Fargo City Commission votes to end annexation process of Applied Digital land

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — After Harwood rejected the City of Fargo’s 20-year agreement to not annex the land where Applied Digital is building an AI data center, Fargo has voted to end the process outright.

Since Fargo will no longer pursue the land or want Harwood to sign a draft agreement, Harwood will now be able to vote on annexing the land as its own.

The data center is being built on a plot of around 300 acres between the two cities.

Applied Digital did not want to work with Fargo, according to Mayor Tim Mahoney.

City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn now doesn’t want the city’s fire department responding to the site in case of an emergency.

“The HAZMAT team is Fargo. And so that’s what they’re trained in so if they think they’re going to call for us to go into a building where we don’t know what’s in it, and jeopardize our firefighters, hell no. So good luck with that,” said Piepkorn.

The city will also move into mediation with landowners over land next to the Applied Digital site for future annexation.

The current owner of the land, Fercho Properties, is against Fargo annexing the land.