Milwaukee would ban data centers with more than 60,000 square feet, and more strictly regulate smaller data centers, under a new zoning proposal.
That file, which needs approval from the Common Council and Mayor Cavalier Johnson, surfaced about one week after local residents learned that plans to redevelop a former Walmart, 5825 W. Hope Ave., include a small data center.
However, the new proposal won’t affect the Walmart redevelopment plans, according to Alderman Mark Chambers – whose district includes that building.
The new proposal, which surfaced on May 20, would change the city’s land use definitions “to distinguish data centers from general office and substation/distribution equipment uses,” and set parking requirements for data centers.
Data centers would be allowed only in industrial-light and industrial-heavy zoning district, “where they are a limited use subject to cooling-system restrictions,” the proposal says.
In those zoning districts, a data center of 20,000 square feet or less is a limited use.
A data center of more than 20,000 square feet but not more than 60,000 square feet would be allowed as a special use – requiring it obtain approval from the Board of Zoning Appeals.
Data centers with more than 60,000 square feet would be prohibited.
The proposal’s first public review is scheduled for the Zoning Code Technical Committee’s June 15 meeting at City Hall.
It’s sponsored by council members Marina Dimitrijevic, Alex Brower, Russell Stamper, DiAndre Jackson and Peter Burgelis.
Dimitrijevic, who’s listed as the lead sponsor, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposal follows news that a former Walmart’s conversion plans include the new home for the Capitol Branch Library; self-storage units, and a computer processing facility.
The 150,000-square-foot former Walmart was a Midtown Center anchor store before closing in 2016.
The Plan Commission was to consider the redevelopment proposal at its May 18 meeting. Those plans call for up to 19,000 square feet be used as a high-performance computing facility.
But two items tied to those plans were removed from the commission’s meeting agenda on May 14.
That removal was requested by Alderman Chambers, whose district includes Midtown, as neighborhood residents raised questions about the proposed computing facility – which they said was a data center.
Chambers’ office told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that new zoning proposal doesn’t affect plans to include a computer facility at the redeveloped Walmart.
That’s because the Walmart plans were submitted before the new zoning proposal was filed.
Chambers has said the Walmart computer facility’s power needs and water use would be limited.
At 19,000 square feet, it would be much smaller than the hyperscale data centers under development in Port Washington, Mount Pleasant, and other Wisconsin communities.
According to IBM, small data centers typically require between 5,000 and 20,000 square feet of space and use one to five megawatts of energy to host between 500 and 2,000 servers.
Milwaukee already has at least two smaller data centers.
Potawatomi Business Development Corp. in 2012 began construction on a two-story, 45,000-square-foot data center at 3135 W. Highland Blvd.
Also, downtown’s Wells Building, 324 E. Wisconsin Ave., leases portions of that office building to voice and data carriers.
Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Bluesky, X and Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee to ban large data centers, regulate small ones under new plan
Reporting by Tom Daykin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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