Wisconsin town seeks bigger venue as residents pack meetings to fight data center plan

A potential data center has drawn such large crowds in rural Janesville, Wisconsin, that officials are looking for a bigger place to hold meetings.

As the town prepares for a public hearing on a proposed one-year suspension of data center development, officials said they first need a space that can accommodate several hundred attendees.

What's happening?

Concern about a possible project near Polzin Road has residents filling meeting rooms and has prompted town officials to consider a 12-month moratorium on data center development across the township.

According to GazetteXtra, about 200 people showed up for a June public comment session, where most speakers opposed the idea of a data center, even though officials said no formal proposal had been submitted.

Town Chairman Bruce Schneider said the turnout was unlike anything he has seen since joining the town board in 1994.

"They were stacked up outside. I don't ever remember seeing so many people at a meeting. We had no idea so many people were going to show up," Schneider said.

At a more recent meeting, the board unanimously agreed to send a draft moratorium to the planning and zoning committee for a public hearing, which is expected in August.

Residents also pressed officials to read the moratorium draft aloud and hand out copies during the meeting.

Why does it matter?

Large data center proposals in rural communities have raised questions about water use, land impacts, noise, traffic, and local benefits.

For many residents, the frustration stems from the sense that major infrastructure could reshape their community faster than people have time to respond.

Jolene Churchill, a resident of the town of Center, put it plainly: "We see this camel getting its nose under the tent in the town next door to us. We don't want it. We don't want our water stolen or our land stolen. We want it stopped from the outset."

That concern also extends far beyond Wisconsin. As demand for artificial intelligence, cloud storage, and always-on digital services continues to grow, more communities are being asked to host energy-hungry facilities while taking on the environmental and quality-of-life concerns that can come with them.

What's being done?

Janesville's proposed moratorium would pause data center projects across the town for one year while still allowing other forms of development to continue.

The measure still needs a public hearing and a recommendation from the planning and zoning committee before returning to the town board for final consideration later this year.

Schneider read the moratorium draft to attendees during the meeting, and extra copies were printed for the crowd after residents demanded to review the language.

"It's a lot different than normal times where it's just road and fire department issues," Schneider said. "It puts a little more stress on a guy."

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