Manitowoc County has finalized its ordinance addressing data center construction in the County.
The proposal was introduced at the Planning and Park Commission meeting last night, using information collected through extensive research and public feedback.
The 24-page ordinance defines a data center as a 50,000-square-foot or larger facility that occupies 10 acres or more of contiguous land that is designed to contain 1,000 or more servers.
Data centers in Manitowoc County would be required to remain under 500 acres, but the ordinance adds that “no more than 100 acres may be converted from agricultural use to a data center.”
For comparison, the data center under construction in Port Washington will be 2.5 million square feet, covering a 672-acre campus and is expected to house hundreds of thousands of servers.
Any company looking to construct a data center in Manitowoc County would be required, under this ordinance, to submit not only their site, development, building, and equipment plans, but also power infrastructure, backup power and emergency generation, water supply and water use, wastewater, and air quality management plans, along with many others.
The full ordinance draft can be viewed on the County website, where it will remain for some time to allow the public to review it and provide feedback.
After that time, the County Board will discuss it, likely hold a public hearing, and then vote on it.
