied Digital would pay that could support local services.
Harwood contends it would have to give Fargo permission to annex the property. At a Sept. 2 meeting, the Harwood City Council voted against giving Fargo that permission.
At the meeting, Applied Digital Executive Vice President Nick Phillips said the company would side with Harwood if jurisdiction were to come down to a legal battle.
Gilmour said the extraterritorial areas were established in a 1998 agreement between Harwood and Fargo, but that agreement expired after 10 years.
“So there really is no agreement between the two cities right now for who should have what territory,” Gilmour said.
Wednesday’s special meeting of the Harwood City Council was called to give a second and final reading to approving the zoning change and building permit that Applied Digital needs to break ground.
The initial votes came Sept. 2 after contentious public hearings. Applied Digital has tried to assure area residents that the data center won’t drive up utility rates or use large amounts of water.
The company may break ground yet this month. Keith Leier, senior construction manager for Applied Digital, said the company wanted to work out some traffic flow details before moving dirt at the site.
The first part of the facility that it calls Polaris Forge 2 is planned to be operational in the second half of 2026 and phase two operational in 2027.
Applied Digital said the data center will have 200 to 300 employees in addition to numerous contractors.
The company also has sites in Jamestown and Ellendale.
Dale Rosenkranz, a 20-year Harwood resident, was among those who called for the council to take public comments.
He said the four-member council was “hiding behind their authority.” He said the approval process felt rushed since Applied Digital made its plans public on Aug. 18.
Rosenkranz said Harwood, a town of about 800 people, would lose the “small, comfortable” feel that attracted many residents.
“The town is going to change,” he said.
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