As data center debate roars in Wisconsin Rapids, mayor says lack of state rules harms cities
A proposed data center in Wisconsin Rapids is facing strong community opposition due to concerns about the site and project necessity. Mayor Matt Zacher highlights the city's limited tools to regulate such developments without state guidance, as a state bill to regulate data centers recently failed. A university report now advocates for a statewide moratorium to allow for comprehensive policy development.
A data center proposal for the former paper mill site in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, is encountering significant community opposition. Mayor Matt Zacher expressed the city's predicament, caught between residents' concerns about noise, light, and water use, and the developer's economic interests.
The city will host a Planning Commission meeting to discuss the conditional use permit for the project, following a contentious public event where residents jeered developer representative, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams. State Representative Scott Krug (R-Rome) has voiced opposition to granting the Conditional Use Permit without more complete answers from the developer, emphasizing that it's not a "blank check."
Mayor Zacher lamented the lack of statewide regulations, forcing local governments to navigate data center developments with limited legal tools. A Republican-backed bill that would have required data centers to pay for power grid work, the first attempt to regulate them in Wisconsin, passed the state Assembly but died in the state Senate. Concurrently, a new report from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy has advocated for a potential two-year statewide moratorium on data center construction to enable the development of a comprehensive state policy framework.