De Pere committee endorses data center moratorium on water burden

De Pere's Plan Commission recently endorsed a one-year moratorium on large-scale data center development, a measure that would make De Pere the largest community in Brown County to adopt such a restriction. If approved by the City Council in November, the moratorium would prevent officials from considering rezoning applications for data centers using more than 300,000 gallons of water daily or occupying over 50,000 square feet, which city engineer Eric Rakers considers a large footprint. Rakers justified the pause by stating it is necessary for officials to understand the potential implications of data centers and to develop regulatory standards, citing concerns about water demand exceeding supply, straining the utility, and hindering other city growth.

City officials, including Mayor James Boyd, have expressed support for the moratorium, despite Boyd's previous statements that the city is "not anti-technology" or "anti-growth." Boyd has also advocated for the state Legislature to assume responsibility for data center regulation, criticizing piecemeal municipal legislation. This local action follows broader regional trends, with twelve other Brown County towns and villages already prohibiting data centers.

State-level efforts to regulate data centers have seen limited success, with a Republican-led bill proposing to prevent ratepayers from absorbing data center energy costs passing the Assembly but failing in the Senate. The article notes developer Cloverleaf Infrastructure's interest in a large AI data center in northeastern Wisconsin, which has prompted local governments to consider moratoriums. State law permits development moratoriums under specific conditions, requiring an engineer's or health professional's opinion that a project would burden public infrastructure or pose a health risk, and cannot target ongoing projects or specific developers.