The Phase 1 site
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.
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.
No confirmed power draw. No water figure. No cooling method. No noise study. No removal bond. Hallam's own code says the burden of proof is on the applicant — and 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.
This changes the code itself, not one site. Depending on which districts it names, it could open farm ground to industrial use permanently — with no hearing and no vote the next time. That is too much to decide in one night.
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.
No trustee should vote on a permanent change to our code while these are blank.
| Question | Status |
|---|---|
| How many megawatts will it draw? | Not confirmed |
| How many gallons of water per day? | Not disclosed |
| How large is Phase 2? | Not disclosed |
| Measured noise levels at the nearest homes? | Not disclosed |
| Who pays to remove it if it's abandoned? | Not disclosed |
| What tax incentives are being sought? | Not disclosed |
This is the clearest reason to vote no on the amendment itself — and it comes from the materials Monolith presented to residents, 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.
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."
Baker Construction, Power & Process reserved the meeting room July 7–22, then asked to use it one day each week "while here" — for drug testing, CPR, and general meetings.
Aug. 3 — regular board meeting.
Aug. 19 — reported target for the Planning Commission hearing and vote.
Sept. 14 — next regular board meeting. Earlier reporting cited
September 7, but the Village's own published calendar lists September 14. September 7 is
Labor Day.
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.
This is why the districts named in the amendment matter so much. If agricultural ground is included, the next expansion out here arrives 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.
If Phase 1 is near 28 megawatts and used evaporative cooling, that's roughly 73 million gallons a year — on top of what's already permitted, and something like eight times the water every household in Hallam uses combined.
If it's genuinely closed-loop, it's a rounding error. Nobody will tell us which.
That's what residents have been told. It sounds reassuring, and it isn't a commitment. "Either/or" reserves both options and promises neither. It was said to a news station, not written into a permit. And "closed loop" is used loosely in this industry — many systems described that way still reject heat through an evaporative tower that consumes water continuously.
If the plan really is closed-loop, there is no reason not to write it into the permit. Refusing to is the answer.
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.