The Manitowoc County Board of Supervisors has decided on a moratorium on data centers.
In front of a vocal and crowded county board room, supervisors voted unanimously to pass the moratorium, which means no data centers will be built in the county for eighteen months.
Before their vote, supervisors heard many residents speak in favor of passing it during public comments.
Some spoke about what they want the board to do in the future.
“As the board moves forward, I would request that listening sessions be conducted where you attend board meetings in their districts in order to maintain input from those who elected you and those you represent,” one resident stated.
Another mentioned, “If we were to allow data centers to come here, we need to have very strict guidelines on them. These include strict water usage standards that include steep penalties if they are broken. And (should) include strict guidelines on power usage so that our utility rates don’t go up.”
Others commented again on a data center’s environmental impact.
“According to the University of Indiana on AI power usage, they have power needs that can surpass 100 megawatts, the equivalent electricity use of 8,000 homes,” another resident quipped. “Who wants to pay for that? I certainly don’t!”
One resident continued the criticism, saying, “Before any decisions are made, I would like you to reach out to the residents of Port Washington and Beaver Dam, whose construction sites are filling the air with dust and dirt. Whose residents around the data centers have lost property value. Plus, their property taxes will no doubt, go up.”
Before taking a final vote and addressing some technical issues, the county board made two amendments to the moratorium.
One of those amendments, on a 17-6 vote, would allow a data center capable of storing up to a petabyte to be built while the moratorium is in effect.
19th District Board Supervisor Shae Sortwell explained that a petabyte is 1,000 terabytes of storage.
He says he was trying to listen to his constituents when the amendment was made.
“Which is, ‘We don’t want any additional larger data centers built in Manitowoc County,’” he explained. “So, that was my proposal was to try and get at what the constituents were really looking at and not just a blanket that says, no data whatsoever, because my cell phone is a data processing piece of equipment.”
Sortwell also mentioned that a petabyte is way smaller than the storage capacity of data centers in buildings in Port Washington or Mount Pleasant.
The board also voted unanimously to extend the moratorium from 12 months to 18 months, as mentioned earlier.
County Executive Tyler Martell tells SeehaferNews.com that he was not surprised that it passed.
“I think most supervisors, myself included, are hearing from our constituents that they want this moratorium passed,” he recalled. “Maybe they are against data centers altogether, or maybe it’s just that we need to take the time to see what’s happening around the state.”
Town of Mishicot Chairman Dean Anhalt says he was pleased with the passage of the data center moratorium.
He was also content with the county board adding six additional months.
He mentioned, “With all the things that need to be looked at here, it’s going to take that long for the county to wrap their heads around the rules that we need and to do the proper investigation. And then to actually write it up and actually have it presented to the county board.”
The Towns of Mishicot, Two Rivers, and Two Creeks requested the moratorium after residents reported that data center representatives approached them about selling their land to make way for a new building.
Manitowoc County joins Madison and Port Washington in taking actions to prevent future data center development.
