FARGO, ND – The City of Fargo has moved one step closer to a resolution of the annexation issue with the City of Harwood.
At Monday night’s Fargo City Commission meeting, the Commission approved an agreement with the City of Harwood halting Fargo’s annexation and extraterritorial jurisdiction for the west half of the land in question, where Applied Digital is building an AI data center.
“Initially, legal advice was to do an annexation so we can have better leverage with Applied Digital to talk about infrastructure issues with the new project,” Fargo Mayor Dr. Tim Mahoney said Monday night at the City Commission meeting.
He said Applied Digital ‘wouldn’t come to the table.’
“So, that made it difficult,” Mahoney said.
He said a discussion ensued with Harwood mayor Blake Hankey.
“I think we can make more progress now,” Mahoney said. “Because he’s more willing to negotiate (and) work with us in good faith to try to make sure we can work together on many of those infrastructures — fire and sewage.”
He said he believes Harwood is more willing to work with the city ‘if we move this impediment.’
The agreement also calls for the non-annexation of the east half of the land by the City of Harwood, which is in Fargo’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.
The agreement binds both cities for a period of 20 years, which is the longest allowable time by state statute.
A motion to withdraw the west half has been continued to the next Fargo City Commission meeting, as Harwood still needs to approve the agreement.
