The Waukee City Council has approved site plans for improvements that could lead to future development at the site of the Apple data center, which opened last fall.

The three site plans that were approved Monday allow for improvements at the data center site that include additional parking, mechanical units for the existing data center, a storm shelter, a building for storage of construction materials and a logistics building to assemble components for future projects onsite.

Jennifer Brown, economic development director for the city of Waukee, said the improvements are not directly related to a new data center building.

According to staff reports that accompanied the agenda packet for Monday’s meeting, Ryan Hardisty, principal of Civil Design Advantage in Urbandale, was asked how many data centers were planned for the site. He declined to give a number citing confidentiality with Apple but confirmed “multiple.”

When asked if the improvements could pave the way for future data center development at the site, Waukee City Administrator Brad Deets said that would not be an “inaccurate conclusion.”

According to previous Business Record reporting and the website datacenters.com, Apple plans to build five centers at the site with a total investment of $1.3 billion when it’s fully built out.

Apple announced the construction of the data center on about 2,000 acres north of Hickman Road between Northwest 20th and Northwest 30th streets in 2017. Construction was delayed as the company worked through the design of the project, which was awarded $19.65 million in tax incentives from the Iowa Economic Development Authority.