GREENLEAF, Wis. (WFRV) – A Brown County community took a step to protect themselves against future data center projects.
On Wednesday, the Greenleaf village board passed a resolution that gives residents the final say on data centers in their community.
The resolution acknowledges that the village’s current zoning rules don’t allow for data center projects. For a zoning change to occur, residents must reach a certain number of signatures on a petition (15 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the last general election). If residents reach the signature threshold, the zoning change would end up as a ballot question giving voters a chance to vote it up or down in an election.
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“This to me is a solid protection, it puts it in the hands of the residents,” Greenleaf village president Bonnie Crossman said. “Our zoning ordinances are in place, and now we have a resolution that turns it over to the community.”
Local 5 News called the village on Wednesday afternoon asking for a copy of the resolution before the vote. A village official told us that an attorney was still finalizing the resolution language as of about 1 p.m. Wednesday and they couldn’t send us a copy yet.
Many residents saw the finalized resolution for the first time at the board meeting. Several residents said it was frustrating to not get more time to review it and provide feedback to the board ahead of a vote.
Since the first rumblings of a potential data center project in Greenleaf, Julie Carter has been making the case that a data center shouldn’t come to this area.
“It’s just such an important topic, and I feel so strongly that it isn’t the right fit for this community,” Carter told Local 5 News.
Carter said she hasn’t met someone in the community who thought that a data center coming to the village was a good idea. Earlier this winter, a victory of sorts for her when Cloverleaf Infrastructure announced that they were no longer looking at Greenleaf as a potential location for a data center because of community backlash.
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“It was a sigh of relief we could take a deep breath,” Carter said. “However, we couldn’t let our guard down because there’s still the concern that they could come back. We wanted to work with the board and make sure that we got some things in place to deter that.”
Carter said she went into Wednesday night hoping the resolution would have that deterrent effect. She said the resolution the board passed was a good start, but said it didn’t go far enough. She said she would have liked to see a moratorium on all data center projects in the area and/or specific limits in the resolution to the size of projects that officials would allow in the village.
“We want to look for development, but we want development that fits this community,” she said. “AI data centers aren’t that.”
The town of Wrightstown also discussed a very similarly worded resolution at their meeting on Wednesday night. Board members decided to table the discussion and a potential vote to a future meeting.
