Monday night's Farmington City Council meeting was one for the history books - and not in a good way.
What started as a routine meeting featuring annual department updates quickly descended into profanity, heated confrontations, and a 10-minute emergency recess. By the end of the night, both the mayor and residents had dropped F-bombs, a 13-year-old had delivered emotional testimony about first responder mental health, and the meeting had become a flashpoint for months of mounting tension over a controversial data center project.
If you missed it, here's everything that happened at Farmington's most contentious city council meeting in recent memory.
The biggest source of tension Monday night was the proposed Farmington Technology Park - a data center project that's been dividing the community for months.
Here's what you need to know: The project would be built on a former golf course near residential areas. And when we say "near," we mean buildings would sit just 250 feet from homes. For context, a similar Meta data center in Rosemount sits more than 900 feet from the nearest road.
Multiple residents spoke during the meeting's citizen comment period, and they came prepared with evidence.
One resident brought photos taken from Highway 42 north of the Meta facility in Rosemount. The images showed intense light pollution visible from over 1,300 feet away - and that facility is only one-third the size of what's proposed for Farmington.
"This is what it looks like right now at night," the resident told the council, showing photos of the Rosemount site under construction. "This is only one third the size of the planned Farmington campus."
The kicker? Farmington's proposed data center would have a building setback of just 250 feet from homes. "That's three football fields at Rosemount versus less than one football field in Farmington," the resident pointed out.
The city has confirmed there are no enforceable noise limits and no light limits for residents during construction - a process estimated to take 5 to 10 years.
The controversy has reached the state legislature. State Representative Patty Acomb, co-chair of the House Energy Committee, recently singled out Farmington's data center plan in an interview with a statewide business journal.
Her question: "Is it appropriate to put a data center on a golf course that is completely surrounded by residential zoning? That makes zero sense to me."
One resident quoted Acomb during citizen comment: "When the chair of the Minnesota House of Representatives Energy Committee singles out Farmington's planned data centers as one that makes zero sense, I'd say our town led by Mayor Hoyt is developing quite a reputation at the state legislature - and not one that you should be proud of."
Another resident brought up power generation concerns. He pointed to recent cold weather that forced businesses across Minnesota to run backup generators due to grid strain.
"What will happen once [the data center is] built and we experience these same power shortage issues?" the resident asked. "We'll see the smoke roll out of 250 diesel generators. We'll hear the obnoxious hum from their exhaust and the crackling buzz of the generation of 700 megawatts of power in the middle of two neighborhoods."
For reference, 700 megawatts is more power than the Monticello nuclear plant generates.
Another speaker focused on substation proximity: "According to the proposed Farmington Technology Park layout, there could be a substation three times that size, 50 feet from my property line."
She compared the distance to familiar measurements: "A three-car garage, if you had two three-car garages end to end, would be wider than 50 feet. Four car lanes on an interstate highway are approximately 50 feet."
One long-time resident raised water concerns: "City of Farmington's on a water restriction. I can't water my grass between 12 and 6 o'clock, and I can only do it on odd-even days. These people will be pumping water 24/7, 365 days a year."
He also worried about the city's heritage trout stream: "You suck that much water out of the aquifers, you can say goodbye to the trout stream that we're known for."
Multiple speakers called on the council to:
One resident argued for a moratorium: "There's no building approval whatsoever. Yes, they have zoning approval, but that's been delayed over a year. There is an opportunity for a moratorium and you can have it for a year."
Mayor Josh Hoyt defended the approval process in detail during his closing remarks.
"There are a lot of things that get said at that podium that are such a departure from fact," Hoyt said. He addressed several specific claims:
On the 250-foot setback: "For that statement to be true, there would have to be a home sitting on the property line for the window to be 250 feet from the building. But yet it's easy to just throw that comment out there because it sounds like somebody's a victim."
On diesel generators: "Show me. There's not been anything that we've been presented that says that there are going to be 250 diesel generators."
On water usage: "All water usage has to come through a DNR appropriations permit... It's when it's above 92 degrees Fahrenheit. It's easy to say that a project like this is going to use 300 million gallons of water. They're not, if they don't have the DNR appropriations permit to do it. There are less than 12 to 18 days a year based on historical factual weather data that these facilities will actually draw water."
On regulatory oversight: "Our responsibility is to make sure that [the project] is safe, it meets standards, and it's permissible by multiple agencies that weigh in. The city council of Farmington is not the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. We are not the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency."
The mayor emphasized that the project hasn't cleared all regulatory hurdles: "This project is not a green light. This project has not cleared all of those hurdles."
Before the data center opposition even began, the meeting was already tense over a procedural issue: the city's 5-minute speaking limit.
The rule isn't new - it's been Farmington policy since the late 1990s. What is new: Council recently started strictly enforcing it with a visible countdown timer after some speakers went 10-15 minutes in previous meetings.
A former Farmington councilman called the policy "discrimination."
"This five-minute thing you did is ridiculous," the former councilman told the current council. "I would like every taxpayer to pay one-fifth of their taxes and see how far you get. It's discrimination because somebody could come up here and not talk as fast as the other, and you're discriminated against those people. The elderly people might not be able to talk as fast."
When Mayor Hoyt appeared to laugh at the comparison, the former councilman called him out: "You laugh, mayor."
Councilman Steve Wilson explained he was the one who pushed for strict enforcement: "I think it's super important to point out that the five-minute citizen comment is designed to provide an opportunity for as many residents in the community to engage with us."
Wilson noted that when he started on council in the early 2000s, the big issue was the high school siting - and hundreds of people wanted to speak. "So one of the reasons I initiated bringing that point up, that I felt like council needed to reestablish that decorum, is because I was hearing from people saying, 'Some people are getting this amount of time, some people are getting this amount of time, and I thought you guys just had a five-minute policy.'"
Mayor Hoyt added: "I went well beyond in numerous cases, regardless of subject matter, and it was abused... When people come to the podium and they abuse it, flat out abuse it, then rules have to be put in place."
The most emotional moment of the night came from Cora, a 13-year-old seventh grader from Hastings Middle School.
She spoke about a family friend and retired Farmington firefighter who shared his mental health struggles and suicide plan at a previous council meeting on January 5, 2026.
"The board unfortunately did not seem interested in his speech, judging with looks on their faces," Cora said. "He even got cut off in the middle of him talking about his own suicide plan."
She challenged the council's response: "I personally find it ironic how prior to his speech, everyone was preaching about how important it is to say thanks and give praise to our first responders and how important kindness is. But it's awfully sad that me, a 13-year-old girl, can confidently say that what the board showed to me during his speech was not kindness."
Cora shared sobering numbers about first responder mental health:
"He is not alone," she said. "These are just the ones that have caught your attention."
Cora asked Mayor Hoyt directly about the firefighter: "If you understood what he was going through, then why didn't you talk to him about it and why didn't you help him? And also when he did have to resign, did you check up on him, work with him, or even just simply ask about how he was feeling about the whole situation?"
She noted that the firefighter was the 2019 Firefighter of the Year who worked his way up to lieutenant and "packaged over 10,000 Easter eggs for the community Easter egg hunt and has saved many lives."
Her final question: "Then why is he not on the fire department today?"
She ended with a quote: "Words are easy. Actions matter."
After more than two hours of testimony, things reached a boiling point.
Mayor Hoyt was defending the 5-minute rule: "Otherwise, it's just a free-for-all. Everybody just does what they want when they want and then what? It becomes a fucking circus. It already is and yet you keep coming."
One of the residents concerned about the data center responded: "Yeah, fuck yeah. To make a difference. Okay. To try to make a difference. You're jeopardizing the health and wellbeing of my family, and you don't give a shit."
The exchange escalated. Another resident called the mayor a "racist son of a bitch."
Councilman Steve Wilson made a motion: "Mayor, I'd make a motion that we recess at 8:02."
The motion passed, and the meeting went into a 10-minute recess.
When the meeting reconvened at 8:12 PM, Mayor Hoyt addressed what had just happened.
"You can come up here and you can call me a racist piece of shit all you want. I didn't say you are. You are protected... Quote me, quote me accurately. You can come up, not call you a racist piece of shit. That is not true in any way, shape, or form.
'Cause I heard it. I called you a racist son of a bitch. Racist son of a bitch. Racist piece of shit. Like there's some difference either way that is protected. There's the truth in what you decide. There's the truth of the world that you live in. And I'm not gonna go down that rabbit hole with you right now, but you can come up to that podium and say whatever you want.
I will never get in front of that."
The mayor's point: The First Amendment protects residents' right to criticize their elected officials, even with profanity and inflammatory language.
Despite all the controversy, the council did conduct official business:
The council unanimously approved annexing 158 acres from Eureka Township. The property, owned by Edelman Farm LLC, sits at the southwest intersection of Denmark Avenue and 220th Street West.
Lennar has a contract to develop the property for residential housing.
The city will reimburse Eureka Township $4,243.04 per year for two years - the amount the township would have received in property taxes.
City Administrator David Drown presented the 2025 annual report for the administration department, which includes six divisions: city administrator's office, reception, city clerk, communications, human resources, and municipal liquor.
Key retirements coming: City Clerk Shirley Leier is retiring in April 2026, and Payroll Specialist Patty Ridley is retiring in May 2026. Both recruitment processes are underway.
Communications wins: The city won two awards from the Minnesota Association of Government Communicators - a Northern Lights Award (their highest honor) for the "Josh Mania" promotional video and a Northern Lights Bronze Award for the website redesign.
Social media success: The Farmington Police Department's Facebook page reached 10.9 million views on a single post (featuring a moose) and gained over 6,000 new followers in 2025.
Liquor Operations Manager Josh Inger reported strong results for 2025:
Big growth categories:
State rankings: Farmington liquor stores cracked the top 20 for gross sales (out of 176 municipal liquor operations) and top 50 for net profit as a percentage of sales.
Profits from municipal liquor operations go back to the community - including the recent $350,000 contribution toward the new skate park.
Track's final plat needs to be recorded, and the deadline is May 18, 2026. The developer will need an extension - and that extension is not automatic.
Residents are urging the council to either deny the extension or use it as leverage to renegotiate terms that better protect the community.
One resident put it bluntly: "If Track wants to move forward, they can come back with terms that actually protect people. Use this moment. Do not extend the plat, make them renegotiate."
The skate park design meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 9, from 6-8 PM at the senior center (325 Oak Street). Spawn Ranch will present two design concepts and gather community feedback.
The city is recruiting for multiple positions:
The city's full-time Fire Department A-shift officially started their 48-hour rotation on February 2 at 6 AM. They handled 10 calls in their first shift. B-shift takes over on February 3.
Monday night's meeting was a collision of important issues that have been building for months: a controversial development project with real impacts on residents' quality of life, procedural questions about how much time citizens get to speak, and deep concerns about how the city supports its first responders.
Whether you think residents crossed a line with profanity or that the mayor was right to defend free speech, one thing is clear: people in Farmington care deeply about their community. They're showing up. They're speaking out. And they're holding their elected officials accountable.
The question now is whether that civic engagement will lead to meaningful change - or just more heated meetings.
Have thoughts on what happened Monday night? Email me at contact us or reply if you're a newsletter subscriber. I read every response.
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