Oct. 17—PINE ISLAND, Minn. — The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy has filed a suit against the city of Pine Island and developer Ryan Companies US, Inc., over the alternative urban areawide review (AUAR) for Project Skyway, a technology development proposal in Pine Island.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025, in Goodhue County District Court, asks the court to reverse the city’s approval of the AUAR — an environmental assessment that sets a framework for potential development at the site.
The lawsuit further asks the court to require the city to conduct further environmental analysis up to or including an EIS (environmental impact statement), “and stop the city of Pine Island from issuing any permits or approvals or making any other final decision for any development in the AUAR geographic area until an adequate environmental review is complete.”
The suit also asks the court to enjoin the city from taking any action that might prejudice any ultimate decision on the proposed project until it completes adequate environmental review.
MCEA, in filing the lawsuit, alleges three key claims. First, that the AUAR did not address a specific-enough project to determine environmental impact of what the organization believes will be a large-scale data center development. Second, the lawsuit claims that the AUAR process is insufficient, and and a more stringent EIS should be required. Finally, that Ryan Companies has offered insufficient mitigation plans for environmental impact of whatever will be built at the site.
“Environmental review is the public’s only opportunity to understand and weigh in on the ways a development could impact their community and quality of life before it moves forward; it can’t do that if nearly all the relevant details of the proposed project are absent from the process,” said Abigail Hencheck, staff attorney for MCEA. “Our state law requires transparency and our communities deserve better.”
The MCEA alleges that data centers use massive amounts of electricity, water and metals, and if all the data centers currently proposed across Minnesota were built, they would use as much electricity as every home in Minnesota.
In the past, Ryan Companies has noted that until a specific development proposal is made for the site — an end user that plans to build a specific kind of facility — there is no way to offer details more specific than have been outlined in the AUAR, which serves as a framework for the kinds of projects that can be developed at the site.
Peter Fitzgerald, vice president of Real Estate Development for Ryan Companies, said, “We believe Pine Island residents want to decide for themselves the merits and benefits to the community stemming from this project.
“Small towns across Minnesota are looking for economic development often found through commercial development including clear value to schools,” Fitzgerald added. “Whether this project leans long term towards traditional industrial or data centers, we don’t have a 20-year crystal ball to predict how this site will ultimately take shape.”
The AUAR did include a 30-day public comment period that ended on April 17, 2025. Ryan Companies received and addressed comments during that period from one local resident, the MCEA, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Minnesota Environmental Quality Board notes that AUARs are a hybrid between an environmental assessment worksheet and an EIS, and that “responsible governmental units (RGU) can use an AUAR as a planning tool to understand how different development scenarios will affect the environment of their community before the development occurs.”
Project Skyway has two separate development scenarios, and the ultimate scenario will depend on what companies choose to develop a project within the project site.
Fitzgerald said MCEA is trying to impose its will on Pine Island from afar.
“That said, we believe it’s highly inappropriate to question a process that has been in effect in our great state since the 1970s and strongly disagree with legal interference from advocates out of Saint Paul in this great community,” Fitzgerald said. “In fact, we believe it inappropriately interrupts the democratic process of small towns like Pine Island. We won’t tell the community what they should and shouldn’t support, MCEA should not either.”
No hearing dates have been set for the lawsuit as of Friday, Oct. 17, 2025.