Brown County Committee on Data Center Moratorium
Officials in Brown County, Wisconsin, are debating a possible moratorium on new data center developments. This comes as residents in Wrightstown are pushing back against a potential data center project being scouted by Cloverleaf Infrastructure. The county committee is considering the moratorium, which would need full board approval to go into effect, despite challenges with county-wide zoning authority.
A potential data center moratorium is being discussed at the committee level in Brown County, Wisconsin. Local 5's Paul Sino reported that if the committee approves the measure, it would still require full board approval at a later meeting to be enacted.
The proposed moratorium would temporarily halt new data center projects throughout the county, allowing officials time to assess the potential impact of such developments. Residents of Wrightstown have been advocating for this moratorium, actively opposing a potential data center project in their community. Real estate development company Cloverleaf Infrastructure has been identified as scouting land in the area for a data center, though no formal proposal has yet been submitted.
Wrightstown leadership has been reluctant to issue a moratorium at the village level, leading residents to seek county-level action. However, a county official informed Sino that Brown County lacks county-wide zoning authority, meaning a county-wide moratorium, if passed, would be largely symbolic as it cannot bind all municipalities.