WRIGHTSTOWN – Residents will get to weigh in on data centers after the Village Board on May 27 unanimously approved a non-binding referendum, an initiative some board members said was preferable to a moratorium.
Village Board President Dean Erickson was not present and did not take part in the 6-0 vote.
The referendum – to be on ballots during the Aug. 11 partisan primary election – will amount to taking the residents’ temperature on having a data center in the village with a population around 3,300.
The question, whose wording officials said was purposely convoluted to conform to state law, will essentially ask if village officials should pursue data center plans in the future. Previous language that had specified “large-scale” data centers was struck out of the final draft, according to Village Administrator Travis Coenen.
The village will not have obligation to do anything with the referendum due to its non-binding nature.
“The intent of this is that it takes the opinion of the community, and if something is proposed at some point, this factors into the way [the Village Board] will move forward with that process,” Coenen said.
The decision represented village officials’ latest deference to public opinion on the issue of data centers roiling locals amid Cloverleaf Infrastructure’s months-long pursuit of a roughly 1-gigawatt facility in northeastern Wisconsin for artificial intelligence.
Many have expressed anxieties that such development will degrade the village’s health, environment and fabric of life. Some have asked village officials to take the issue to referendum, to pass a moratorium, and to write a prohibition on data centers into village law. Cloverleaf Infrastructure, for its part, has denied that many of the residents’ concerns were as stark as many believed, instead touting data center developments as opportunities to take advantage of.
Village board members, who’ve been open to the idea of a data center on economic grounds, had unanimously directed village staff at its May 19 meeting to draft referendum language after residents testified to an erosion of trust that officials would represent their interests. Some residents have pointed to previously undisclosed communications between the village administrator and Cloverleaf Infrastructure, which Coenen has said were attempts at educating himself, village officials and residents.
Following the Village Board’s directive, Coenen said he had explored the possibility for both a referendum and a moratorium.
After consulting Christopher Smith, the village-hired attorney on data center matters from the law firm von Briesen & Roper, Coenen said a referendum was the fastest initiative he could get a legal opinion on and implement.
“I’ll be the first to admit that we’re being creative here on how to get this on the ballot,” Smith said during a May 26 listening session at the Village Hall.
Smith pointed to Act 12 passed by the state Legislature in 2023, which bars communities from asking questions in referenda except in five cases. Smith said he crafted the language specifically to conform to the exception that allows referendums to gauge public opinion on any facility that provides direct or indirect access to telecommunications or internet services.
“I think we’re definitely operating in gray areas,” Smith said, “but it’s, in my opinion, the only way to do what the board has directed.”
Village Board member Ryan Roebke, who presided over the Village Board’s special meeting as acting president, said he felt the referendum was a better option than a development moratorium due to state limitations on the length of such postponements. Roebke has also previously expressed his opposition to a moratorium on the basis that there was no proposal to slow down.
Coenen said the village continues to explore the possibility of a moratorium, though has reservations on its applicability. In speaking to communities that are considering or have passed moratoriums elsewhere, like Manitowoc County and Madison, Coenen said those governments have not met the specific criteria under state law that allow for one. Coenen had said on May 26 that those communities are hoping that they will not have their moratoriums legally challenged.
“So what we’re struggling with is: ‘Do we want to pass a law that’s just, I’ll say, a feel-good law?’” Coenen said.
Village Board member Andy Lundt said following conversations on Manitowoc County’s moratorium with state Rep. Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers, he was concerned that there was no definition of “data center” in the referendum. He suggested the lack of measurements, like electric capacity or size, could include computers under the umbrella of a data center, then.
Coenen replied that Smith’s legal opinion was not concerned that the phrase “data center” would be overly inclusive of facilities like server rooms or computers.
Roebke said he felt the referendum would be a good gauge of public opinion, especially to capture those whom he said may worry about publicly expressing their approval for a data center.
“I know there’s a lot of people that have spoken out and said, ‘No, we don’t want this,’” Roebke said. “I do want to say, though, that there are people that are asking us to look into it.”
The sentiment was one that Village Board member Sue Byers said she agreed with.
The referendum question, in its final form, will be: “Should the Village of Wrightstown authorize, support, participate in, or facilitate municipal utility infrastructure, public utility service commitments, public facilities, the operations of a facility for the providing of video service, telecommunications service, or Internet access service, directly or indirectly to the public or related municipal infrastructure improvements associated with a data center development within or affecting the Village?”
Village Board member Mark Leonard criticized the referendum’s wording as, “just the political [correctness] that comes out when bureaucrats get together.” He added, “It’s a simple yes-no question. It doesn’t matter what it says because that doesn’t say squat.”
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. He also writes a weekly column answering reader questions about Green Bay. Contact and send him questions at 920-834-4250 or jlin@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wrightstown Village Board sends data center question to a referendum
Reporting by Jesse Lin, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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